Video emerges of woman 911 caller forcefully strip searched in police custody

Authoritarian pervs love strip searches, as they humiliate the victim and provide sexual gratification for the authority figure in question at the same time - especially when children are involved.

From what I've seen very few of these strip searches are actually intended to find anything: the point is to humiliate the victim, break their will to resist, and assert the dominance of the authority figure.

[edit on 2/1/08 by xmotex]

Hmmmm. I don't see any of the usual police apologists defending the actions of these cops.

How about it boys in blue? Gonna justify this one?

Actually, I'm very surprised they just didn't taze her. I sadly have to agree with mrsdudara. I don't know what disgusts me more, the fact that this takes place or that fact that it does not surprise me at all.

I've said it before, I am more afraid of my own government and thugs like these "police officers" that enforce the government’s insane laws than I am of any criminal, gangster, illegal alien, or supposed terrorist.

It seems like the majority of police are quite comfortable with the concept of authority by fear rather than authority by respect. This kind of thing will keep happening. It will be more and more commonplace and accepted as people are conditioned with the knowledge that they are powerless to resist.

In 10 years (if we are still here) you will wake up in a police state and wonder when it happened. Well, it's happening right now and I hate to tell you but it's too late to stop it. The police don't work for you. They work for the people with the money and the power. They are bought and paid for by people who believe themselves to be better than you and to whom the average guy on the street is just a slave to be used, disciplined (as in the video of the strip-search/psychological rape), or destroyed.

Welcome to the 21st century. It's not your world anymore, and hasn’t been for a while.

As most here know, im a pretty big supporter of cops - as most of my friends are cops.

But watching this left me in tears. Literally in tears. Then I felt outrage and shock.

And from what I know from my cop friends, is that men should NOT have been allowed to strip seach her. That only woman are allowed to do that - in their departments. The fact that men were forcibly removing her clothing just really upset me. It is like rape w/out penatration.


Now my only question is this. Why on earth was she put into this situation? I understand she made the call - but when they showed up - what happened. How on earth did it get to this point?

the girl's husband said:

I don't think murderers are treated like this

untrue. in prison, this is common upon new incomers when going through processing. I've seen some very nasty and inhumane stuff done to prisoners before. It's not funny, it's not fair, but it's also not going to stop anytime soon.

The fact they are treating normal civilians like this though, that's even scarier than I imagined.

reply to post by Ambient Sound


I serioulsy doubt any of the cops that post here and any of those supporting cops would feel this situation is justified and okay.

I talk to quite a few cops on here via email and U2U and I know they would never support this.

I will also be emailing the video to all my cop friends whom I KNOW will be completely outraged at this.

is there a mirror or another source for this? Seems like they got flooded with hits and went down.

Well, im afraid to many, this is the image of America circa 2008.

Two news items caught my eye today. Bombs in Iraq and this.

If this had been a video released from the middle east showing an incident involving the cops there, this thread would have been in the hundreds by now.

Earlier i was looking through a thread where certain people were maybe suggesting that the USA was the greatest nation on the planet.

My image of the US today?

Two skinhead grunts. One shooting up the Middle East while the other holds down an innocent female in a cell Central RedNeck, USA. For thats what that cop looked like. If he's not struting his stuff in uniform he's in the gym.

Stark, USA. Aptly named.

If this offends, tough. Its how your looked upon.

Originally posted by xmotex
From what I've seen very few of these strip searches are actually intended to find anything: the point is to humiliate the victim, break their will to resist, and assert the dominance of the authority figure.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Hi There,

This is a truly awful video evidence against the 'so-called' law enforcers. I am in such a rage concerning the way this woman was treated. I believe intense pressure should be put on the governor or senator to indict the sheriff, the deputies, and the whole damn county by the people whom live there. Any way they try to slice this, it is sexual assualt and humiliation on a innocent civilian, regardless of law enforcement protocols.

The strip search should never have happend! The woman should never have been arrested by the ignorant moron pretending to be a cop! If they get away with this it will happen again. The people of Stark County should rally together to uncompromisingly prosecute the police department involved right up to federal indictment of those whom did the strip search. No deals should be struck in some back room. No brushing it 'hush hush' under the carpet. A custodial sentance is totally merited for the sheriff, and that should be the minimum result.

I seriously can't believe that could happen in our world today......

I shake my head profusely at the offenders and reflect quietly on the image imposed upon me simply because I share a country....

Maybe that's my (and our) problem...too quiet....

How terrifying for that poor woman! The video was heartbreaking. Resisting arrest and disorderly conduct? Who wouldn't resist after having their clothes forcefully removed and arrested when they are the victim of a crime?!

And for those who were asking: The article said she was attacked by her cousin. Another one of her cousins made the 911 call after the victim in the video was assaulted and wounded.

It isn't stated but if I had to guess, the altercation probably started when the officer refused to return the driver's license of her dead sister. Truly, truly sad and angering. Kudos to her and her husband for coming forward with this. The best of luck to them in achieving justice.

I am in no way defending these actions but I'm kinda pissed off that the reporters are purposefully leaving out information.

