NOTE: The Youtube feeds that we originally embedded into this article have been removed from Youtube due to copyright violations. You can see them at the originating TV station, WKYC in Cleveland here and here.
These incidents are becoming far too frequent. Of course, one is one too many, And they aren’t just happening in “Hicksville” or “out west” or “down south” or wherever the knee-jerk reaction of the hearer might mentally carry them. And it’s not just happening to people who are members of the “loony right,” the “patriot movement” or whatever other cliched scapegoats the media loves to create. It’s happening to regular citizens who aren’t “properly compliant” or who aren’t behaving in a way that law enforcement officers think is “normal.” And it’s happening right here in Ohio. As close as Stark County (County seat in Canton).
For those of you who doubt this, we offer a couple of videos that we hope you find shocking. They certainly shocked us.
WARNING! These videos are violent and contain shocking footage of the brutal strip search of an apparently innocent woman by no less than 5 and as many as 7 Stark County sheriff’s deputies male and female (in violation of Stark County Sheriff’s office policy). All nudity has been blocked.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1yUsYIk2EM[/youtube]
The second part of this report can be seen here
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ6Lsqmf9yM[/youtube]
The Stark County Sheriff, who is “…charged with the responsibility of maintaining the public peace and protecting the lives and property of all citizens in Stark County…(emphasis added),” instead of protecting the rights of Mrs. Steffey, he rallied around his “troops” and claimed they were doing this “by the book.” This is obviously a lie and nothing makes that more obvious than video footage that was clearly taken but not turned over to Steffey’s lawyers (see second video) and the fact that gee, what do you know, here’s a shocker, there is no footage of any of the incidents leading up to Mrs. Steffey’s arrest. The officer “forgot” to turn on his cruiser camera. It seems that Sheriff Swanson and his deputies had hoped this incident would “just go away.” But now it probably won’t just go away and some are asking Ohio’s Attorney General Marc Dann to investigate. It remains to be seen whether or not Dann is just too busy with driving around the state personally filing suits against the focus of all evil in Ohio, underperforming charter schools, to look into it.
What should happen? This sorry excuse for a sheriff should be sent packing by the electorate either via a recall effort or at his next election. He is in violation of his oath “… to serve and protect…” which disqualifies him from further service as a law enforcement officer. The next sheriff should, as his first official act, fire all deputies involved in this incident, apologize to the Steffey’s on behalf of Stark County and agree to provide any necessary evidence or testimony in their damage suit.
If Stark County residents return this man to office then they get what they deserve.