Just days ago Suzanne Hamner reported the incredible display of tyranny in New Mexico involving David Eckert, who was stopped by police as he performed a “California rolling stop” through a stop sign. Simply because of his posture, and nothing more, Mr. Eckert was arrested, given numerous cavity searches, x-rayed, given multiple enemas and even had surgery performed. If that were not shocking enough, now it’s come to light that this is not the first time that New Mexico police have engaged in this. In the report below, it appears the K-9 dog the officers used, wasn’t authorized to assist them. That was not only true in Eckert’s case, but also in the case of Timothy Young.
Apparently Leo, the K-9 used to sniff drugs that was used by officers Bobby Orosco and Robert Chavez against Eckert, was also used against another man names Timothy Young. In October 2012, Timothy Young was also stopped by New Mexico police for failing to signal a turn. He was pulled over in Silver City.
While the same officers were not involved in the incident regarding Mr. Young, the same K-9 was. Leo apparently alerted the officers to the presence of drugs, and they obtained a warrant, took Young into custody and drove him to the same hospital as Eckert, Gila Regional Medical Center.
Young was forced to undergo several anal exams, enemas and a colonoscopy, just like Mr. Eckert.
Guess what? No drugs were found.
So what is the problem here? Well, from my vantage point there are lots of things wrong, but KOB4 reports:
We’ve learned more about that drug dog, Leo, that seems to get it wrong pretty often. He might be getting it wrong because he’s not even certified in New Mexico.
If you take a look at the dog’s certification, the dog did get trained. But his certification to be a drug dog expired in April 2011. K-9s need yearly re-certification courses, and Leo is falling behind.
So let’s get this straight. Leo is a K-9, who has been trained to sniff out drugs, among other things. However, law enforcement failed to have him properly certified. They continued to use an uncertified dog actively. There are at least two men whose rights were clearly violated all over the place and police officers, doctors and a hospital complicit in all of it.
I’m thinking there should be a police chief, officers and doctors out of jobs and brought up on criminal charges.
Eckert’s attorney Shannon Kennedy said, “We have done public requests to find anything that would show this dog has been trained, we have evidence that this dog has had false alerts in the past.”
The KOB4 report also says that officers will be answering to a law enforcement board and that doctors at the Gila Regional Medical Center have been turned over to the state licensing board and may lose their ability to practice medicine.
Well, they should. They should lose their jobs, but they should also face criminal charges for what they were involved in. I’m sure the officers will get off with a slap on the wrist, since they were only acting in accordance with the alerting of the dog, though they should have been aware the dog was not certified.
This is what the war on drugs gets us, among other things. It is a waste of money and time, and it is a serious threat to life, property and constitutionally protected rights. When are we going to learn this?
Tim Brown is the Editor of Freedom Outpost.
