Texas Troopers Probe Women Motorists on Side of Road

[Mice]

This news story shocked me, and that is saying something. I didn't see it posted elsewhere.

It sounds like State Troopers in Texas are giving women cavity searches on suspicion that they may have drugs. The searches were done at the side of the road. It's captured on camera and nothing was found. This was in separate incidents in different parts of the state. So as of right now, its looking to me like the State of Texas can digitally rape you on the side of the road for no reason whatsoever. Anyone know of better details or points of law that would explain this?

nydailynews.com/news/national/troopers-texas-probe-genitals-women-traffic-stops-article-1.1414668

[lizziesmom]

It's Texas. They pretty much do what they want there.

[Mice]

It's Texas. They pretty much do what they want there.

I know I know - but I thought that getting digitally raped by the government on the side of the road at will seemed so 1990s. I guess I just don't know what's cool anymore.

[Ariel]

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.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... z2b8M8yoeZ

On the plus side, the Texas gov't knows this is wrong and illegal.

On the negative side its still happening all the time.

[Mice]

On the plus side, the Texas gov't knows this is wrong and illegal.

On the negative side its still happening all the time.

That this continues to happen even though the government knows it is wrong and illegal is worse.

[lemonhead]

Texas: where women have less bodily autonomy than a corpse. :roll:

[treehugger]

:shock: Wow, I have never been so glad to live in Canada! Actually, the whole thing makes me feel kind of sick.

[Mice]

I wonder if they do this to men.

[curlytoes79]

This is really upsetting, but what do you expect from a lawless shithole of a country like Texas?

Oh wait....Texas never seceded, did they?

[starfish]

The troopers were both fired. Lawuits are pending.

Media attention has been decent. I think the factor that really freaked

everybody out was that the lady trooper who probed used the

same glove for both women.

When I read about California's forced sterilization of female inmates,

I was horrified, outraged, and glad it wasn't in Texas. We have enough

issues.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/o ... uv03ZJEdTJ

[Muriel Heslop]

...I think the factor that really freaked

everybody out was that the lady trooper who probed used the

same glove for both women....

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/o ... uv03ZJEdTJ

HURRRRRL!!!!!!

[treehugger]

The troopers were both fired. Lawuits are pending.

Media attention has been decent. I think the factor that really freaked

everybody out was that the lady trooper who probed used the

same glove for both women.

When I read about California's forced sterilization of female inmates,

I was horrified, outraged, and glad it wasn't in Texas. We have enough

issues.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/o ... uv03ZJEdTJ

yeah, that's completely disgusting and unsafe - but I am disturbed that that is what freaked everyone out. I was freaked out by the fact that two women were violated by someone in authority on the side of the road. People should have been appalled, whether or not the trooper used the same glove!

[laura oz]

The troopers were both fired. Lawuits are pending.

Media attention has been decent. I think the factor that really freaked

everybody out was that the lady trooper who probed used the

same glove for both women.

When I read about California's forced sterilization of female inmates,

I was horrified, outraged, and glad it wasn't in Texas. We have enough

issues.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/o ... uv03ZJEdTJ

I have a friend in TX that had a pic of this that she shared, so I knew that the troopers were female that did the digital probing. What I really want to know is were they told to do this, as in did they have a pre-shift meeting that this was discussed at? Or did they just take it upon themselves to do this? And why? What was the probable cause? Has any of this been reported on where you're at? I tried to click on the links, but my computer said it was an unsafe zone & I never override that. The 'puter has been wonky lately though.

edited cause punctuation is important

[debrand]

I have a friend in TX that had a pic of this that she shared, so I knew that the troopers were female that did the digital probing. What I really want to know is were they told to do this, as in did they have a pre-shift meeting that this was discussed at? Or did they just take it upon themselves to do this? And why? What was the probable cause? Has any of this been reported on where you're at? I tried to click on the links, but my computer said it was an unsafe zone & I never override that. The 'puter has been wonky lately though.

edited cause punctuation is important

The male policeman said that he smelled pot. Both women denied doing pot and there was none found in their car. Plus, they came clean on a sobriety test. When the women protested, the trooper said that one of them shouldn't have smoked pot and they wouldn't be undergoing a cavity search. I think that the trooper wanted to embarrass the women because he was wrong about there being pot in their car

[laura oz]

The male policeman said that he smelled pot. Both women denied doing pot and there was none found in their car. Plus, they came clean on a sobriety test. When the women protested, the trooper said that one of them shouldn't have smoked pot and they wouldn't be undergoing a cavity search. I think that the trooper wanted to embarrass the women because he was wrong about there being pot in their car

What the ever loving fuck?! If you want to embarrass someone you give them a field sobriety test so that other drivers can rubber neck. You digitally probe a woman to embarrass her, and you are a predator with no business having any authority/power or a fucking badge that MAKES people obey you or go to jail for refusing to comply . Fuck him.

