There is disturbing video out of Lakeland, Florida where a police officer, Dustin Fetz, is under attack for ordering a woman to shake her bra during a search for drugs at a traffic stop. There appears no basis for the drug search, which are becoming more and more common on the roads as drivers find themselves accused of minor traffic violations but then subjected to full drug searches.
Zoe Brugger and her boyfriend on May 21 were pulled over while driving with a broken headlight. Fetz tells Brugger to pull up her shirt, pull her bra away from her body and shake it out so he could see if she was hiding any drugs.
He then asks permission to search her car. At first she agrees but then changes her answer to no. However, Fetz searches the car anyway without permission. No drugs were found on her or her boyfriend or in their car.
An investigation found that Fetz’s actions “went beyond the police actions that are permissible under law” and “violated the constitutional rights afforded to Zoe Brugger.” Notably, there was another officer present but there is no record of his informing anyone of the unconstitutional actions of his colleague. Officers are routinely excused from this duty to report such violations.
Notably, these pretext stops have been more common after the Supreme Court ruled that it would not question the motivation of such stops. 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. We have seen abusive searches in such stops in past cases.
Notably, the police department is willing to question the bra shaking demand but have been silent on the search itself as well as the obvious use of a pretext for the stop.
Source: TBO
Blouise, thanks for sharing that image. It’s just wrong and I hope these “officers” are truly punished.
Blouise, You’re passionate take is why we need more female commenters and Guest Bloggers.
And the “secret” police state will be next…S.O.S.
Blouise,
Yep.
Yep … well all the kidders making their little jokes can snicker away … it is obvious from the pictures that Fitz’s female prey was humiliated beyond stoic endurance and that DisgustedonEastBroadway spoke for me … grind ’em up MF.
Blouise, very true. She certainly shows how they humiliated her, especially the third photo in the series.
Blouise, Those photo’s access my dark side. Thanks, I guess!
Ah, the world of perversion in uniform … take a look at the following picture to get the full impact Fitz had on his prey:
http://www.examiner.com/article/officer-dustin-fetz-violated-woman-s-constitutional-rights
AY, LOL! Are you working on a standup act? I’m not “kissing your ass.” I left my antibacterial chapstick in the car.
Guilty untill proven innocent, and even then they will invent something.
Darren,
I think the officer(s) were just getting their jollies. And they got caught.
Darren,
That seems pretty obvious to me… Ya think he tried to put dollar bills in while she was shaking….
Thea search of this woman was clearly unconstitutional. The burn’t out headlight is one of the stereotypes for a pre-text stop. I don’t see where there was any reasonable suspicion of this woman possibly having drugs on her. The litmus test to me is would a 90 year old grandmother be subject to the same treatment for the same traffic violation. If the police don’t do that type of search for her than the woman in the video shouldn’t have that happen either.
The bra search method used is the type used for post arrest search of women by male officers when there is actual concern she might be carrying a weapon that could be used by an officer and there is not the availability of a woman officer to perform the frisk.
This is what is referred to as a “fishing expedition”.
Always violence with you eastbroadway isn’t it?
Remind me to stay our of Lakeland, Florida.
For the Police State in you…..
Justice Holmes:
what do you recommend be done?
Abuse 101.
It’s actually worse than you make out. This department has a history of misconduct and s. 1983 cases filed against its officers. Most of these have been for excessive force.
Immediately after this incident, another officer testified to getting blank, already notarized forms to use in his arrests. He changed his story the next day while on the stand and the judge halted his testimony so he could contact an attorney, presumably so he could get legal advise on perjury. Earlier Judge Abdoney had admonished the prosecutor that “Or you have got a professional liar that the state is putting their stamp of approval on.”
Harsh language coming from a judge.
Just last month another, off-duty, officer was fired for following another driver in a road rage incident and then beating him until he had to go to the hospital.
As of last week, the PD had 18 active internal affairs investigations according to the local news. I don’t know about you, but having 8% of the officers under investigation seems a little high to me, especially when you consider that they just fired the above officer and have two pending lawsuits. This is for a city of under 100,000 population.
We are no longer “secure in our persons”. A police stop and search without probable cause is an intrusion that used to be unconstitutional. The fourth amendment was a cherished and important component of the rights the people were guaranteed by the Constitution. As this and many other incidents reported here and elsewhere show the power of police officers is no longer limited by such “quaint” concepts. Simply by traveling on the roads we submit ourselves to the whim of police officers who have no limits, over whom no one exercises meaningful oversight. It is appalling.