A woman claims that New Mexico police sprayed mace directly into her vagina during a strip search, resulting in “severe pain that lasted for several weeks.”
She has filed suit with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, according to a local news channel.
Police arrested Marlene Tapia for violating the terms of her probation and took her to a cell in the Bernalillo County Jail in New Mexico. It was there that they performed a strip search, and upon discovery of a plastic bag protruding from her vagina, administered the mace.
Police procedures state that mace is only to be used when a suspect poses an immediate threat. Officers should have taken Tapia to a doctor to have the bag removed, said Peter Simonson, executive director of the state chapter of the ACLU, in a statement.
“It’s just the maliciousness, the wanton disregard, wanton maliciousness that the corrections officer demonstrated,” he said. “This is the kind of chemical that is intended to be sprayed on other parts of the body, to cause pain, but to spray it on the very most sensitive part of a person’s body only doubles the pain.”
The lawsuit does not seek damages, and instead seeks to force police to be more respectful of individuals’ rights.
If anything, it may have New Mexico citizens wondering just what has gone wrong with the cops of their state. The lawsuit comes just days after several reports of bizarre, disturbing and intrusive police behavior.
Officers reportedly drove suspects to the hospital and forced them to undergo invasive surgery on suspicion of carrying drugs. At least one of the suspects was even charged a medical bill. (RELATED: Horror: Police force man to undergo invasive anal operation)
The Huffington Post’s Radley Balko wrote that the reports are an indictment of the culture of police recklessness and abuse that has sprung from prosecuting a senseless War on Drugs.
“Government officials are shoving fingers, tubes, and cameras up rectums, sticking hands into vaginas, and spraying mace on genitals, all to protect us from ourselves — to stop us from getting high,” he wrote. “Feel safer?”
The Bernalillo County Police department could not be reached for comment.
