There is a new disturbing video (below) showing police abuse this week. The video shows a Texas state trooper performing what was claimed to be a cavity search on the roadside on suspicion of possession of marijuana. It appears that while states like Colorado are legalizing marijuana, Texas is allegedly doing cavity searches to find someone in possession of weed. I guess it should be no surprise when you are driving on the George Bush Turnpike. The two women — Angel Dobbs, 38, and her niece, Ashley Dobbs, 24 — subject to the humiliating search are now suing the police.

The search occurred on July 13 when Angel Dobbs was driving her boyfriend’s car when troopers said they had spotted Dobbs throw a cigarette butt out the window. One of the troopers identified as officer David Ferrell began to question Dobbs about where she was going and then began to question her on possible use of marijuana. Both women denied having any weed.

A second trooper, Kelley Helleson, then arrived and stated that the two women were “acting weird” and needed to be searched. Farrell claimed that he smelled pot which was then apparently the probable cause for the search of the vehicle. Helleson then says that she will be searching their “persons” and Dobb’s asked what “person” meant. While the women were asked for consent, they suddenly found themselves the subjects of what appears a cavity search on the roadside. When Dodds objected, Farrell reportedly told her that is was justified by the odor in the car because “someone is a daily smoker in that car.”

Angel Dobbs claims that Helleson irritated a preexisting condition with the search, an anal cyst, that now causes her “severe and continuing pain and discomfort.”

What is truly astonishing is that this is all over the suspicion of pot use. It also suggests that the cigarette was another pretext for a stop. Many civil libertarians condemned the Supreme Court in its decision in Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996), where it refused to consider whether a stop was clearly based on a pretext in judging the constitutionality of the later search.

The case also shows how we continue to spend considerable resources and arrest thousands of people over marijuana use while a majority of people want such prosecutions to end.

I fail to see any probable cause for this abusive search, even under the ever-failing standards imposed by our Supreme Court.

Source: Daily Mail