[RosyDaisy]

This is sexual assault, plain and simple! It's vile and disgusting, and a horrible thing to go through! A badge doesn't give anybody the power to do whatever the hell they want. Law enforcement isn't above the law. Those troopers should be arrested! This kind of search may not be officially on the books, but somebody high up is ordering them. That much is clear, and it's probably happened to other motorist. If there are other victims, I hope they come forward. Based on my family sources in law enforcement, it's not that hard to erase or destroy dash cam footage. It just wasn't done in the 2 cases mentioned.

[lemonhead]

Well, in Texas if you want an abortion you have to get a transvaginal ultrasound. Sooo...want an abortion? Get a probe up your vagina. Smell like pot (allegedly)? Get a finger up your vagina. It's perverted but it feels like our bodies are becoming the property of the state here.

[laura oz]

Lemonhead, love the name and the candy btw, that's why I have donated and will continue to donate to Wendy Davis' campaign and try to help her keep fighting for women. I live in Duggarland, so the hard core woman hating is going to cross the border of our states soon. In some ways it already has with all the redic abortion proposals some idiotic lawmakers here have tried to get passed. I love all the kind people I've met here and the friendships I've made, but I want my daughter and future granddaughter to have equal pay and have the option of choice with no government speed bumps put in their way. If it can happen in TX and NC and Ohio, the rest of the country is incredibly vulnerable.

ETA had a brain fart about her name. Multitasking isn't my strong suit.

[lemonhead]

Yes, the rest of the country is vulnerable (re new abortion restrictions), esp with the pro-lifers' new approach of regulating abortion facilities out of existence--and calling it a "safety" issue- rather than trying to ban the procedure outright. Folks in other states have to be aware that this could be coming and that legislators are even going so far as to "hide" these new restrictions in other, unrelated bills--I believe it was N.C. where they put abortion restrictions in a motorcycle safety bill last month :evil-eye:

[laura oz]

Totally OT, but they don't want to overturn Roe v Wade, they want to regulate it out of existence. The fact that they are sneakily succeeding, scares me. :sigh:

[djibouti]

Shortly after we got married my husband got offered a job in El Paso. It wasn't too hard to turn it down and three daughters later, I'm so glad we did. Do women even have rights down there???

[lemonhead]

It feels like women are losing ground lately in Texas. In the past few years, the Legislature has slashed funding to women's clinics and then passed the new abortion restrictions, and the governor just vetoed a fair-pay-for-women in the last session as well.

It does frighten me to think about the future for my daughter, if we stay here.

[laura oz]

I have a lot of fundie family in TX - around Orange and Galveston mostly- and I just can't figure out why they stay. They are HUGE families with 9 kids in one and 13 in the other, and most of them are female. One family is fundie lite and the daughters work outside the home. Why does the TX legislature hate women, and why the hell do they stay there? If AR pulled some of these shenanigans, I don't care how much of a pay cut it would involve, I'd move. I know it's not realistic, but I wish all the women in TX would move en mass on one day across state lines. Leave it to teh menz. Maybe that would get some attention.

[Mice]

yeah, that's completely disgusting and unsafe - but I am disturbed that that is what freaked everyone out. I was freaked out by the fact that two women were violated by someone in authority on the side of the road. People should have been appalled, whether or not the trooper used the same glove!

QFT! Additionally, the fact that it was happening in different parts of the state over a period of time makes me think it wasn't an accident or a rougue trooper. It makes me think it was policy. Maybe not a recorded policy but still... Also upsetting is that the complaints were a year ago. These original complaints didn't seem to get traction until there were news conferences and the videos were released. So the state knew this was happening, in multiple places and they were kinda OK with it until they were publically shamed about it. So fuck them.

[Mice]

An update: one of the terminated troopers involved in this case has been reinstated: abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=9201650