take a look at this video and say something: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsF9V0Ql17I

The police have the supeiority mentality that causes them to act as if they are always right and you are wrong. The police state mentality is what the recruiters are looking for in their profiles. It;s not so much the police, but how they are trained. Who trains them? The government. Therefore we end up with a police state. Sieg Heil.

This is so disgusting to watch - I felt like I was watching a Third World countries jail house rape. I hope to hell she sues the PANTS off everyone of the officers involved and they are fired without compensation. What the hell is wrong with people? How could you as a woman sit there and allow that to happen to another woman and not feel that there is something wrong with this picture. I would own that fat fuck police chiefs world after that fiasco.

One billion dollars sounds about right.
"Your papers please."

Americans do not care when this happens in Iraq - Abu Gahrab and elsewhere as we have a way of blaming the victim. But, if she only had blond hair, it would get picked up on the MSM for the next month. As LKern says, One billion would be a good start.

I have for many years have believed that one should never call the police. They will always make a bad situation worse. What you see is an off shoot from the war on drugs. Do not call the police unless you absolutely have too....Want to bet the police will get a pass?

Unbelievable, simply unbelievable. Sad part? A majority of police officers act this way now. With experience comes this "I am the law and can do what I want" mentality. Truly disgusting.

Welcome to the New World Order. They're coming for you and yours too. A boot stomping on the face of humanity forever.

"And you have to ask yourself, what was the purpose of the strip search?" said Steffey's lawyer. "What was the necessity of it? This was a disorderly conduct claim."

Payback and humiliation. That is how some police officers work, and when so often with the full compliance of the city. It doesn't matter if you are a law-abiding citizen. Some police have taken upon themselves the right to treat anyone as though they were in imminent danger of being shot, and some think that a verbal questioning of what the officer is doing gives the officer the right, even duty, to physically assault the person.

Law and order is great, but I can't understand why cities are so hesitant to punish bad police.

The US is a police state - the worse thing you can do is challenge the authority of the police.

That's business as usual in Stark County. I know: I lived near there.

Think about this incident the next time one of your favorite politicians wants to put "more cops on the streets"... They can't even properly train the ones they already have!

I'm never ever going to Ohio again, or any part of the Midwest, except maybe Chicago... people are fucking Bush bots now. Let's hire a bunch of good for nothing goons with little tolerance and blind loyalty to all this nonsense repubs have thrown at them for years, and this is what you get. A couple of minutes of LISTENING to the women explain herself to the cops would have cleared all of this up, but no, she could be a "threat", because hey, even old ladies could work for Al Qaeda now. And she was blond and pretty, imagine if she were of Middle Eastern heritage - oh wait, we don't have to imagine...

If this went to the current SCOTUS they would rule 5-4 that an individual would have no rights of personal privacy including strip searches while in Police Custody.
This is one of many reasons why the next President MUST be a Democrat!
.........from an Independent Voter...................

Welcome to Fascist Umerika. This shit will become more and more common. Fortunately for her, she's blonde and attractive, so she'll get attention in the media and the courts. Unfortunately, this is routine for many blacks and routinely goes unnoticed. It should never ever happen to anyone, anywhere, ever.

Jesus. Fucking. Christ. Why did they film it? They've got to be fucking insane. Let alone the federal lawsuit, how about criminal sexual assault? Attempted gang rape? What the fuck was going on here? It didn't even look like they were searching for anything. It looked as if she was being punished, or humiliated, ON CAMERA.

This is a vital tool in the war on terror.

that is RAPE.

if she were any color other than white, you probably wouldn't be hearing about this.

i believe this is routine behavior from the police state.
when you encounter law enforcement. be very submissive. they are like attack dogs and will attack you
at the slightest hint of being uncooperative. they are trained to be this way by the police state.

using the drug war as a pretext, you lost all your civil liberties.
just watch the show COPS, it's considered entertainment watching people being abused (this too has been cultivated).

look at Abu Ghraib, that was not a fluke, that was institutional!

the police state is a science and technology.

unless you stop the war on our own citizens(drug war) the brutality will not end.
the science of policing will only adapt around these instances when they are caught
and develop ways to maintain secrecy. and the higher the level of secrecy and lack of transparency the
more brutal the police state will become.

if the characters in that disturbing event looked different, how am i not
to mistake that for one of saddam hussein's "RAPE ROOMS".

