Has Texas become a police state? If anyone doubts there is a War On Women in Texas, this is proof positive. It is evident from the videos that the police officers think this is standard procedure as they acknowledge they are on video. They do not believe they are doing anything wrong. They have been conditioned to believe that a woman’s person is subject to whatever laws or actions they deem reasonable to them at any given time and for any reason.
In a state where a Congressperson believes a rape kit can be used to clean out a woman after a rape when passing a draconian anti-women, anti-abortion, anti-contraception, anti-family planning bill, this should be expected. Having the graphic video makes it more appalling.
Here’s the video:
In the above video near Dallas, the two young women are cavity searched while not under arrest and there was no change of latex gloves between women. One of the women defeated and humiliated by the search said the following.
This has been an eye-opening experience for me OK. Never been pulled over. Never searched like this. I was like totally violated over there a few minutes ago. I had a finger in my ass and a finger in my pussy. I am, this is so embarrassing to me.
The officer implied that this was done because of the smell of marijuana? Then he tells her to be on her way.
In the video the young woman (Angel Dobbs) could be heard being uncomfortable when she was apparently penetrated though the lawyer for the trooper said none occurred. After the cavity search and a sobriety test, Dobbs was released with a warning for littering. She said she was assaulted on the side of the road.
Dobbs contacted the Texas Rangers who were slow to move until she got a lawyer and went to the media. Ultimately she sued and settled out of court for $184,000. The offending female officer (Kelley Helleson) was later charged with two counts of sexual assault and was fired. The offending male officer (David Farrell) was charged with stealing Vicodin from Dobb’s aunt’s purse and was suspended pending an investigation
Here’s another video of a Texas trooper conducting a bikini cavity search:
In this video after the male officer (Hamilton) stops the woman for speeding, he searches her car. He did not find anything so he decided to have a female officer (Jennie Bui) do a cavity search. She is visibly embarrassed.
When the search began one saw and heard her scream when she was penetrated by the female officer. A federal lawsuit was filed in this case.
Bui was fired and the case was submitted to the Brazoria County grand jury.
This stop occurred near Houston, more than two hundred miles away from the first incident. Ironically it is near identical in the procedure which makes one wonder if this is really a departmental policy.
According to the Daily News In both invasive incidents, the female troopers don’t change gloves between probes, according to the horrified victims.
Texas officials say the searches are unconstitutional. So do attorneys for the shaken women, who have filed federal lawsuits.
But lawyers and civil rights advocates tell the Daily News these cavity searches are really standard policy among the Texas Department of Public Safety’s state troopers, despite their illegality — not to mention that they were conducted on the side of the road in full view of passing motorists.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Dallas attorney Peter Schulte, a former Texas cop and prosecutor. “We would never put our hands anywhere near someone’s private parts,” he said of his time as a police officer in the city of McKinney. “When I saw that video I was shocked. I was a law enforcement officer for 16 years and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
More complaints are likely to be filed as five have already been filed when this news became public.
In a state controlled by a Party that wraps itself in the constitution, these acts are not limited to women. During the debate on a bill to make abortion inordinately difficult & reproductive care difficult, the Texas Capitol in Austin looked like a police state.