
3 Enemas Later, Still No Drugs - RougeFemme
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/opinion/sunday/kristof-3-enemas-later-still-no-drugs.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
======
nate_meurer
The NY Times fails to mention that only the lawsuit against the city was
settled. There are still active lawsuits against Gila Regional Medical Center
and the doctors, and against the district attorney. The names of the
perpetrators are:

* Dr. Robert Wilcox

* Dr. Okay H. Odocha

* Deputy district attorney Daniel Dougherty

The officers involved were Deming police officers Bobby Orosco, Robert Chavez,
FNU (first name unknown) Hernandez; and Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies
David Arredondo, Robert Rodriguez, Patrick Green.

In my opinion, doctors Robert Wilcox and Okay H. Odocha are rapists. Wilcox
and Odocha sexually violated this man forcibly and repeatedly for over ten
hours. This is rape, and they should be charged with rape.

In my opinion, the police officers and deputy district attorney Daniel
Dougherty are accessories to rape, at the very least.

You can see the rapists (again, my opinion) here:

[http://www.grmc.org/Doctor-Directory/O/Okay-H-Odocha-
M-D-.as...](http://www.grmc.org/Doctor-Directory/O/Okay-H-Odocha-M-D-.aspx)

[http://www.grmc.org/Doctor-Directory/W/Robert-M-Wilcox-
M-D-....](http://www.grmc.org/Doctor-Directory/W/Robert-M-Wilcox-M-D-.aspx)

The list of defendants was copied directly from here:

[http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-
news/ci_24461411/lordsb...](http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-
news/ci_24461411/lordsburg-n-m-mans-federal-lawsuit-claims-police)

~~~
neurotech1
Didn't a trial already set a presidence for the "only following orders"
defense for doctors?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors'_Trial](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors'_Trial)

------
protomyth
From the article: "Police are caught in a difficult balancing act"

No, they are not. If they truly believe he had drugs, they arrest him, he gets
representation, and they try for search warrant.

The Doctor who performed this torture should have his medical license pulled
as a warning to all others and all these police officers should be in jail.

~~~
ksherlock
I didn't see it mentioned in this writeup, but they did have a search warrant.
Sort of.

1\. The warrant was only valid within the county. After the first doctor
refused, the police took him to a hospital in another county.

2\. The warrant had an expiration time on it. The warrant was no longer valid
when the colonoscopy was performed.

~~~
tansey
Should that matter? Doctors have a hippocratic oath to uphold.

~~~
doreo
This isn't ancient Greece. Of the few medical schools that use the Hippocratic
oath, none of them make it mandatory.

~~~
chimeracoder
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted - what you're saying is mostly
correct[0] and actually relevant. The Hippocratic oath is very misunderstood
and improperly invoked in public discourse.

The Hippocratic oath is the medical equivalent of swearing a judge in on a
Bible - symbolically very important, but of next to no literal significance.

For example, I bet most people don't know that the Hippocratic oath says the
following:

> I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will
> withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work[1]

By definition, any surgeon is violating the Hippocratic oath on a daily basis.

There are codes of ethics that doctors are expected to uphold, and the
_principles_ behind the Hippocratic oath are still relevant today, but the
actual Hippocratic oath is all but obsolete.

I'm sure that the alleged actions of the doctors question violated whichever
code of ethics they are bound to, but we should be discussing those instead,
not the Hippocratic oath - if there is any possibility of their license being
revoked, _those_ codes are the bar against which their actions will be
measured.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_oath#Modern_use_an...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_oath#Modern_use_and_relevance)
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_oath#English_trans...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_oath#English_translation.2C_version_1)

------
burner747471
This article reminds me of an experience I had 3 years ago in Dublin, CA.

I was driving home to San Jose at about 3am, after spending the evening
playing live music at a bar in Dublin. I was pulled over as I was driving from
the bar to I-680.

The cops made me get out of my car. They took my pulse and examined my eyelids
with their flashlights repeatedly. I was shivering a bit as it was cold and I
was wearing a t-shirt. They accused me of being under the influence of drugs
based on my quickened pulse and eyelids. They searched my car, of course
finding nothing. I was handcuffed and taken to jail, where I had to spend ~12
hours until the next day when my wife picked me up. My car was towed (which I
had to pay to get out of the impound yard).

I was completely sober that night. In fact, I've been straight edge my whole
life.

It was a humiliating experience -- I had to give urine test in front of the
cops once I was taken to jail. I had to get mugshots (which I assume are
searchable online somewhere). That said, it's nothing compared to the
humiliation the guy in the article experienced.

I definitely lost all faith in police that night. As a fairly well-off
software engineer, I could deal with the costs of getting my car out of the
impound yard and missing work to show up in court (no charges were pressed).
For someone less fortunate, it could have really screwed up their life. The
fact that police can mess with people like this is unfair and unjust.