If that was my wife there would be 4 dead stark county officers.What other recourse would you have? If they were not police officers they would be charged with aggravated sexual assault and mob action both class X felonies.They might lose their jobs(doubtful) and more than likely won't face even a misdemeanor charge.I am not a violent person and don't promote violence, but I fear the only way this will ever be stopped is when officers start dying or police stations get burned down by angry mobs.

cant wait till the wingnut talkers get their hands on this and tell us how we dont see the whole story

since 9/11 this country has gone to shit

Just another example of what we can expect should ANY Republican asshole become president....complete loss of all civil liberties, and the another example of the GOP's philosophy that cops are always right and courts of justice are pussies.

All this emphasis on ID's make me wonder

When did the goose-steppers take over?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwIe5tLGnPg

It happens. Too much.
Botched Paramilitary Police Raids:
An Epidemic of "Isolated Incidents"

http://www.cato.org/raidmap/

When did the goose-steppers take over?

Jan 21st 2000

It is a gradual change - one that started about 9/11 - the rules (ie constitution) don't matter so much. The boundaries placed on behavior (Torture, Tasers, are symptomes) are less important than our safety. Let us pretend that the whole thing - the whole Homeland Security thing is illusion - gave money and power to small and untrained police forces. Perhaps someone can tell me the difference between this and say - The Wizard of Oz - behind his giant mask and lights. Or the difference between our current need for safety from a vague and mythic enemy from say - The Berlin Wall being placed in the early 60's. The gradual change is what happened in Germany - the government is pretty scary and they have those camps but if I put my head up my lederhosen and just keep ignoring it - I won't be touched. Reality shows about prison, SWAT teams etc have helped socialize both us and the police in a direction that says - those who are the police have all the rules on their side. And those who are not - had better be careful. Coming from a law and order kind of family - I respect the job the police and law enforcement have to do. But, unless they begin to govern themselves a bit better, we will have a police state run by the not so bright for the not so good. The issues are huge and must start with a truthful look at the dangers we face instead of a script seemingly written by the writers of "24" and cast by central casting in the form of Dick Cheney. Truthfulness might be a good place to start. We know that the administration has routinely lied, exaggerated and misled the American people. Whoever gets this mess next January - will have so much to clean up it will take years. There is no hitler here - just people who imagine the worst and project those fears in such a manner we lose our courage, our hearts and our brains. The mythology of our country can be found in L.Frank Baum's book, but the solutions in the musical "Wicked". We see in the musical that the culture seems to need enemies to gather - perhaps we had better stop that kind of thinking and begin to gather out of our common humanity. It isn't terrorists, or Bush, or Clinton, or illegal aliens that are the problem - we meet the enemy and it is us.

44 CalGeorge Says

The fault lies in a society that lowers the bar so far that almost anyone can become a member of the law enforcement community.
__________________________________________________________________

I considered it back in the early 80's, but at 5'3'' was considered too short.

50 Tim Says: nomolos @ 47:

When did the goose-steppers take over?

Jan 21st 2000

Oh please, you’re going to try and blame this local police department actions on the Bush admin? Really?
_____________________________________________________________

Yes, really.

This is what happens when the Constitution becomes considered just a gosh-durned piece of paper.

That's the way real Texans talk.

Some years ago, I did criminal defense work in small (20,000) midwestern college town. Clients were college kids.

My experience was that the police routinely behaved improperly and lied about it.

It's very believable. "Hey, that's how the U.S. Army does it!"

Breakdown of order and civility on all levels... just imagine how wonderful it will be when the country is faced with a REAL national crisis like famine or disease.

This is no doubt Clinton's fault.

To be fair to the cops, there needs to be reform in the police assignments. They should spend so much time on the streets, and some much time in routine desk work and training. It's how we used to treat soldiers until the deserter took over.

Of course, sometimes hair-trigger responses will save their lives, but I prefer triggers on hair than guns.

Tim @ 50:

nomolos @ 47:

When did the goose-steppers take over?

Jan 21st 2000

Oh please, you're going to try and blame this local police department actions on the Bush admin? Really?

