Even more amazingly, it wasn't one officer alone by the side of the road in an ambiguous circumstance; there was a judge, a DA, multiple officers from several departments, two medical facilities, etc involved.

A civil suit is inadequate; state or federal criminal investigations should be forthcoming. It is possible there is a reasonable explanation, but an investigation is the only way to determine that.

Is it a mistake to use that definition here? Obviously the local law is relevant in legal proceedings and I want to respect survivors of sexual assault, but what else do we call it?

The police are totally out of control in this country. They are out of control because they are untouchable. That was the lasting legacy of the Rodney King acquittals: you can do what you want if you're a cop. You can beat a black man senseless for nothing. You can beat a homeless man to death with your fists. You can pepper spray, tackle, and beat peaceful protesters dancing in a public square. You can smash people's cameras who are trying to document your abuses. You can send SWAT teams to the home of the mayor of a small town, shoot the family dog dead, track the blood all over the house, put the family on their knees for hours with guns to their heads, and then when it turns out it was a mistake, leave, laughing and saying "you're lucky we didn't arrest you."

Almost certainly it will get much worse before it gets better. Armed with ever better surveillance, city police are going to get much more powerful. And power corrupts. I think we'll be hearing about a lot more of these kinds of abuses.

Eventually, 400M Americans are going wake up, realize that they've had enough, and effect real, lasting change.

After the SECOND probe (there were six total probes, two x-rays) I'd think most people would be convinced the guy wasn't hiding anything. Even if he was, we're not talking pounds of drugs here.

The police involved, and anyone that went along with SIX probes and two x-rays, and still were not sure this guy was innocent, are far beyond "corrupt", they are simply insane. Corruption generally comes with some kind of substantial payoff. What could that have been in this case? I'm really baffled by this, and scared. Only truly crazy people could allow this to happen, much less support it.

I don't know what else to say really. This kind of reaction defies any form of rational discourse. As an outsider I'm kind of numb to it though. America, in my mind, has gone from a "cool" place that I learned about on television (Home Alone, Mickey Mouse Club, Terminator, NASA etc.) to this giant nanny state that has MASSIVE knee-jerk reactions to anything, e.g. putting warning labels on coffee, searching peoples assholes for drugs cause they clenched their buttcheeks, making air travel a ridiculously painful experience, etc.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/troopers-texas-prob...

at least one officer was charged with sexual assault.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke

"Do you think those officers in this particular case did that?" Ramirez asked.

Gigante didn't answer, instead he referred Ramirez to his attorney."

The medical clinic and the doctors who performed the procedures should all sue the police officers involved personally as well as the police department since they lied and they solicited the doctors to commit crimes. This kind of rogue police behavior needs to be severely punished in a very public way to send the message that "peace officers" are there to keep the peace, not to disturb it.

Why wouldn't you just stop at the X-ray? Is there some method of hiding drugs that wouldn't be very obvious in an X-ray? Ignoring the morality entirely, did they actually gain anything from that? Was there someone who could of hid narcotics past the first 7 steps?

What's so powerful about this story is it doesn't seem to make sense. I want to know why. What on earth motivated anything beyond step 1? Step 1 was bad enough!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6677664

    EVEN IF he did had drugs in there, this would still be not right to me. Aren't there more effective ways than this to combat drugs? Let it go. 
    IMO, everyone related to this case (besides the victim) should be fired, divorced and ostracized. Sounds like a DOJ case.

To bad it never occurs to prosecutors that we could encourage police and doctors to obey the law using the same means.

If this man was found with drugs he wouldn't have been offered better training or face a civil lawsuit. If we are willing to be tough on drug users, we should be as tough on people in authority when they break the law.

http://www.volokh.com/2013/11/07/thoughts-eckert-v-city-demi...

There's no intellectual discourse to be had here; it's just the dissemination of fear.