~~~
username223
> which I assume are searchable online somewhere

Better: mugshots.com or some-such will probably try to charge you money to
remove your listings. Disruptive technologies FTW!

~~~
burner747471
Yeesh... I think about this whenever I see one of those mugshot ads on a
website. My paranoid side wonders if this ad is "personalized".

------
x0054
I think the cops should now be billed for that 1.6mill. Garnish there salary
to the end of their worthless life. Why should the taxpayers be stuck with
these bills. The taxpayers didn't abuse and humiliated that poor man on a
fucking whim, the individual police officers did. No pension, immediate
dismissal, and garnishment of wages is the least that they deserve! This case
should not end because they settled, make an example of these fucks.

Also, even a first year law student would be able to easily throw out any and
all evidence they have obtained this way. So the entire procedure was
worthless, even if they had succeeded. Makes their conduct even worse. Evil
and stupid!

~~~
smsm42
That's not individual cop's problem. They were taught this way. They were
taught if you get a permission from a dog that alone justifies subjecting a
person to torture. They were taught if a criminal addicted to every known drug
in existence says something in order to lower his sentence, it's ok to use
this as sole basis to break into homes and shoot whoever is in there. And the
others, like doctors were taught to willingly participate in these abuses,
because drugs! think of the children!

Making an example of these fucks would do nothing, because every citizen of
the US that supports war on drugs is creating these fucks. Until US citizens
wake up and demand the government to stop the war on US citizens, that and
worse is going to happen. In war, that's what happens. This war - longest and
most harmful war in American history - has to be ended. And US citizens have
the power to end it, if only they has the will and reason to stop believing in
lies that WOD proponents feed them.

~~~
logicchains
And Himler was taught that killing millions of minorities was a good and
honest action, yet the judge still found him guilty at Nuremberg. It's
generally accepted that "I was just following orders" is not an acceptable
reason for perpetuating atrocities.

~~~
AnthonyMouse
The actions of police officers is a symptom. The disease is the war on drugs
(and similar "tough on crime, soft on evidence" policies). That doesn't excuse
what the police do, but it defines what you need to change if you don't want
it to continue.

------
csense
The point that Ken White of the Popehat blog said it best [1]:

"This case sickened me. But I can't say that it surprised me. The only thing
out of it that would surprise me is if any of the individual police officers
or sheriff's deputies faced any genuine significant consequences arising from
it."

In other words, the victim gets a $1.6 million settlement comes out of the
pockets of the taxpayers. There are zero personal consequences to the
individual police officers actually responsible for what occurred in this
case.

[1] [http://www.popehat.com/2014/01/16/update-the-quantum-of-
reco...](http://www.popehat.com/2014/01/16/update-the-quantum-of-recovery-for-
rape-and-torture-by-police-in-new-mexico-is-1-6-million/)

------
HarryHirsch
You ask yourself: where is the public prosecution? Where are the criminal
cases against everyone involved?

You also ask yourself why the NY Times only mentions the civil suit and the
settlement.

~~~
jeltz
That is an excellent question. What happened here is obviously criminal, so
why did no prosecutor pick up the case? Are cops so much beyond the reach of
the law that they even get away with this blatant crimes.

------
valar_m
One solution for police misconduct that I heard recently is to require
officers to purchase malpractice insurance[1]. The idea is to incentivize good
behavior, as bad actors would pay higher premiums because they're a higher
risk (or simply leave law enforcement altogether).

That makes a lot of sense to me. The police do things like this because they
rarely, if ever, are held accountable for their actions.

I expect the people who have a strong personal interest in that idea never
happening would counter the proposal with warnings of frightful, dire
consequences.

[1]
[https://twitter.com/ClarkHat/status/420254393444093952](https://twitter.com/ClarkHat/status/420254393444093952)

