The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit that, if true, would stand as one of the most grotesque and vicious cases of police abuse in recent memory. Marlene Tapia says that she was arrested and forced to strip naked for a contraband examination. The officers at the Metropolitan Detention Center (Bernalillo County New Mexico) claimed that she had a plastic baggie in her vagina and, according to the lawsuit, forced her to bend over and as punishment sprayed mace inside of her vagina.
The lawsuit identifies the officer who sprayed the mace as Blanca Zapater and said that she sprayed the mace twice.
Peter Simonson, the Executive Director of ACLU of New Mexico has publicly denounced the actions for its “maliciousness.” The woman was in pain for weeks.
Reports say that the officer who sprayed the mace has been “disciplined” but what does that mean? If this is true, why would the officer not be fired and criminally charged?
We have obviously not heard the side of the police in the case, but the ACLU is not known to file frivolous lawsuits.
If the allegations are true, this would constitute a form of torture. It would raise serious questions not only about the potential criminal charges for the officer but the terminations of supervisors who felt that this was a mere matter for “discipline” rather than termination. If discipline was ordered, it would appear to confirm that the mace was not used for self-protection. If so, why was it used?
Fair and balanced would be a battery acid enema for the perp cop.
And the hits to New Mexico just keep coming… http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3228448.shtml?cat=500
I agree with lotta.
http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/preamble-bill-of-rights.html
The lawsuit may put a damper on this kind of torture. But retribution would be just here. If the victim has a son with a rifle then he would be fair and balanced if he shot the perp in the balls on Tanks Giving. That is why God made rifles.
Let’s not be hatin’ on NM. Shit like this happens in all states. NM just seems to be on a bad streak in this forum right now.
If ever there was a reason to not visit Mew Mexico….
I am wondering what the heritage of the officer that did the spraying, Blanca Zapater? It sounds as if she may be a Latina herself, so the targeting of Hispanic appearing people would be yet more egregious in her case. The highways of the Southwest seem to have reverted back to the wild wild west, with the law being the outlaws.