Minneapolis, Minnesota: Police strip search a man in public!
The video shows Recardo Meeks leaving his car and getting patted down and then handcuffed. It appears an officer looked inside Meeks' car. A short time later, an officer pushed Meeks' head down toward the trunk of the squad car and both officers pulled down Meeks' pants and underpants. After searching the garments, an officer grabbed latex gloves from the squad's trunk and removed tissue and a small amount of marijuana from Meeks' buttocks.
Officers deny wrongdoing.
Meeks filed a complaint with the city's Civilian Review Authority, which investigates police misconduct allegations. The case has been referred to Dolan for a disciplinary decision. The city's response to Meeks' lawsuit denies the officers did anything unconstitutional.
"It appears these officers violated the Fourth Amendment prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure," said Barry Feld, a law professor who teaches criminal procedure at the University of Minnesota, after hearing a description of the video. "There has to be a reasonable balance of the government's need to investigate in a particular way to the degree of intrusiveness. Body and cavity searches are as maximally intrusive as police can search."
Andrew Muller, one of Meeks' attorneys, said that wasn't the issue here.
"No one in this country should ever have to endure being seized, stripped, searched and violated by the police in public," said Muller. "Especially so when there is no arrest, no weapons and no reason for the search."
Link:http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=105081359