More police state abuse
Abuse of power by law enforcement is so blatant these days that I needn’t write anything about this particular episode. Here’s the video:
Steffey says Stark County sheriff’s deputies used excessive force and assaulted her during a strip search 15 months ago, according to a federal lawsuit.
Stark County Sheriff Timothy Swanson denies the allegation.
Steffey’s attorney says her clothes, including her underwear and bra, were stripped from her body by at least seven male and female sheriff’s deputies and jail workers. She lay face down in handcuffs at the time.
“Hope begged and pleaded with her … assailants to stop,” the lawsuit says. “There was no forcible penetration but Hope felt as if she was being raped.”
The sheriff denies this was a strip search.
The sheriff’s policy requires officers conducting any strip search to be of the same sex.
Her attorney, David Malik, said Steffey, 41, was never asked to voluntarily remove her clothes.
In an e-mail, Swanson said Steffey was asked to remove her clothes but refused. He said deputies took them off for her own safety.
Occurrences such as this are sickening but unfortunately now commonplace. More abuse stories here, here, here, here and here. Hope and Greg Steffey have filed a civil rights suit in Ohio’s Northern District Court.
They took off her clothes …. for her own safety? In other words, it was indeed a strip search, since the purpose of a strip search is to ensure that no contraband is brought into the penal facility, for safety reasons. Of course, they can’t actually call it a strip search, because male officers were present.
I’d guess they’re now going to claim she was suicidal, so they removed her clothes to keep her from hanging herself with them.
Truth is, they removed her clothes only to dominate her, control her, and humiliate her. Of course she feels like she was raped, since that was the intended effect.
Every cop involved, and any cop who covered for them, should be fired.
“Every cop involved, and any cop who covered for them, should be fired.” And stripped in a public area….
It’s really hateful and horrible.
May I suggest that each and every one of your readers also embed this video?
It’s important that people see it. When I look at Hope I see me. Our lives aren’t any different.
I swear I had my say so the other night, musta dreamed it. I blame the wine.
Every cop involved, and any cop who covered for them, should be fired….
If this was your daughter, your mother, your girlfriend, your wife, your lover, your friend, you would do the right thing. And firing just isn’t enough.