Also what happens when federal prosecutors are turned into bushbots. No need to fear federal prosecution from prosecutors too busy putting innocent democrats in jail.

Those deputies must be graduates of the Abu Ghraib police academy. Blowback?

ysbaddaden @ 61:

To be fair to the cops, there needs to be reform in the police assignments. They should spend so much time on the streets, and some much time in routine desk work and training. It's how we used to treat soldiers until the deserter took over.

Of course, sometimes hair-trigger responses will save their lives, but I prefer triggers on hair than guns.

Fuck the police. They have always been in place to protect to wealthy, now their job has expanded into furthering the fascist American dream as put forth by BushCo and the terrified 50% or America who need a strong daddy figure as well as a strong invisible sky daddy to protect them at all costs.

We get what we deserve.

Wonder if she voted for chimpy and his police state mentality?

Since my mother passed away, I keep her ID in MY wallet. And if I had been assulted and was so shook up by it, what would happen if I pulled out the wrong one.

I think the police officers should have let the woman correct her mistake. AND no mistake about it, I think they should ALL BE FIRED.

Zog, I might add, hold a congressional, senate or WH position.

I couldn't even finish watching the video. I feel like vomiting right now.
What can we do to stop this kind of thing?
I don't know how she'll ever recover from this. The anger I feel right now is overwhelming me...how doe she handle HER anger?
This is frightening. I laugh when I see "protect and serve" on the side of police cars.
Who are they protecting and serving?
I hope these cops get sued and punished and I hope that they suffer in some way til the day they die.

secularhumanizinevoluter @ 69:

Wonder if she voted for chimpy and his police state mentality?

I'm willing to bet she did...she seems probably a member of the high prole class, and she is from Ohio, two markers for Limpbaughism.

Going to see a lot more of this, now that we live in a police state.

Holy shit.

If you've lived in Ohio, you know that it has a strong undercurrent of authoritarianism. None of this surprises me. Granted, it's an isolated incident, but this state is, historically, a law and order state, infested with the goofiest Bible-thumping clods, criminal behavior in high offices, and a healthy respect for all things republican. Stark County is adjacent to some of the reddest counties in the state. I'm not turning this into a political statement: I'm saying that there is a pattern of behavior that sticks like snot to all things republican.

This infuriating video tape is an indictment against all of the people who participated. Isn't it telling to see skinhead men doing the stripping, acting in their business-like manner, so professional in their demeanor, and so totally oblivious to the wrongness of what they're doing. So Ohio.

My patience with Ohio wore out when it rigged the last presidential election. THIS isolated incident, I'm afraid, is representative of unspoken values that TOO many Ohioans embrace.

Some have asked, you're not going to blame this, too, on the Bush administration, are you? To which I say, absolutely YES, BushCo has broken laws without consequences.

BushCo has shifted the national psyche to a dark place, where dog-eats-dog and it's okay to screw your neighbor...as long as you hide the evidence.

Come on people, cops have been doing this shit to poor people for years. Why the outrage, all of the sudden? Is it because she's white and middle-class?

Funny thing is even if the crimes of these terrorist thugs are prosecuted and they're sentenced, how many of us will say it's only because their vicitim is a blondie?

Chuck @ 83:

Come on people, cops have been doing this shit to poor people for years. Why the outrage, all of the sudden? Is it because she's white and middle-class?

not all of a sudden

but when the cops video tape something because they feel what they are doing is legal...you are gonna get outrage

whether the victim is white, black, brown, green or purple

#83 Chuck

You are right about it going on for years. Way back then we didn't have the internet to help us be as aware of it. It doesn't matter whether you are white, black, female or male. The police state has been around for a long time.

The Shock Doctrine by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein

Annoyed Canuck Says: "There is probably another side to this story, like what happened when she asked for her sister’s license back and the officer refused."

While that might be true, the dash cam conviently wasn't working, but worked by the time she was in the car.
It should be a rule that whenever footage from the cam isn't there, the person is always innocent. Period. That's why we have the dash cam, to remove all quesiton of whos right/wrong and impropriety.

Why do cops do things like this. Because they can.

Thinker @ 49 puts the start of this behavior at 9/11. I disagree. In the name of the unholy War on Drugs, police departments were militarized all over America by every administration. They tested the waters on disregarding the rights of citizens. "Hmm, smells like dope...out of the car."

