More Heinous Tales from the Drug War

Via CBS La Vegas:  Lawsuit: Woman Faced Illegal Body Cavity Search, Observed Bowel Movement

Federal agents wrongfully strip-searched a New Mexico woman at the El Paso border crossing, then took her to a hospital where she was forced to undergo illegal body cavity probes in an attempt to find drugs, according to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

[…]

Agents quickly stripped searched her and did cavity searches but found no evidence of drugs, court documents said. But the woman was transported in handcuffs to the University Medical Center of El Paso, the lawsuit said, where doctors subjected her to an observed bowel movement, a CT scan and other exams without a warrant.

[…]

“After enduring approximately six hours of demeaning and highly invasive searches, (the woman) was released without any charge,” the lawsuit said.

However, her attorney said she was charged $5,000 by the hospital.

We have truly lost our collective minds on the issue of drugs (or, as is often noted, some drugs).

This goes along with a  similar story that I noted recently:  Shame (Tales from the Drug War).

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Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. If Attorney General Holder wasn’t such a pussy, these agents, along with the New Mexico police officers who did the same thing, would all be under federal indictment for violation of civil rights.

  2. john personna says:

    A world where Phil Robertson gets more sympathy …

  3. Mike says:

    Some people pay good money for that!

    Way too much power in the hands of law enforcement
    What threat could she possibly have posed even if she did have drugs in her hooha?

  4. Franklin says:

    Hey, that’s nothing. Roughly the same thing happened to some Indian diplomat for not paying her housekeeper enough.

  5. Lynn says:

    Rise of the warrior cop : the militarization of America’s police forces / Radley Balko.