This country is a police state. This country is a police state. Only in a police state could cops—colluding with medical doctors, no less—force 8—8—anal cavity searches on a man after a minor traffic stop.
No, I am not making this up, for all you clueless naysayers out there who have your heads stuck in the sand (or somewhere else—but no worries; the cops will help you find it so you can get it back).
There are already forced catheterizations and forced blood draws in this country at the whim of cops. Yes, there are; too bad you don’t know about them.
How about this one? Or this one? Or this one? Or this one? How about this one? The Supreme Court has ruled that strip searches and cavity searches are legal, even for minor traffic stops, even if the cops have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband of any kind. Oh, did you miss that one? That happened last year.
But nah, we don’t live in a police state.
But back to the first story. David Eckert was driving in New Mexico when the cops decided to have a little fun with him. Look at the big crime he committed that got their attention:
The nightmare began on January 2, 2013. New Mexico resident Eckert was driving out of a WalMart parking lot when he didn’t make a complete stop at a stop sign, and was pulled over. Law enforcement thought he was “clenching his buttocks,” and obtained a search warrant from a judge to search his anus for narcotics.
Police from Deming, New Mexico took Eckert to an emergency room [Deming] to undergo the anal cavity search, but a doctor refused to perform it because it was “unethical,” according to the lawsuit. But a few hours later, doctors [at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City] agreed to perform the search.
It wasn’t only one search. An x-ray of Eckert found no narcotics. Doctors performed a search of his anus with their fingers. Again, nothing was found. On three separate occasions, doctors inserted an “enema”—a device used to induce bowel movements—into Eckert, and he was forced to defecate. They x-rayed him again. Nothing was ever found.
Finally, and without the consent of Eckert, he was sedated and a colonoscopy was performed on him. No drugs were ever found throughout the invasive procedures.
How can anyone possibly be surprised by this? You think this shit doesn’t go on all the time, only in poor communities where we never hear about it? You think every wronged person has a reporter standing by to tell their story? You think everyone can afford to file an expensive, time-consuming, soul-sucking lawsuit?
Cops have subjected people to anal searches on the street, in broad daylight. We live in a country that has codified torture. We live in a country where prisoners are routinely tortured, even murdered, and I’m not just talking about the force-feeding at Guantanamo. Anyone who read more than just headlines about Abu Ghraib knew that what went on there was nothing new; similar things go on in U.S. prisons all the time.
(Hell, they go on in fraternities and football camps, but Americans sure as hell don’t want to hear about that. Can’t gore those sacred cows!)
We live in a country where people are routinely assaulted just to get on a plane (oh, but I forgot, since that hasn’t happened to you yet, you just turn a blind eye). Millions of Americans accept this state of affairs, so I guess they think it’s okay.
Meanwhile, what did the cops say in the Eckert case? What do they always say? Why, proper procedures were followed, of course:
Deming Police Chief defended the department’s actions in an interview with KOB 4. ”We follow the law in every aspect and we follow polices and protocols that we have in place,” the chief, Brandon Gigante, said.
Shit, I could’ve told you that. The authorities are never wrong. They always “follow policies and protocols.” The TSA says the same thing every time its agents strip-search or rob passengers.
Well, why not? Why shouldn’t we be doing this stuff in this country? We do it all over the world. It’s only fair that we also do it here. We have a president who maintains a “kill list,” for Christ’s sake. He decides every Tuesday who lives and who dies. And he’s proud of it. “I’m really good at killing people,” he said. (Oops—there I go again—goring another sacred cow!)
There’s a concept called poetic justice. Or as some people like to put it, what goes around comes around. It doesn’t always work that way, of course. If it did, we wouldn’t have so much injustice in the world. We wouldn’t have criminals like Dick Cheney hanging around while good people, innocent people, die all the time.
But when poetic justice does make itself felt, no thinking person can claim to be surprised. That which we have done to The Other, we eventually do to ourselves. That’s what’s going on in this country, and that’s what we have to face.
Lisa Simeone is a writer, editor, political activist, Glamour Girl, and radio host. She publishes ABombazine, where this originally appeared.
I really like the way Ms Simeone writes. It’s visceral, to the point, and captivating. I would like to invite her to go on an extended expedition with me. On that expedition we would encounter police officers covertly, when we would have the advantage, and in disquises, we would open a large can of Medieval, and get busy.