“Let’s get the hot ones out.”
That’s what Casey Li Brander recalls hearing a male police officer say as she sat handcuffed inside a bus, along with 20 other women arrested during the G-20 summit.
Brander, like most of those arrested in Oakland during the September summit, faced only minor charges after being caught in a police dragnet. But she and other women say the aftershocks have been far more serious — because of how law enforcement treated them.
Brander, a Carnegie Mellon University student, was among those arrested on the Cathedral of Learning lawn on Sept. 25. Like many others, she faced charges of failure to disperse and disorderly conduct. The charges were later dismissed because, just before being arrested, Brander called 911 to report herself surrounded by police and unable to find an escape route. Despite that call, however, she was taken by bus to State Correctional Institution-Pittsburgh, where she sat for roughly six hours outside, and another six hours in a holding area.
“When I arrived at SCI, I was frisked really intrusively with five guys watching,” Brander recalls. The female guard performing the search “really lifted me up by the crotch one time, while I was trying not to cry,” as male officers laughed. “It’s totally not cool for five guys to be standing around, dissecting me with their eyes while I’m being felt up by the female guard.”
Asked for policies concerning searches of female detainees, Assistant Chief Maurita Bryant of the Pittsburgh Police offered only what were described as “general procedures” in such situations, such as using same-sex searches whenever possible. The presence of more than one officer during a search is “preferred,” she says, “so that at least one officer provides protective cover.”
Neither police nor Associate City Solicitor John Doherty answered further questions about alleged police behavior. Both were e-mailed a list of questions detailing the allegations in this story, 11 days before this issue went to press. Pittsburgh Police spokesperson Diane Richard referred all questions to Doherty, who did not respond to the list, or to follow-up phone inquiries.
Stuti Pandey, another CMU student whose charges were also dismissed thanks to a 911 call, says she’s taken a leave of absence from college and returned home to California — all due to trauma stemming from Sept. 25.
She recalls her own frisking on the Cathedral lawn by a female officer. “The officer literally thrust her hands between my butt cheeks, between my labia, and was groping between my breasts from outside of the clothes I was wearing,” Pandey writes in a statement sent to CP. “It felt like an intense sexual assault.”
After four hours on the bus, Pandey says, “There was more than one woman starting to cry … because they had to use the bathroom with such desperation.” Others were having their periods. “Finally, I started shouting at the officer, ‘Have you ever heard of toxic-shock syndrome?'” — a potentially fatal condition that may be caused by having a tampon in place for an excessively long time. “The officer just laughed.”
The female detainees were then allowed to use a porta-potty, but only while handcuffed, and only with the door ajar while male officers supervised.
The general police procedure, says Assistant Chief Bryant, is that “arrestees are permitted to use the bathroom if one is readily available,” unless they are in mid-transport.
Officers’ attempts to adhere to such local policies — or to identify any officers who ran afoul of them — may be complicated by the fact that officers from numerous outside agencies were called in to help with G-20 security.
For example, Deirdre Martinez Meehan says her frisking at SCI was photographed by National Guard members, wielding cell phones.
“It was really unprofessional,” Meehan says.
The Ohio University sophomore had come with other Students for a Democratic Society members Sept. 25 for the permitted Downtown march against the G-20, then was arrested in Oakland that evening while trying to meet up with friends. She was found not guilty of the usual pair of charges.
Meehan was on the phone to her father, seeking advice, when she was arrested.
“Get off the fucking phone, you’re a stupid girl,” she recalls the officer saying before she was jumped.
“His whole body was on me. I couldn’t breathe,” she says. Two other officers “plucked me off the ground and took me to the periphery.” Meehan recalls that one of them assured her, “No one’s going to hurt you.” But during the intake procedure, another male officer “used the words ‘cunt’ and ‘bitch’ on two of my friends … The female cop said to him in a quieter tone, ‘Are you going to use that kind of language on a woman?’ And then he stopped talking.”
