Video shows white cops performing roadside cavity search of black man

[MrScorpio]

By Radley Balko April 1 at 11:54 AM

For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on an investigative series about police abuse in South Carolina. I’ve found a dizzying number of cases, including illegal arrests, botched raids, fatal shootings and serious questions about how all those incidents are investigated. Many of these cases were previously unreported, or if they were reported, the initial reports were a far cry from what actually happened. The series will run at some point in the next week. But in the meantime, I want to share one particularly horrifying incident that I came across this week while researching the series.

According to a federal lawsuit filed by attorney Robert Phillips, what you see in the video below occurred in the town of Aiken, S.C., starting at about 12:20 p.m. on Oct. 2, 2014. The two occupants of the car are black. All the police officers are white.

Here’s what happened: Lakeya Hicks and Elijah Pontoon were in Hicks’s car just a couple of blocks from downtown Aiken when they were pulled over by Officer Chris Medlin of the Aiken Department of Public Safety. Hicks was driving. She had recently purchased the car, so it still had temporary tags.

In the video, Medlin asks Hicks to get out, then tells her that he stopped her because of the “paper tag” on her car. This already is a problem. There’s no law against temporary tags in South Carolina, so long as they haven’t expired.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/04/01/video-shows-white-cops-performing-roadside-cavity-search-of-black-man/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-c%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Aside from the obvious rights abuse...

what kind of cop wants to do a cavity search?

[MrScorpio]

2. Sadists, sexual predators, cops with no regard about the basic humanity of black people, assholes...

[wcast]

14. It is all about power, dominance, and the demeaning of the individual.

Not that these officers viewed these two as individuals with rights or human dignity. This is the real legacy of 300 years of slavery; attitudes and a belief system that have survived and flourished with the support and knowledge of the government and its institutions along with one major political party.

It is hard to change this 400 years of hardwired approach of seeing nonwhites as less than whites and deserving of this treatment. I think we are making progress but when the republican party itself extols this type of belief, uses it for political dominance, it is easy to see how this still continues 150 years after the "end" of slavery.

[Flyingbird5066]

15. These cops obviously. Not sure if any others cops do

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. Horrifying.Officer Chris Medlin should be in prison

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. Officer Medlin, who a defendant in the lawsuit, is still working for the police department. The city

Officer Medlin, who a defendant in the lawsuit, is still working for the police department. The city denies any wrongdoing, according to a statement provided to the Washington Post.

“The City of Aiken denies the Plaintiffs’ allegations and is vigorously defending this lawsuit. We will have no further comment about the facts of this case during the pendency of this litigation."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/white-s-cops-give-black-man-illegal-public-cavity-search-article-1.2585402

[Rhiannon12866]

5. Between the horrific treatment of POC by law enforcement and the blatant bigotry coming from the GOP

I feel as if we're turning back the clock to the most shameful episodes in our history. Have we learned nothing in the past two centuries or from the heroes who died so these atrocities wouldn't happen again?

[xfundy]

6. The year is 2016.

How is this kind of shit still happening?

(I know, it's (R). but still.) Why haven't they been eradicated?

[pnwmom]

7. Thank you for posting this. These incidents should be well-publicized,

every single time that they occur. And I hope this couple wins a huge damage award.

[me b zola]

8. There was no legal justification to pull them over to begin with, let alone search them

...But to rape that man on a city street is so outrageous I can't wrap my mind around it. I am sickened beyond words.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

10. And make no mistake about it ...

Office Medlin raped Pontoon. I'm glad you made that point. There was no justification for the search.

Absolutely horrific.

I hope the cop goes to hell, and the victims get paid in full.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

9. "Courtesy Warning" ...

Fucking fascists.

I hope these two get rich off the town of Aiken.

[7962]

11. They will. And they should. Video and no charges is tough to beat.

Maybe the taxpayers will start to get fed up with the waste of their money

[tomm2thumbs]

12. 'dehumanization'

plain and simple

[hopemountain]

13. & keeping people in fear. nt.