{"id":26818,"date":"2017-04-16T12:01:02","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T17:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=26818"},"modified":"2017-04-16T12:01:02","modified_gmt":"2017-04-16T17:01:02","slug":"wapo-watch-blog-forced-catheterizations-are-a-good-reminder-that-the-drug-war-is-as-barbaric-and-cruel-as-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=26818","title":{"rendered":"WaPo: Watch Blog: Forced catheterizations are a good reminder that the drug war is as barbaric and cruel as ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

WaPo: Watch Blog: Forced catheterizations are a good reminder that the drug war is as barbaric and cruel as ever<\/a> by Radley Balko:
\n<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a disturbing report published last week by the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D.:<\/p>\n

\nA mesh bag blurred Dirk Sparks\u2019 vision.<\/p>\n

He lay hooded and handcuffed as four police officers pinned him to a hospital exam table.<\/p>\n

Through the patterned light, he saw a fifth officer filming the procedure.<\/p>\n

His pants were loosened and pulled below his waist.<\/p>\n

Then, pain.<\/p>\n

A nurse at Avera St. Mary\u2019s Hospital in Pierre inserted a pencil-sized tube into Sparks\u2019 urethra to drain his bladder. Moments later, an officer with the Pierre Police Department held a cup of Sparks\u2019 urine that soon would be sent off for drug testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was degrading,\u201d Sparks said. \u201cI was angry. I felt like my civil rights were being violated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours earlier, police responded to a domestic dispute at Sparks\u2019 home. When officers observed him acting \u201cfidgety,\u201d they asked for a urine sample. When Sparks refused, police sought a warrant from a Hughes County judge to obtain a urine sample by \u201cmedically accepted means.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Pierre, those means have repeatedly included forcibly catheterizing people who refuse or are unable to provide a sample. Officers subjected a 3-year-old boy to a similar procedure in February as part of a child welfare investigation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The paper first reported on Sparks\u2019s case last year. …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WaPo: Watch Blog: Forced catheterizations are a good reminder that the drug war is as barbaric and cruel as ever by Radley Balko:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-body-searches","category-excessive-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26819,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26818\/revisions\/26819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}