During transfer from one police wagon to the next, Meehan adds, another officer yelled, “Two hot and sexy females coming through!”
According to the National Guard’s state public-affairs officer, Lt. Col. Chris Cleaver, “We did put a provision in place for National Guard members not to carry cameras or cell phones. If there is some truth to that [allegation], we would be interested in investigating.”
“I’m pretty sure I have post-traumatic stress disorder because I have had bad sexual experiences, and the way the police were dealing with us reminded me of that,” says Danielle Hauser, who sat with Brander and Pandey on the bus. The Reno, Nev., resident, in town to protest the G-20, was found not guilty of the same two minor charges.
Right from her arrest on the Cathedral lawn, Hauser says, male officers “were referring to us as ‘hot,’ taking our pictures and saying, ‘Oh, you look hot in this one.'”
There are a few reports of male arrestees being taunted along sexual lines as well. Pete Shell, an official of the Thomas Merton Center committee that organized the Sept. 25 Downtown march, said he was standing handcuffed on the Cathedral of Learning lawn when he heard a male police officer say to another arrested man: “‘I’m going to put you in a jail cell with Bruno. He’ll make you his girlfriend. Talk about dilation …’
“This felt very threatening,” says Shell, whose minor charges were dismissed.
In his testimony during a public hearing on G-20 held Nov. 10 by the Citizens Police Review Board, Shell claimed police promulgated “a pattern of sexual harassment of women.” The ACLU is currently seeking plaintiffs for potential civil suits … including those complaining of sexual harassment by police.
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2009.
A great way to avoid getting arrested and frisked is to not put yourself in situations where it’ll happen. Everyone in PGH KNEW not to go to those areas b/c of how intense it was going to be. They knew what they were getting into, deal with the consequences. Don’t do things that can get ya arrested and that includes joining in unruly mobs of domestic terrorists who half were paid to harass the G-20.
Heather, you should be ashamed of yourself.
This was fucking sexual assault. There is NO EXCUSE for it no matter what.
Would you blame the woman who got raped at the frat party for wearing a skirt too short?
Yeah, think about that.
i agree with heather…why b^tch now??? your parents spent all that money on YOUR worthless education. you’re too stupid to be in public…
honestly…..what did you really expect to have happened that night? honestly??
animalia libero….you’re an idiot.
crybaby was not raped. she was searched by jail officers after being accused of committing a crime.
i would not blame the woman in the skirt, nor would heather i think. that woman would be a victim of a crime, not arrested for a crime. your comparison shows your lack of intelligence and a “textbook” liberal answer…
its a$$hole like you who think that you and the rest of the crybabies can do whatever you want with impunity and not have to be responsible for your actions.
yeah sorry for LIVING in “those areas” and not realizing I wasn’t allowed to leave my house on a friday night without being arrested 10 minutes later, even though THE G20 WAS OFFICIALLY OVER earlier that afternoon (meaning the people the police were supposed to protect had left town already — not that it matters, people are allowed to protest, the only reason you get to enjoy the few rights you still have is because there are people out there fighting against absolute tyranny.) and if everyone in pgh “KNEW” to avoid oakland then maybe Pitt should have canceled all classes and all the businesses should have closed. But that clearly wasn’t the case as many people were being teargassed while leaving restaurants, bars, night class and THE LIBRARY. What a bunch of “unruly” nerds those were.
also note that all the people mentioned in this article had their CHARGES DROPPED…in other words there’s absolutely no proof that they did anything wrong
if you can point out which arrestees were being “unruly” i would be quite impressed as the DA hasn’t been able to do so. in fact the only ones being unruly and terrorizing people that night were police.
So if cops assault people, it’s not rape. If non-cops do, it is rape?
Remember both of these people’s charges were dropped because they didn’t do anything wrong. If you were there, you would have seen the police brutality. Cops assaulted and arrested people who did nothing wrong in their own neighborhoods.