~~~
jcc80
I first heard someone mention something like this maybe 1-2 months ago and
think it's great. The person compared it to being bonded like an electrician
or plumber. The process to fire police officers in many districts is very
difficult so this could be one method to get control of the situation.

~~~
jethro_tell
The other great thing about this is when you read about a cop shooting someone
for no cause, usually there were warning signs like he escalated a ton of
situations with other suspects. This makes a third party (that is interested
in not loosing millions to a victims family) start running psych tests and
algorithms against arrest and escalation records. At some point the data will
get good enough that people will be un-insurable before they kill someone.

------
mjhoy
> Eckert, protesting all the while, says he asked to make a phone call but was
> told that he had no right to do so because he hadn’t actually been arrested.

Had to read that a few times to make sure.

What were his rights at that moment?

~~~
colinbartlett
"Am I under arrest?" "Am I being detained?" "Than am I free to go?"

Many of us know what rights we have when we encounter law enforcement, but
many do not. I suppose therein partially lies the author's point -- that those
who aren't as well educated or might not have access to legal advice are at a
disadvantage.

~~~
gst
So the let's suppose the cops answer "You're not detained. You're not free to
leave.". What do you do now?

~~~
mbrameld
The standard for a detention is that a reasonable person would believe they
weren't free to go. So in your hypothetical, the fact that the officer says
you're not detained doesn't matter. If he says you're not free to leave then
you're detained. From that point, other than identifying yourself, you should
not answer any questions and ask to speak with an attorney.

~~~
gst
But that's exactly what happened:

1) He was in handcuffs, so apparently not free to go.

2) Police told him he can't contact a lawyer because he's not arrested.

3) Police forced him to undergo a medical procedure (still, without being
"arrested")

I'm not sure if "not answering any questions" would have helped the victim in
that case.

~~~
colinbartlett
I suppose that's why they paid him $1.6M.

------
jasonkolb
This story is the only response needed when someone says "I don't care because
I don't have anything to hide".

~~~
ikusalic
Exactly, though depending on the subject's intelligence I also like to provide
Moxie's excellent post [0].

[0]: [http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/we-should-all-have-
somethin...](http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/we-should-all-have-something-to-
hide/)

------
URSpider94
I do wonder if there is an end run here to either the state medical board or
the specialist certifying organization for the doctors. these docs pretty
clearly performed medical procedures on patients without consent or a court
order. doctors need to know that if they comply with illegal police orders,
they run the risk of losing their license or board certification.

~~~
cookingrobot
I wonder if there's a way we can work through our own doctors. Send them an
email saying that it horrifies you that doctors can get away with this. Ask
them if they agree and if they can raise their concern to the medical board.

If there was an internal rejection of this sort of thing by doctors, maybe the
medical boards would feel enabled to take action.

------
mistercow
>an officer wrote that Eckert’s posture was “erect and he kept his legs
together.”

I think maybe the cop in question needs a basic anatomy lesson. He seems to
think that holding one's legs together is required if one is hiding something
in one's rectum.

Butts do not work like that.

~~~
mgkimsal
and if his legs are apart, that can be interpreted as aggression. no win
situation - they were looking for an excuse to go to town on this guy...

------
lkrubner
Regarding this part:

"Doctors took X-rays of Eckert’s abdomen and performed a rectal examination.
No drugs were found, so doctors performed a second rectal exam, again
unavailing. Doctors then gave Eckert an enema and forced him to have a bowel
movement in the presence of a nurse and policeman, according to a lawsuit that
Eckert filed. When no narcotics were found, a second enema was administered.
Then a third."

One of the many problems with allowing this sort of procedure is that it
shapes who signs up to be a policeman, and who quits the police force.
Consider the statistics regarding psychopathy:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy)

"A 2008 study using the PCL:SV found that 1.2% of a US sample scored 13 or
more out of 24, indicating "potential psychopathy"

There is also the somewhat controversial condition known as "sadism":

[http://www.jaapl.org/content/34/1/61.full](http://www.jaapl.org/content/34/1/61.full)

"Sadistic individuals have poor behavioral controls, manifested by a short
temper, irritability, low frustration tolerance, and a controlling nature.
From an interpersonal standpoint, they are noted to be harsh, hostile,
manipulative, lacking in empathy, cold-hearted, and abrasive to those they
deem to be their inferiors. Their cognitive nature is considered rigid and
prone to social intolerance, and they are fascinated by weapons, war, and
infamous crimes or perpetrators of atrocities."

In a civil, decent society, most of these behaviors are driven underground,
and treated as criminal. A civil and decent society strives to avoid
situations in which criminals become society's leaders. The worst aspects of
war and totalitarian regimes is that they empower psychopaths and sadists.

In her book "Prison we choose to live inside" Doris Lessing makes the point
that many institutions are shaped by the self-selection of those who chose to
work there. She mentions the idealistic, conscientious young man who joins the
police thinking that he will be able to help the public, but if he finds the
work brutal and inhumane, he quits and finds some other job where he feels he
can do more to help the public. And yet he is exactly the kind of man that
much of the public actually wants to have as a police officer: idealistic and
conscientious and authentically wanting to help people.

When we allow police work to consist of repeated rectal exams of people who
are not under arrest, then the good people will be driven out of the police
force, and the police force will become a very attractive profession for those
people whom are the most likely to abuse the power of being a police officer.
The public would be wise to feel genuine terror at the thought of a police
force that consists of the kinds of people who actually enjoy the kind torture
described in this article.

