Sunday, February 03, 2008

Stark Co, Ohio Strip Search and Assault

If you think I have polite words to describe my reaction to this, you've got an exaggerated view of my vocabulary. This came to my attention through Crooks and Liars and it is...well you decide what it is.



I am pretty well acquainted with most of our local law enforcement, it's a small town, and I'll bet you odds their reaction would be real close to mine. I hope to God it would be.

***Addendum

If you have blog space, make this stink across the nation, credit C&L.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

so let me get this straight you are a Democratic party activist and running for public office and you feel qualified to comment, no condemn what the police have done here when you really have no clue what really happened?

sounds like you will make a great politician.

In all seriousness, the video looks pretty damaging, but the woman sounds intoxicated to me. They did call in an assault. Maybe it happened at a party where folks had too much to drink?

Maybe even including the victim?

I don't know. Maybe she was victimized by the police, maybe they were doing what they thought was necessary to an intoxicated prisoner who presented them with a false ID, who resisted arrest, and continued to fight once in custody.

She certainly didn't look to be submitting in the video tape.

Again I don't know what happened. That's the point. Neither to do you.

Your comments are flat out irresponsible even more so from someone running for office. But then again just like every cop is a fascist pig every politician is a grandstanding self serving jerk crook right?

Chuck Butcher said...

Ran for office, past tense. I give a rat's patoot if she didn't cooperate with a strip search with male officers. Which part of brutal conduct is it you don't get?

What did you miss in the line under the Utube? A compliment to LE?

Necessary? I listened as carefully as I could to find some justification. I don't like torture either - I don't have find any damn justification for it, either.

Anonymous said...

If that happened under Sheriff Bernie Giusto Multnomah county she probably would have been raped or dead.
I love conservatives, always willing to believe law enforcement and never seeing the dark side. Politicians always use the denial card. Sheriffs are politicians, which should be questioned.

Anonymous said...

Incredible, if some cops aren't fired then we are going to have to admit just where we are in the life of this republic.

Chuck Butcher said...

Jeeze Steve, admit???
We torture. We jail with no Habeas Corpus. We've killed untold thousands on the basis of lies. Our military is shattered. We're spied on with no warrants and no recourse. The FBI can enter our homes with no warrant, sneak and peek. The GWB ignores any law he pleases with a signing statement. The police are increasingly built around a military structure and who is the enemy?

You wonder why I don't get all stressed about illegal immigrants when I look at that mess??? I want my country back. I don't know how far around the bend we are, I don't know if it is fixable without bloodshed, I'm not that worried about penny ante stuff right now. We're going to limp along for another year and I'm damn scared about that limp. I've been beating that drum over and over. You cannot accuse me of minimizing.

We're darn near the same age, we grew up together (apart) and neither of us can recognize what we've got today compared to what we grew up with. I'm pissed. No kidding, really.

I know something about my family pretty far back and they've all been fighters and I won't take a back seat to any of them. You cannot accuse me of not trying.

Anonymous said...

I know you think the open invasion of our country is not a trivial matter and the second amendment is an ace in the hole alone with trade deals that are selling the country out. I will be on the road for the next couple of days and will have to get my news from the radio but I don't think I will miss much not watching the election returns, we will have a choice between McCain, Hillary or Barack, all of whom are bad for securing our borders, protecting our gun rights and selling out to the globalist. Unlike those who think there is good change coming I think the days of our republic are numbered. Keep your powder dry.

Anonymous said...

The fact that this is being addressed in a federal lawsuit rather than by the local prosecutor speaks volumes about what is wrong here...

If you and your friends held down and stripped a woman, and there were differing "views" of what actually happened, the "truth" would be decided at your criminal trial. And you'd be facing jail time.

Regardless of the facts, sure looks to me like the police have been given a "get out of jail free" card on this one.

Anonymous said...

Whether or not she was being held for "disorderly conduct" and/or "resisting arrest," neither charge warrants a strip search and there isn't a jurisdiction in the country that allows strip searches to be done in the presence of members of the opposite sex, law officers or not. The video plainly shows two male officers participating in the event and that is patently illegal. And given the lack of either (much less both) of them objecting to the removal of her clothing in their presence AND the lack of any of the female officers objecting to the presence of male officers during the procedure should be sufficient for the dismissal of all of the officers involved.