9/11 was the check move. The rights of the people were already gone, and the restraints on the police a thing of the past. It added a perverse fear to the population and portrayed the police as defenders of our liberty and justice. Note how the war on drugs was folded into the war on terror.

Think about that kid who got tasered at the Kerry speech...almost no one stood up and said, "whoa...wait, this is too much." Many people laughed and clapped.

The next move will be checkmate.

Someone I remember from high school turned up at a mutual friend's party years later. He was a nice kid and had become a police officer. He drank too much at the party and forgot that he wasn't drinking with his work buddies. He started gleefully telling detailed stories of beating people. Just a taste: He explained that if you want to beat a whore with your flashlight, you have to lay her down in the backseat of your cruiser so no-one can see it (this was before cruiser cams). If she complains, who would be believed, the whore or the cop? He thought this was all very amusing, even hysterical. Everyone around him was obviously shocked and disgusted. He was oblivious to the inhumanity of what he was saying.

Two years later I saw that he had been reassigned off patrol duty to neighborhood outreach duty, basically acting as a public relations officer in a poor neighborhood to convince the people there that they were mistaken in their belief that the police were their enemy. The irony of this knocked me over. After reflecting on this, I surmised that this was a case of the police taking care of their own: he had been recognized by superiors as a problem and had been given a promotion to keep him and them out of trouble, rather than disciplining, firing or prosecuting him.

I don't mean to demonize all police officers with this anecdote; but I believe that there is a subculture of the police force that is rotten to the core that freely commits atrocities with impunity because there is an unwritten code that police officers will not snitch (i.e., enforce the law) on each other.

Chris @ 93:

Annoyed Canuck Says: "There is probably another side to this story, like what happened when she asked for her sister’s license back and the officer refused."

While that might be true, the dash cam conviently wasn't working, but worked by the time she was in the car.
It should be a rule that whenever footage from the cam isn't there, the person is always innocent. Period. That's why we have the dash cam, to remove all quesiton of whos right/wrong and impropriety.

Yeah, the cop cams do tend to keep things honest - to a point.

I wonder if the woman did something stupid like get into a shoving match with the cop over the dead sister's license. I've learned from experience that you never, ever give a cop the slightest reason to think you are aggressive in any way. Once they get that idea in their heads, they will do whatever they like with you, and they will have the law and their fellow cops on their side.

When I have any kind of interaction with a cop, I am scrupulously polite, I maintain eye contact, I don't make a move unless asked. I was stopped for speeding once - I pulled over quickly and immediately went for the glove compartment to get my registration out. The cops jumped out of the car, guns drawn, pulled me out and spreadeagled me with a gun in my face, screaming at the top of their lungs the whole time. They were convinced I was going for a gun.

Another time I was stopped on a traffic thing and they found I had a bench warrant for a year-old parking ticket. I was cuffed, put in a paddy wagon, and spent the night in jail. I got claustrophobic, I pretty much lost it. Single worst night of my life.

I have a lot of sympathy for this woman, but she will probably never get closure - unless she wants to spend years suing them in civil court for a financial settlement.

What jumped out at me was the statement that the police department may not have handed over all the video. If that's true, they're fucked.

I certainly wouldnt use the term unbeleivable. In my lifetime and where I live that shit is commonplace. No surprise at all. That is what cops do. If you give someone a gun and absolute power, expect nothing less than absolute corruption. Thats the whole point people! Control!

At least her being white means she has a chance to win her suit.

the police for the most part have allways been thugs and wothless pieces of shit, your right about one thing dont expect any help from most of them, look at thoes chickenshits that stayed outside of that school for hours hideing behind cars while thoes two little shits school boys murdered thoes school kids awhile ago, when i was a youngster if you wanted a cop in my home town all you had to do was go to the local tavern and get one out after hed tanked up on beer, then if a young guy was caught getting it on with his girl friend at a lovers lane the cops would bust them , theyd let the guy go put the gal in the police car then force her to put out or theyd tell her parents about what shed done, the police are just maggots i cant say anything better about most of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Town of Madison, Ct., a sleepy, upper-middle class community with virtually ZERO crime, fired four police officers last week. Seems the graveyard shift cops were stealing lobsters from a local seafood restaurant and were frequenting prostitutes. THEY were the "crime wave" in town. "To Protect and to Serve" ? Clearly, there is a dichotomy in the psychology of those who choose this profession. Take your pick: Saint or Sicko? Joe Friday or Bernie Kerik?