Good job cosigning sexual assault everyone. I am sure your parents are proud.
animalia..please stop! you’ve obvioulsy over exaggerated what the crybaby who was arrested already over exaggerated…nobody was raped or sexually assaulted…you’re losing credibility with your frat house analogy.
cookie monster- please use the tiny brain that God gave you. wether the G20 party was over and the fat lady sang or not…it is next to impossible to beleive thatanyone with any common sense could have and should have been reasonable enough to avoid this area…You DO have the right to assemble etc BUT you also have the responsibility to exercise some common sense. you blame Pitt Univ and the businesses for not closing– is it their fault then?
again, take responibility for your own actions and use your common sense…uh, or is it ALWAYS going to be someone else’s fault???
oh, yeah, just becasue they were in the library does not give you the right to call then nerds…
Yes, Purvis, the people who were there are lying and exaggerating but you, who obviously was not there, know everything that happened.
You’re an idiot.
So, if they actually were raped, according to the twin geniuses heather and purvis, it would be their fault for being in “those areas”–which, on Thursday and Friday night, basically included the entire Pitt campus It’s disgusting enough that dissent is looked upon as a criminal act–however, most of those arrested on the Pitt campus weren’t even guilty of that.
As for the “domestic terrorist” hyperbole, the meathead element in this city did far more damage in mere hours after the Super Bowl. Any terrorizing that occurred on 9/24 and 9/25 in Pittsburgh was perpetrated by the police.
At what point did you people lose the capacity for independent thought, and begin reflexively defending the police irrespective of tricky things like facts?
wow what a lack of respect shown for women brave enough to tell their stories nice work perverted youngblood-
aaah, twist the issue Tyner—-nobody was raped!!!!! You have missed the point. NOBODY WAS RAPED!!!! these crybabies were arrested…not raped. Yes it IS their fault that they were arrested. I avoided that area because I am reasonable and RESPONSIBLE… I was not arrested! If you were not there, then you wouldn’t have been arrested either! If you heeded the ear splitting “sonic cannon’s” warnings and left, you wouldn’t have been arrested either! Had you left when ordered to, you wouldn’t have been arrested! What is so tricky about that???
sporadic contributor…whaa whaaa…i don’t like your comments so I’m going to tell the judge you’ve mentally abused me…whaaa whaa. Yeah me for standing up for myself!!! sporadic contributor is a domestic abuser….whaa whaa….
There, I am no brave enough to tell my ridiculous rant just like the crybabies who were arrested…
I can’t believe the likes of Heather and Purvis.
Even if you do something that warrants being arrested, being arrested does not include sexual assault. It should not in any case. Even if I’m caught red-handed, that doesn’t grant the arresting officer the right to assault me — period. This situation is no different: the officers did not have the right to sexually assault these women, no matter what they believed their crimes to be. Nowhere in any law does it say “by engaging in suspected or actual criminal activities, you waive your right to total bodily integrity, so be ready to get groped if the cops find you totally hot!”
I don’t care what you think of the protesters or their cause, assault is assault.
wow are you people idiots!!!! nobody was raped or sexually assaulted!!!!!!
when you are arrested, you forfiet certain rights for a time…your right to be free is severely restricted. your right to be free from unreasonable searches is restricted. if any of you actually looked beyond your own personal opinions and register that the arrestees are charged with a crime- yes- charged —-NOT CONVICTED…only CHARGED…think of the burden of proof. f^cknutz——it’s criminal law 101……
i don’t give a rats ass if they protested against black gay unborn republican green democrat baby seals—if you’re unlawfully assembling, failing to disperse or not listening to lawful government orders, you’re gonna get arrested. when that happens, certain freedoms are again restricted…like it or not. that’s part of life in the states folks. like it or leave it.
as for the arrestees being “hot”…doubt it. anarchism, liberalism and feminism gives ugley people something to do…