Chuck Butcher said...

Aon 11:11
Dismissal should be the least of their problems. What would be your reaction if it were your wife or daughter? Mine might be more bad than good.

If Americans Knew said...

We've made a 12-minute video about Israel's strip searches of women and children. Please watch it (be sure to see the ending!) and tell others about it:
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/about_us/easiesttargets.html

American taxpayers have long been giving Israel millions of dollars per day -- far more than to any other country on earth (Israel is smaller than Hong Kong).

We need to join together to stop our taxes from being used to fund these despicable abuses of women -- in Canton, Ohio and everywhere.

Anonymous said...

This kind of brutality doesn't surprise me. This goes on in county jails too. This is one reason why we don't need our second amendment rights taken away from us. We are losing our liberties to a policed state, corporate interests and establishment corruption.

Amazing people - we have Gitmo right here in America.

Hooray for the mayor in Toledo who turned away the marines from "practicing" martial law tactics in Toledo under the guise of counterterrorism.

Enough is enough!

I pity the people who seem to think these kinds of practices are okay. Shame on you! Sleepers, wake up!

Anonymous said...

This is absolute tyranny ,this is the new America & anyone who thinks this was RIGHT in any way should not be an American , this is not what we are , this is not our government anymore, it has not been for almost 100yrs,, they are now moving forward with getting us ready to what to expect . This Sherrif should be jailed & also the officers that were in on this basic rape without penetration , this is terrible & i hope the Elite know that the people will fight them & we will win !!! Freedom will prevail no matter what it takes & no matter how many lives we lose , we will be the last standing , good always defeats evil !!

Sgt John in NJ

Anonymous said...

First, this video is outrageous on the face of it. Full grown men ripping the clothes off a handcuffed, 120 pound woman WHO CALLED THEM FOR HELP is, very simply, sexual assault.

Second, the denials and lack of ANY investigation or action by this Sherriff, until the video was leaked, is a good case for a criminal conspiracy case.

Third, the 8 year attempt to transform our justice system into paramilitary thugs sanctioned by corrupt courts and presidential signing orders is now looking very real, even to moderates like me. The things I liked about the Republican party have been hijacked by some very bad people, and those people have changed the nature of our country to a place where it is even conceivable that this kind of on-camera rape is performed by our 'justice' department, and some people actually DEFEND this behaviour.

Finally, the complete lack of coverage by ANY MAINSTREAM MEDIA OUTLET for this, and similar activities, is worrisome beyond belief. I mean, I used to think that the "Big Brother" people and the "HIdden Conspiracy" people were just nuts, but I find it just not credible that this has simply escaped the attention of the mainstream media. It's just not possible. And yet? Zero coverage on CNN, Headline News, CBS, NBC, or ABC. Zero.

Something bad is going on, and it's going on in a big way.

Here's the OTHER story you haven't heard any outrage about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB_Hl4bcQNc


Punchpixie

John said...

Well I see its been a while since anything was posted about this.
Already forgotton I guess.

Well more stuff has come out. And its worse than the edited tape first released.

As for the cops getting punished, the fix is already in on that. The grand jury let them off.

The papers slant it like they found NO evidence to convict them and they were innocent.
Well the truth is, they didn’t find enough evidence. And the reason they didn’t, is because they left the main questions of the lawsuit unanswered!

A MONTHS long investigation and they fail to find the person that said Steffey refused to remover her cloths?!?!?

A MONTHS long investigation and they fail to give a reason for the “missing” begining of the video. The camera operator has no idea why the camera failed to record the whole thing.
BUT THEN it “fixes” itself, JUST as they force Steffey to the bunk to strip her?!?!?!
So how many times has this camera ‘malfunctioned’ before or after this incident?

And when the sheriff’s dept was contacted May 5th, why did they then claim that the ‘missing’ video would soon be released to Steffey’s lawyers??
OOPS! Maybe not everyone knew that the existance of the video would later be denied???

The unedited video (what they now claim to have of it anyway):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bXh1fBiL0k

Stark County Sheriff’s Office
4500 Atlantic BLVD NE
Canton, Ohio 44705-4374
(330)/430-3800
strkshrf@raex.com