So how come the MSM is paying attention to this (as horrific as it is) while it never mentions anymore an even more horrendous and tragic evidence of Ohio police brutality when Tarika Wilson, an innocent 26 y/o woman, was shot down and killed while holding her year-old baby?

Oh, I know. Tarika was black, so it's not as newsworthy.

Impeach cheney and bush @ 106:

Frankly, I would sue that city and the police dept into obvillion. They would not have two nickels to rub together after I was finished.

Yeah, but by the time the lawsuit is done, there will have been appeals, the police and their lawyers will have done all they could to smear her conduct and character, and years will have passed.

Even if she wins, a civil suit is a shitty way to get justice. Unless she's rich, most of the money she gets will go to lawyers.

This is just the booking.... wait till she gets to interrogation where the waterboarding starts.

This video fits perfectly here.... "Don't vote for Ron Paul"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK-QR88yfOE&feature=related

To anyone who is shocked by this, what do you think has been happening over the past decade?

Under Ghouliani in NYC, unarmed men were gunned down, sodomized by broom handles until colons burst in NYPD precinct houses, & homeless were disappeared by the thousands. Artists, street vendors, & protestors were incarcerated in the Tombs for up to 72 hours, never charged with anything, & released to find all their possession gone forever. Before he left office, he was trying to implement legal random police stops & DNA testing for the entire population.

Stop being shocked & start fighting back.

Thinker @ 49:

It is a gradual change - one that started about 9/11

Ah, to be white & comfy in America. Ask any black southerner when it 'started'. Or any minority for that matter.

The phrase "Its' Giuliani Time" was chilling blood in innocent NYers long before 9/11.

Certainly NOT defending the actions of the officers in this instance, or any other
instances where police brutality occurs, but I have, on a few occassions, watched
"Cops" on TV and there are some really good/nice and dedicated police officers
"out yonder" preforming a public service, so let's not put ALL of these public
servants in the same category.

Here is the website for Stark County Sheriff's Office:
http://www.sheriff.co.stark.oh.us/
Here is their phone number:
(330) 430-3800
Enjoy!

Let's see how the right wing plays this one. My guess it will be her fault and the video is not conclusive. In right wing America the "authorities can do not wrong" unless they are democrats. Please post any coverage on Faux News or from Hate radio. We will see the spin.

Tell the sheriff what you think, the email is strkshrf@raex.com.

What the fuck is happening in this country? Governments should be afraid of their people, people should not be afraid of their governments.

I'm with Lollimom@81 on Ohio's turn for the worse. After living in two different Ohio metro areas over the last ten years (Cincinnazi), I completely understand how this whole affair could take place. The brain drain out of Ohio has been occurring many years now so what is left is this type of scum running the rural areas of Ohio. Not one of the "officers" (ahem) thinks twice or questions what they're doing to the victim. Just remember...these are the Dubya voters who vote against their own economic interests (duh!). There are few jobs left in dismal Canton, OH/Stark County. Canton/Stark County...are you proud of yourselves and the Sheriff's department that patrols your area?

Wasn't it an Ohio cop who killed his pregnant girlfriend? That happened last year but I can't remember where it took place.

On a weekday winter night last year in Central Massachusetts (ORANGE, MA, to be precise), I was stopped for going 50 in a 35 (in fact I thought the limit was 45 or 50 and the speed trap was at the bottom of a steep hill). The cop asked for my license and registration. He returned ten minutes later with backup, told me to get out of my car, handcuffed me, put me in the back of the cruiser, etc. He told me that my license to drive in MA had been revoked. He could not tell me why. He towed my car (had a lot of stuff in it - a laptop, contact lens stuff, etc.; glad I'm not a diabetic and my kit wasn't inside it). Then he brought me to the station, handcuffed me to the wall, asked me a bunch of dumb questions, etc. They finger printed me, etc. Then I paid $40 (at least I had the cash; lots of people out there don't even have that much) and forced me to go and leave the station. And I say forced because it was the coldest night of the year - about 10 degrees farenheit. My car was gone and I would not be able to pick it up until the following day (after paying $200 or so in towing fees and such, ultimately). So I pranced around in the cold - the station was far from town - until my 72 year old father could drive 90 mins from CT to pick me up.

