By now you may have read about what happened to David Eckert in New Mexico. It’s horrifying.
Police forced New Mexico scrap metal tradesman David Eckert to undergo two digital anal probes, three enema insertions and ultimately a colonoscopy after officers incorrectly assumed he was concealing drugs, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on his behalf.
No drugs were found by police or doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City, N.M. The exhaustive search began when Eckert allegedly rolled through a stop sign in Deming, N.M., on Jan. 2, 2013.
He rolled through a stop sign. Police stopped him. An officer suspected that he was carrying drugs because the cop believed that Eckert was “clenching his buttocks.”
From that flimsy suspicion, Eckert was held for hours, subjected to absolutely awful and undignified treatment — tortured, basically. Far closer to torture than waterboarding.
In the search warrant affidavit that sought permission for an anal cavity probe, one police officer said he asked Eckert for permission to physically search him after the minor traffic stop. When Eckert refused, the document says, a police K-9 dog alerted them to the side of his car. Kennedy alleges the dog is not certified to search for drugs and may actually be a pet.
A judge granted the search warrant for the anal cavity probe, but not necessarily a colonoscopy.
The hospital probes to which the 63-year-old were subjected were done outside the warran’s jurisdiction, and after it expired. He was forced to defecate in front of law enforcement multiple times.
As if all this isn’t bad enough, it gets worse.
After arriving at the Gila facility, doctors examined Eckert’s anal cavity twice with their fingers, put him through an x-ray scan and then inserted three rounds of enemas into his anus. After each enema, doctors examined the stool sample produced. Eckert was then given a second x-ray scan and forced to undergo a colonoscopy with anesthesia.
It’s unclear why the colonoscopy was necessary after enemas and x-rays did not reveal hidden drugs. Eckert was sent a $6,000 bill for the medical procedures he involuntarily underwent, his lawyer says.
They raped him repeatedly for no reason and then sent him the bill.
When did New Mexico turn into North Korea?
Eckert is suing, but it’s hard to see how any amount of money satisfies what was done to him. If his story is accurate, what police and judges and doctors conspired in could happen to any of us. If his story is accurate, every doctor involved must be tossed out of the medical profession and every law enforcement officer and judge involved needs to be fired and removed as well.
Serious jail time needs to follow this inexcusable injustice.
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