More spreading of our liberty
by digby
When the Supreme Court ruled that police strip searches are legal and that all Americans who are taken into police custody should be prepared to submit to “visual inspection” I wonder if this is what they had in mind for women? From Kevin Gosztgola:
In the prison that operates under the umbrella of the Michigan Department of Corrections, women are forced to remove their clothing and spread the lips of their vaginas so that a guard can peer inside. Female prisoners are forced to do this after they meet with family members, religious workers, their lawyers, or anyone else who may visit them in prison.
Women who have been subjected to this depraved procedure have given voice in a letter submitted to the state’s Corrections Department. Rather than outline what guards in the facility do, here are a few descriptions from victims:
They place you in a chair. You are completely naked. I had the officer then tell me, “spread your pussy lips.” Then I had one tell me to put my heels on the chair and use my hands to open my lips. … I feel like I’m being prostituted by these officers … I am an abused woman, and every time this happens I feel completely lost again.
Here’s a video about the procedure from the ACLU:
In his dissent from the strip search ruling, Justice Breyer specifically mentioned this sort of thing, if not the exact process:
The visually invasive kind of strip search at issue here is not unique. A similar practice is well described in Dodge v. County of Orange, 282 F. Supp. 2d 41(SDNY 2003). In that New York case, the “strip search” (as described in a relevant prison manual) involved:
‘a visual inspection of the inmate’s naked body. This should include the inmate opening his mouth and moving his tongue up and down and from side to side, removing any dentures, running his hands through his hair, allowing his ears to be visually examined, lifting his arms to expose his arm pits, lifting his feet to examine the sole, spreading and/or lifting his testicles to expose the area behind them and bending over and/or spreading the cheeks of his buttocks to expose his anus. For females, the procedures are similar except females must in addition, squat to expose the vagina.’” Id., at 46.
There wasn’t much discussion of visual vaginal searches in the arguments. But it’s a standard part of strip searches in one way or another.
That Michigan practice is appalling. But I’d guess it doesn’t fall outside the boundaries the Supreme Court set for strip searches. So ladies, even if you aren’t a prisoner, if you find yourself in police custody, don’t be surprised if they do this to you too. These things are all about humiliation and domination — breaking your spirit. If they are allowed to do it, and I suspect they are under Florence, they very likely will.
The ACLU says this is sexual assault by the state. But I’m pretty sure the Supreme Court just said that was ok. After all, they said that anyone, even someone who had committed no crime and was in police custody on a trivial charge such as running a red light or failing to pay a warrant for parking tickets — or civil disobedience — could be subject to stripping naked and undergoing the above described procedure.
While I agree that this sounds like sexual assault by the state, it’s probably perfect legal.
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