Turns out, after a few days of investigation on my part, that my license to drive in MA had been revoked 10 years ago due to, according to them, failure to pay a ticket. I don't remember getting this ticket. I've been living in NY for 12 years; the ticket had been issued in Boston, etc. No matter, according to the system, I was a wanted man. My assets were expropriated - some temporarily (my car) and some permanently (my money).

Worst of all, I lost my freedom for two hours. That was two hours too long. This a police state. "Innocent until proven guilty"? That's a crock; arrest, done in the event of guilt or not, is punition.

Now to digress: A friend of mine later forwarded to me a story from the NYT written by a guy who had experienced something very similar (well-to-do suburban financial guy pulled over in the city on a Friday evening, driving home. They sent him down to the tombs until Sunday, all for all for not paying a traffic ticket). I found one of comments very insightful:

"Some say a liberal is someone who's never been mugged. To them I say a conservative is someone who's never been incarcerated."

Eric @ 116:

Lollimom @ 90:

Chuck @ 83:

Come on people, cops have been doing this shit to poor people for years. Why the outrage, all of the sudden? Is it because she’s white and middle-class?

What an asinine question to ask.

Seriously.

The statement is poorly worded, but he has a point. This sort of thing happens every day in every police station in America. Its probably rare that it happens to a middle class white woman, and even rarer for it to get caught on tape. Hence the outrage. But lets face it, for a video tape to promote a similar reaction when it involves a black male, its got to be 47 blows with a baton, or a toilet plunger up the ass.

It is outrageous to spin this story this way, into a racism conclusion.

When any human being is subjected to brutality like this or like Rodney King or like the Blackwater employees, outrage is color-blind. It takes video evidence to prove that humans are actually capable of atrocities to other humans.

Most of us here, I'm willing to bet, cannot believe this stuff happens. And when we see it, it makes us sick, regardless of color or economic class. We want it to stop, and we want consequences for criminal behavior.

Your focus on race and class should be saved for some other blog, as it's not representative of the people who post on this blog.

I've said it before: cops who do this need longer sentences than civilians get when they commit crimes. If a cop commits a crime while on the job, he/she should lose all legal protections of being a cop.

The seven in question should be charged with kidnapping and gangrape and get a longer sentence than what non-cops would get.

Lollimom @ 137:

Most of us here, I'm willing to bet, cannot believe this stuff happens. And when we see it, it makes us sick, regardless of color or economic class. We want it to stop, and we want consequences for criminal behavior.

Your focus on race and class should be saved for some other blog, as it's not representative of the people who post on this blog.

THANK YOU! Very well said - thank you.

i just used the above e mail adress of thoes nazi bastards and let them know that i hoped the officers involved served time for thier abuse and thatthe lady stripped searched won enough money in a law suit that they wouldnt have enough left to pay for a janitor! pricks

Sadly, this isn't unbelievable. There are plenty of good cops, but they have always been plenty of bullies and thugs, too. This is about bullying and abuse of power to put a woman who challenged them in her place.

This is to be expected in a sociey where so-called leading "liberals" and "Champions of human rights" and "civil liberties" (i.e. Hillary Clinton) pretend to show how macho they are and vote "Aye!" to authorize BushCo.'s fascist Patriot Act, then, learning nothing, votes "Aye!" again to re-authorize it five years later.

When you get so-called "liberals" and "Champions of human rights" and "civil liberties" pandering to the militarist police-state Nazis in the Republican Party, it's no surprise that local law enforcement behave like Storm-Troopers.

Thanks for uploading the viddie ~~ once again, a timely reminder of what we're up against.

This is inexcusable. I'm just waiting to hear the police say after they reviewed it, those police were following department policies. They should be fired. The woman was assaulted physically and sexually. What I don't understand is what on earth did they think they were doing. Perhaps its time to have psychological exams before they are hired and routinely while they are working to ensure they aren't sadists, psychotics, etc. etc.