~~~
AutoCorrect
I have a friend that was turned down by the police force because he tested too
smart. We were all amazed what that said about our police force.

~~~
bruceb
The argument here is that the money spent to train a new officer and have him
learn on the job would be wasted on her/him if they were to smart as they
would get bored quickly and quit. Not saying it is the best argument but that
is what I have read as the reason for rejecting high IQ applicants.

~~~
zimbatm
And the cost of not having smart officers is not taken off the police's budget
;)

------
frostmatthew
The worse thing about reading this is that none of it surprised me (even him
getting billed for it). The article didn't mention if any disciplinary action
happened to the cops but I'm guessing none.

~~~
gst
I wonder if and how such a bill would be legally enforceable. He never
requested any services from the hospital and he also never got into a
emergency condition where the hospital was forced to safe his life. It's like
if a random person cuts your hair off on the street and then charges you a
barber service.

~~~
girvo
What I wanna know is, if he refused to the medical procedures, aren't the
doctors committing a crime by forcing them on him against his will?

~~~
foobarian
Wondering this too. They basically raped him, it's just that there is no
prosecution. Is there any way for concerned out-of-county or even out-of-state
citizens to trigger prosecution at a federal level?

~~~
dangrossman
Federal prosecutors generally have no jurisdiction unless the crime involves
crossing state borders, national security, a federal employee, or occurred on
federal property. Raping an ordinary citizen does not violate any federal law,
it's a state issue.

~~~
yardie
Civil rights cases are federal since in the past states wouldn't prosecute
them. If he was a protected minority class (black, native american, woman)
he'd have a federal case.

------
ithinkso
What really upsets me, despite all this law enforcement's abuse, that the
victims were billed for those procedures. What?! Police is forcing someone,
against their will, to take medical exams and then one has to pay for that?

~~~
scoot
That fact seemed to be the common thread between the case, and I wondered if
being billed with no ability to pay is what brought their cases to the public
eye.

If the state had picked up the tab, would they have got away with it? How many
similar cases exist where the victim has gone away quietly, too humiliated to
complain?

------
smoyer
Why do all these articles suppose that the upper and middle classes don't
really have sympathy for the lower class who are generally subject to this
sort of "crime" (at least I feel it was).