It's not clear how they got to that point. If she was just calling in cause she was attacked, how did they get to the point where she could potentially be suicidal? That isn't made clear. Also, she looks very intoxicated. Was she an alcoholic? Was this the first time she's been to jail? These things bring a little more clarity to a story that, from this perspective, attempts to make it look like the cops stripped her for a power trip. I'm reminded of the Rodney Kong video - where it looked a lot worse until we saw what happened leading up to the beating.

It also looks like this tape was taken by the police as proof that what they were doing was warranted (so they had documentation to point to). It may not be right, but at least they're not trying to cover anything up.

I've been on the receiving end of a cop on a power trip and it was no fun. And that could be the case here. But I'd like to hear more of the other side of the story. I mean for all we know she could've screamed, "I have a gun and I'm going to kill all of you", but they just chose to not show that part.

I'm pleased to see we have people with a wide variety of viewpoints and beliefs having essentially the same reaction to this story.

It gives me hope that this country isn't going down the tubes entirely.

After watching my inital emotional response is to line up those involved against the wall and with live cameras rolling publicly execute them by firing squad sans trial...the sheriff too. And make sure everyone in law enforcement understands that there are very strong consequences for their behavior.

My darker side says to just let me torture them for a month or so and hand them a gun to let them kill themselves.

But then my sense of fairplay comes in after enough time has passed to allow for less emotional thought...Give them a trial and when found guilty send them to the state pen, but provide no special benefits of segregation from the prison population nor protection by the guards. Karma will take over from there. Especially if Mrs. Steffey were to choose to make some new "pen" pals.



[edit on 2-2-2008 by Ahabstar]

Looks bad real bad,
Is it standerd procedure to Video? i take it the police were the ones doing the filming, (why)
Dare i say she was drunk got a bit lippy to the first officer maybe he did not believe she had the dead sister's ID as a memento maybe he suspected her of useing The ID for other things(which is a fair call)are you allowed to have a dead persons ID in or on your posession?
After watching it a few times and letting the emotion go im trying to look at the circumstances that has lead to this.
And of course we are not seeing the whole video Ie, the interview before being draged off to the cell.
The men in the removal of her clothes was not on but as stated in a previous post probably short staff' and not enough Female officers.
I'm curious if Booz is a bit invovld here but of course we dont see that part of the video that is not good TV im not from the States but is that channel a big one or some small town station is this story on all the other news stations.
Ok having said that, it looked bad but i want to hold a bit of ground for the thin BLUE line, They face a huge job and sure mistakes can be made but people can Hang themselves with clothes.
And when they ask you if you are thinking of harming yourself and you answer back with a sarcastic comment or you say yes even in a jokeing way they take it very serious indeed,,, because people have done it even if she was not drunk she was maybe justifiabley hysterical and out of her mind again take no chances. Its somewhat like jokeing in Airports etc here in Sydney and Melbourne there are signs saying all jokes will be taken very seriously and some people have been detaind.
If im compleatly wrong and it is as it appears well good luck in court!
Look that is just my take on it i dont trust all the news they must have their spin to sell that story.

Regardless i feel very sorry for the poor woman.
Why would they have filmd it, as i said before is that standerd procedure?

Disgusting......Abolutely disgusting. Now, ask yourselves how did we get to this point in being a so-called "civilised" society. I agree with the majority of the posters here when they say, if that had been them, or their wife, all would not be good for the officers in question. This will more than likely go into the books as authority having no accountability for their actions. The lingering thought, or the flicker from the candle in the tunnel is that there have been countries that have taken back what they gave away. If we could only learn..................
[I am so at a loss for words. And to think, I retired from the service last year. Is this what I fought for???? With each passing day, my honour turns to shame.

Teenage girls are known to make up stories. But there's no question that both of the alleged incidents occured within months of each other and Tim Swanson was the sheriff in charge of investigating the allegations.

Here are two links for the second lawsuit:
www.wickedlocal.com...

www.indeonline.com...

This take on Wiki about police:

The first modern police force is also commonly said to be the London Metropolitan Police, established in 1829, which promoted the preventive role of police as a deterrent to urban crime and disorder.[5] The notion that police are primarily concerned with enforcing criminal law was popularized in the 1930s with the rise of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the pre-eminent law enforcement agency in the United States; law enforcement however has only ever constituted a small portion of policing activity.[6] Policing has included an array of activities in different contexts, but the predominant ones are concerned with order maintenance and the provision of services.

However I, being Aussie, always knew of the Eureka stockade - absolutely horrific, and the Melbourne Police rebellion.
I think that it was cool and it was basically Police against Military...over a pay dispute.

Eureka stockade

Eureka more info

Police riots

Most the officers were sacked.

reply to post by ColdWater


Thank you Coldwater! This just shows that I do not have blind faith in the saying "there is no such thing as coincidence!" The last line of the article states "what would you do if this were your child?" [I would go gorilla feces and go King Kong! I might die in the process, but I would surely "wreck some shiiiite before I go out! Peace!]