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Albuquerque TV station KOB Eyewitness News 4 is investigating several police officers and emergency room doctors in Southern New Mexico, who apparently violated the rights and body of an innocent victim of America’s cruel, expensive and failing War on Drugs Innocent Americans Suspected of Possessing Intoxicants Not Approved by the Government. If the allegations of a pending federal lawsuit are true, law enforcement officers of the city of Deming and the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, and several doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center, engaged in a series of unbelievably repulsive and disgusting actions against an innocent 63-year old New Mexico man, who was wrongly accused of possessing illegal drugs.
Just in case you are still undecided about whether the US War on Drugs is good for the country, maybe this case of what happened to an innocent New Mexico man will convince you that America’s longest, most expensive and most cruel war has gone too far – when law enforcement agencies start violating the anal cavities of innocent Americans in the search for illegal substances. Here are some of the details about what happened (and watch video above) to David Eckert in New Mexico:
On January 2, 2013, after plaintiff David Eckert finished shopping at a Wal-Mart in Deming, New Mexico, he didn’t make a complete stop at a stop sign and was immediately stopped by law enforcement. According to Eckert’s attorney, Shannon Kennedy, after law enforcement officers asked him to step out of his vehicle, he appeared to be “clenching his buttocks.” Law enforcement thought that was probable cause to suspect that Eckert was hiding narcotics in his anal cavity. While officers detained Eckert, they secured a search warrant from a judge that allowed for an anal cavity search.
Deming Police first tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was “unethical.” But physicians at the nearby Gila Regional Medical Center agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted. While at the medical center, Eckert was subjected to repeated and humiliating forced medical procedures.
A review of Eckert’s medical records reveals:
1. Eckert’s abdominal area was X-rayed, but no narcotics were found.
2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers and no narcotics were found.
3. Doctors next performed a second exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers and no narcotics were found.
4. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors, nurses and police officers and he watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
5. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors, nurses and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
6. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
7. Doctors then X-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.
8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert’s anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics were found.
Throughout this ordeal, Eckert protested and never gave doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center consent to perform any of these medical procedures.
As Eckert’s attorney told the TV station, “This is like something out of a science fiction film, anal probing by government officials and public employees.”
And here’s maybe one of the worst parts of David Eckert’s ordeal:
The Gila Regional Medical Center has billed Mr. Eckert for the “services” it provided without his consent (two forced X-rays, two forced digital penetration exams, three forced enemas and a forced colonoscopy) at the request of local law enforcement officers, and he still receives medical bills for thousands of dollars for these illegal, invasive and painful medical procedures, according to his lawsuit.
Doesn’t this case of forced anal probing and a forced colonoscopy of an innocent victim illustrate that America’s War on Drugs has maybe gone too far, and doesn’t it illustrate that one of the costs of the War on Drugs is that it’s a direct assault on the civil liberties of Americans like David Eckert?
HT: Juandos
Updates on anal probing in New Mexico as part of the War on Drugs:
1. David Eckert’s civil rights attorney Shannon Kennedy says Hispanic officers may have targeted him as a “white boy” because they “don’t like him living in their community.”
2. There have actually been two different men in New Mexico who were forced to undergo hours of enemas, anal probes, and colonoscopies after the same uncertified police dog falsely alerted to the presences of drugs for both men.
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