Most of us are not so out-of-touch that we can't also declare that what
happened to this guy was _WRONG_. And we're also not so self-centered that we
can't feel both sympathy and empathy. Or maybe they only teach that to
journalists?

~~~
vacri
Because it's the middle classes pushing the tough-on-crime politicking that
causes long sentences, overpopulated prisons, and paramilitarised police using
abusive powers. It takes an abuse of power this strong to make them take
notice, as a general demographic.

------
throwit123444
Yes, police brutality disproportionately affects the poor, but by no means are
the middle class exempt. I can attest to this personally. I have never written
about this before, but I am a middle-class, college-educated white person who
was beaten rather mercilessly by the police for "resisting arrest". The
resistance, by the way, was entirely verbal, specifically, I said: "no I don't
think that's a good idea" and slowly backed away from them. No cursing, or
disrespect, or any threatening motion.

I was then beaten rather brutally on by thigh and buttocks with a police baton
such that I was unable to sit without severe pain for almost a year, and then
cuffed so tightly that I still have nerve problems from the incident, almost
10 years later.

The police know very well not to beat you in your vitals (you risk dying) or
your face (too bloody/visible). So they beat you viciously on your
thighs/buttocks/shoulders/upper back. I lost count after a couple of blows. I
then had two 200+ lb men sit on me, with one continuing to beat me with the
baton. I had never physically resisted them beyond slowly backing away with
hands up in a motion of surrender.

I was intoxicated, and they would arguably have been well within their rights
to physically detain me and cuff me (I was singing drunkenly in a public
square), but my beating was entirely because I dared to contradict them, not
because I pose any kind of risk.

When I was half-dragged into a jail cell full of about 50 tattooed gang
members, in which I was the only Caucasian, I felt much, much safer that I did
with all the police officers of my own race who had just beat me senseless.
Honestly. I was never threatened by any of my jail-mates, and at least two
expressed concern about my condition (I was moaning as softly as I could).

When I asked why the police officers why they had beaten me in the police car,
they told me I was resisting. However, no resisting charge was ever filed -- I
was only charged with misdemeanor public intoxication, to which I pled no
contest. This was all witnessed in public so I'm sure they realized they would
have a hard time making it stick if I decided to fight the charges.

And to be sure, were I black and/or poor looking, things might have been much
worse. And to be clear -- the pain I suffered compares nothing to the rapes
suffered by the victims of this report.

Before that point, I viewed the police as kind of like the fire department, or
a similar public safety organization, not as brutal thugs. I've since become
very interested in the matter and learned how wrong I was.

I do recognize that a minority of police officers truly do care about their
community, and not about power and adrenaline, but they're sadly decreasing in
number because they don't fit in most modern police departments (and I'm also
sure that there are certain police departments that are run well from the top
that defy this stereotype). I've had the opportunity to observe this all up
close through my involvement with another community organization that
sometimes works alongside the local police department. I've heard up close how
police talk to one another, and how they view the public.

But don't kid yourself. We live in a police state whose powers are growing by
the year, spied on by the federal police/government and beaten down by the
local police whenever we protest our treatment. The lower classes have
traditionally been the primary victims, but as class disparity increases, and
power centralization continues, the middle class will find itself a victim of
police violence more and more frequently, for causes even more egregious than
what I just described.

~~~
smoorman1024
My condolences. I have such aversion to Police types and I wish there was more
local civilian control over police departments. If there is enough support
here we should seriously consider what we can do to deter poor police
behavior.

------
rplst8
We live in a country that per capita incarcerates more of its citizens than
any other in the world. Our society is by and large very safe. Yet there is
still a drive to lock up even more people, for longer terms, for silly
offences, and further, to turn more and more tort laws into criminal laws. At
some point this has to stop. These stories are far more often becoming the
norm, and I find it disgusting. The Constitution and our system of laws do not
guarantee your absolute safety... They guarantee your freedom, and that
justice will be served _if_ you are wronged. I read these stories with a heavy
heart.

------
jcampbell1
I am so glad this case is getting wide spread attention.

There is no reason hospitals should be doing rectal exams or X-rays for the
benefit of the local police department as a favor. Now that there has been a
massive settlement, I am sure every hospital administrator and lawyer has been
advising the ER to not do this shit.

Frankly, it was the doctors and nurses that did wrong here. As dumb as it is,
the misguided law and policy suggests police should aggressively pursue drug
crimes. I am quite sure the settlement is largely being paid by the
hospital/doctors.

~~~
doreo
Actually none of it is being paid by the hospital and doctors, this settlement
was with the county and city. According to another source

"Eckert still has pending suits against a deputy district attorney who signed
off on the intrusive search warrant, the doctors who performed the search and
the Gila Regional Medical Center, the facility that hosted the exams."

[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/n-m-man-
settles-1-6...](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/n-m-man-
settles-1-6-million-anally-probed-8-times-routine-traffic-stop-
article-1.1582589)

------
endgovernment
Yet another great reason to end drug prohibition.

The cops and the doctors perpetrating the rape should also be held personally
liable in civil and criminal court.

------
yetanotherphd
Inequality exacerbates this problem, but it is not the root cause. I have
heard many stories of police abuse from middle class, White people.

It is only the ultra-rich (or ultra-connected) that the police are afraid of.

~~~
jeltz
The root cause seems to be that police are not prosecuted for crimes committed
while on duty.

