ACLU suing over reported body cavity drug searches (NM - Another invasive search by gov't agents)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | December 19, 2013 | Lauren Villagran

[CedarDave]

The New Mexico and Texas chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union are suing border officers and a hospital after they allegedly subjected a U.S. citizen to numerous invasive body cavity searches without a warrant.

Included in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in West Texas are four U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and the University Medical Center of El Paso, among others. The lawsuit alleges CBP officers frisked and strip-searched a 54-year-old woman and then delivered her in handcuffs to the hospital, where doctors observed a bowel movement and performed invasive rectal and vaginal probes, among other exams.

The officers released the woman after six hours of searches turned up no contraband. The hospital subsequently billed her $5,000.

The ACLU lawsuit follows another filed in November in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque by a Lordsburg man who alleges Deming police officers and Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies subjected him to eight invasive body searches, including a colonoscopy and three enemas, in a futile effort to find drugs.

[CedarDave]

This is the third reported case of this happening to NM residents and the story appeared on the front page of today's ABQ Journal. Unlike the two earlier cases, this one was perpetrated by customs and border agents following a dog sniffing her private parts.

An earlier reference to this incident appeared in the Daily Caller a month ago:
STOP THE MADNESS: Third person reports being anally violated by police

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Well as long as you aren't hiding anything, you have nothing to fear... /sarc

[CedarDave]

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[colorado tanker]

Sue the living crap (pun intended) out of the hospitals and doctors doing this without specific court orders and it will stop in a hurry.

[Mastador1]

Well as long as you aren’t hiding anything, you have nothing to fear... /sarc

What’s the beef? Now people are complaining about free medical exams, I thought they wanted obamacare? (do I really have to tag it?)

[a fool in paradise]

Maybe they are actually aliens and they are just doing more probing.

[Old Sarge]

Damnation.

[RitaOK]

Yes, WHERE IS THE LAWYER with the RIGHT TO COUNSEL?

Stunning, isn’t it.?

[Dalberg-Acton]

These police actions will do nothing to stem the immigration tide from San Francisco to New Mixico.

[Travis McGee]

My comment after their article is the first, surprisingly.

“Welcome to the USSA, comrades! Hey, she might have had an IED up there, you can’t be too careful. She was obviously a bad comrade who needed to be taught a harsh lesson! You know, one of those “Constitution fanatics” going on about her rights under the 4th Amendment, bla-bla-blah. Remember, comrades, a Police State is a Safe State! Zieg Heil! Seriously, what is going on in what we used to call the land of the free and the home of the brave? This is Gestapo and KGB stuff.”

[Dalberg-Acton]

I meant to type “New Mexico”. Duh!

[colorado tanker]

Do the police in New Mexico think the Constitution doesn’t apply there? I know lots of people elsewhere think NM is part of Mexico, but I thought the people down there knew they are in the USA.

[B212]

actually these tactics are terror attacks to strike fear into potential drug mules....

[ZULU]

Once again, the frightening specter of a law-enforcement establishment morphed into a paramilitary carabineri/Gendarmerie/Vopo force has been exposed.

I hope the ACLU wins this one.

[ZULU]

They should strike fear into ordinary law-abiding citizens.

[RitaOK]

This is only possible when good people do, basically, nothing.

Internet useage slurps up virtually ALL of the outrage. Otherwise, pitchforks would be engaged long ago, sheriffs would be cornered by the people, the mayors collared and city/county commissions made to regret this Gestapo tyranny.

Putin was quoted as envying Obama for the NSA spying, “because he could get by with it” it.

The world is not appalled by only Obama, but appalled at US, the people, WE, with no testosterone who allowed it. I do blame the internet. It has defanged the people from making a difference.

[RitaOK]

This is not about drugs or immigration any more. This is about abuse of the law, gestapo tactics, overreach and entrapment without evidence.

Rethink excusing the inexcusable. You won’t be using that canard, when it’s you up next in line.

[sheana]

Well they would have to drug me first so they could add that to the list of my charges against THEM!

[zeugma]

The police state continues to appreciate the support of all the drug warriors out there.

"We couldn't do what we do without you!"

[az_gila]

“...The hospital subsequently billed her $5,000...”

I wonder if they had her signature on any intake forms agreeing to the “treatment”...:^)