------
tn13
I am little surprised that there was merely a financial settlement. This is
not just an invasion of Mr Eckert's privacy but a matter of public concern.
The law enforcement officials and doctors should have been fired too, well not
just by fired but criminally booked as well. I am surprised this has not
happened.

On a larger note, imagine that government tries to build a military base on a
mountain behind your house. They use explosives to break bid rocks. One rock
flies off and falls in your backyard killing your dog. Government pays you $1m
as compensation. Does the matter end there ? Most certainly not. Instead
government's negligence is a public concern. I think your neighbors should be
allowed to demand that government disclose what security measures they have
put in place to ensure that more rocks don't fly in air killing others.

I think in the above mentioned case it must be absolutely necessary that the
cops and doctors should be booked and heavily penalized.

------
ojbyrne
"Every man is innocent until proven broke."

------
dreamdu5t
I'd like to point out that YOU CAN BE LEGALLY RAPED if a cop suspects you have
drugs and has probable cause (which can be anything really, from a dog barking
to a previous history of drug use, to clenching your ass when being padded
down).

------
VexXtreme
Shocking but not overly surprising. However, I can't really imagine something
like this happening in any western democracy other than the US (and maybe the
UK).

~~~
ionwake
are you nuts? this would never occur in the UK.

------
eCa
I recently watched a lecture by Philip Zimbardo (of Stanford prison experiment
fame) about systems that creates such situations [1]. His example was the Abu
Graib. It's quite long, but there is also a shorter Ted talk on the same
subject.

[1]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xpsVlY3QQc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xpsVlY3QQc)

------
smoorman1024
I wonder if someone could comment on the validity of the contract between the
hospital and the victim of the enemas.

For a contract to be valid both parties need consideration. Since the victim
didn't consent to the enema or the other procedures how did he receive any
consideration. I would argue that it's impossible to enforce this contract.

------
stormqloud
This sounds beyond outrageous to people not living in USA.

It's a good thing it didn't happen to some random European tourist.

~~~
clarkm
Yes it's outrageous, but why compare this to Europe? Hidalgo County is right
on the border, and if this would've happened just a few miles south (in
Mexico) it wouldn't be too far out of the ordinary. Some parts of the US seem
to operate a lot more like our neighbor to the south than like the ones across
the pond.

------
hudibras
For everybody wondering about the lack of criminal charges, I'll bet a Coke
that Nicholas Kristof writes a follow-up column within a month about that
topic. He's got himself a hot-button subject and he knows it.

------
c7b0rg
Sadistic police brutality is a worldwide phenomenon, but the hospital billing
the victim? On the same level of psychopathic behaviour if you ask me. Would
the billing even be considered outside the US?

------
WaterSponge
The sooner all cops shifts are "GoPro'd" for lack of a real product the
better. Tech has reached a point where we can archive a shifts worth of video
for atleast 6 months.

------
kyberias
This is slightly interesting but I wonder what is the relevance to Hacker
News?

------
lhgaghl
Heh. Just watched Beavis and Butt-Head Do America recently.

"The stolen biological weapon attracts the attention of the ATF, headed by
Agent Flemming who orders a body cavity search on everyone he encounters"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beavis_and_Butt-
Head_Do_Americ...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beavis_and_Butt-
Head_Do_America)

------
lhgaghl
> But the authorities, hospital and doctors all refused to comment, and, a few
> days ago, the city and county settled the lawsuit by paying Eckert $1.6
> million.

Holy fuck people are stupid. $1.6 million is not nearly enough. I would be
smashing up the cops' shit if they did this to me.

------
bayesianhorse
The phrase "not arrested" suggests that the suspect almost hoped for a chance
to sue the police. Hard to blame him, when the police is displaying this
amount of stupidity, lack of judgement or empathy.

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neolefty
Our righteous indignation seems a little shrill here.

The fact that he was awarded $1.6M is being glossed over -- clearly this was
not, in hindsight, a reasonable procedure, and everyone recognizes it.

~~~
stephencanon
The monetary settlement should be just a start. Does the doctor involved still
have a license to practice medicine? He shouldn't. Do the nurses and techs
involved still have jobs? They should be subject to extreme disciplinary
measures at the very least. Are the cops still on the force? They shouldn't
be, as they are obviously unsuitable for the job. Is the judge who authorized
the warrant still on the bench?

No, there's plenty of room for indignation.

