Cathy Lanier: Hogtying Detainees Prevented Mass Fornication
After D.C. police mass-arrested about 400 people at Pershing Park on Sept. 27, 2002, they hog-tied their quarries, cuffing their right wrists to their left ankles. The restraint left the arrestees in painful, circulation-stopping positions.
Surely there was a good reason to treat these peaceful protesters and passersby like pork, right? Like, they were a threat to throw garbage cans through plate-glass windows. Or they were getting ready to storm the White House. Or perhaps they aspired to stop traffic.
Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
The cops had a much more compelling motive—to stop the arrestees from feeling each other up, and fucking. Which, of course, is what invariably happens after a mass arrest.
This particular episode in the long-running program "Reality Beats Fiction" comes courtesy of Cathy Lanier, the current police chief who at the time of Pershing Park held a top position in the department. Lanier was among the police officials who helped devise hogtying as a form of protest suppression.
In an after-action report, a police official wrote up an interview with Lanier in which she allegedly stated that the technique "was used to prevent escape, protect the protesters from one another, and to prevent them from committing sexual acts with each other."
Lanier's flexi-cuffs-as-chastity-belt defense had long been a howler among the D.C. Council, a body that has investigated Pershing Park. What has made this less funny is that other officials chose to parrot her defense.
The police department's internal investigative report on Pershing Park takes Lanier's justifications a step further—prisoners getting it on had been a problem in the past!
"According to prisoner processing officials, there have been instances in past mass arrests in which arrestees were free to roam the processing areas unrestrained, and numerous complaints of sexual misconduct arose," the report states.
Office of the Attorney General lawyers repeated these arguments in U.S. District Court, asserting that the use of flexi-cuffs were needed to prevent "mass fornication," records show. This did not fly with the judge.
"As the Court made abundantly clear during oral argument, this rationale is flatly ridiculous, and the Court lends it no credit. Moreover, the Court sharply emphasizes that it does not accept this rationale as legitimate," the judge noted.
Lanier has denied using the mass-fornication defense. She has claimed that her technique is actually comfortable.
One issue pending before the court in the Pershing Park cases is whether or not the District would be allowed to bar the public from embarrassing discovery material. It's hard not to sympathize with the Office of the Attorney General's position.
*photo by Darrow Montgomery.
*follow me on Twitter.
4:23 pm
Yeah, when she leaves town, my girlfriend hogties me to prevent me from fornicating. It's OK - when she returns, she fucks my brains out before she unties me.
Seriously, this woman is police chief? Man, DC is a small, shitty, southern town. Just change the name to Selma Alabama & nobody'd know the difference.
5:27 pm
Lanier should offer her resignationa and it should be accepted. What is the game here? Another 8 years of lies and screw ups a la Ramsey and then some late date mea culpa? Another untold amount of time and money wasted while they play dodge ball with the Council? The worst part with the Ramsey and Lanier charlatans is that there are capable people who are being passed over and out right screwed over while these foolish political charades play out. I say we have enough information. Lanier should go now!
5:29 pm
I agree 'Comrade' with you're statement, has the world gone NUTZ!
7:09 pm
"Seriously, this woman is police chief? Man, DC is a small, shitty, southern town. Just change the name to Selma Alabama & nobody'd know the difference."
...and like many such, the "locals in charge" are happy to have it as such, don't see your issues with it as anything for them to worry about, will claim that it's their right to make it that way, and tell you to either leave or be prepared to enjoy a stay in their "hostel".
7:12 pm
...this is the problem with a democratic system...as much as people want to say that it's the best system on earth, it *clearly* institutionalizes and perpetuates wrongdoing as long as it's approved by one of three groups: the elected representatives, the judiciary or the executive. Or any combination of two and every now and then, all three together.
Guess what happens when such wrongdoing helps to keep elected and appointed officials in power?
7:31 pm
...that's why I keep saying that the only thing that will change as a result of this case will be the justifications given by the government for rounding up everyone within a city block, hogtying their hands to their ankles, and dumping them in a gym. The only lesson that they will learn from the mistakes of their predecessors will be to have a explanation that effectively frees them of liability for their actions. This is how the system of "checks and balances" completely, utterly and totally fails. Any action of the government merely requires the approval of the regulating authorities to be considered legitimate and proper. The end result is at best a democratic hegemony instead of a communist, fascist, hereditary or religious hegemony. Which, of course, all combine to the same end. There are many ways to get to the same point when it comes to abuse of power, and this is why the American public felt it necessary to resort to a wholesale housecleaning after GW's 2nd term. The bums were so ingrained in the "upper-management" of American politics that the only way to get the under control was to get rid of the whole of "upper-management". Well, you saw who was happy to keep them, right? And you see that even the new "upper-management" is well-schooled in the art of "management" as displayed by the old "management" team.
The problem is that you can't change the definition of "success" overnight...organizations act to protect their own interests, and the more things change, the more things stay the same. But ultimately, power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. The cops will get a verbal warning from a judge, that judge will find it that much harder to be promoted to an upper-echelon position, and in the long run things will go on as before. The only thing that you can really do to protect yourself from such an egregious abuse of power is to stay the hell away from any area where there are protestors. Iranian students are finding that out as I write this, just like Russian students found it out during each previous election when Putin was a candidate, and Chinese students have found it out with regards to *any* protest where the "communist" leadership couldn't isolate a sacrificial-lamb without losing one of their own.
...and surely some goofs in the FBI and Secret Service are reading this and nodding their heads.
9:45 pm
'jf1' it isn't are system of government thats the problem it's these BASTARDS who stay in power because they are a DEMOCRAT or REPUBLICIAN, or BLACK or WHITE, MALE or FEMALE the people in this town for example LOVE labels. They would never vote for a Republician or an Independent because they think the sun shines out of the ass of every DEMOCRAT they meet.
People need to become OBJECTIVE in their voting and stop looking for LABELS.
10:26 pm
Pharoah Ramsey needs to "man-up" and admit that he lied under oath and he directed the destruction of evidence.
DOJ should investigate and start with the low-level employees to build a case against MPD leaders.
Good work, Jason. This is a never-ending criminal saga. This shyt is gonna get better than "The Wire."
As a matter of fact, Jason, you should run with this an write a series called "The Liar."
Jason, you deserve the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism. ^5
8:06 am
IM I THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS CHIEF LASSIE LANIER CAN HAVE MASS FORNICATION IN HER MOUTH?
LOOK AT THAT THING! SHE GOT SOME WIDE DIMENSIONS!
A BRO GOTTA BE CAREFUL CAUSE THOSE CHOPPERS ARE HUGE. SHE MIGHT WANT TO INCORPORATE THE CHICKLETS IN THE FORNICATION WHICH WOULD CAUSE FOR SOME NERVOUS PETERS POKING HER PIE HOLE.
DA-DA-DAHHH! (AS THE BUGLE BLOW WHILE I READ THIS PROCLAMATION)
FROM THIS POINT FORWARD.
I NOW PRONOUNCE THAT CHIEF LASSIE LANIER.
WILL BE FOREVA KNOWN AS SIX DICKS (4 IF YOU ARE COUNTING THEM AS BLACK JOHNSONS)
WHY THAT MONIKER YOU ASK?
ITS SIMPLE. SHE CAN FIT SIX DICKS IN HER MOUTH!
WHERE DO YOU THINK THE IDEA CAME FROM? SHE JUST DIDNT CONJURE THAT HOG TYING PROCEDURE IH HER HEAD. ITS BEEN SHOWN TO BE EFFECTIVE. ITS THE ONLY WAY SHE CAN GET THEM ALL IN HER MOUTH AT THE SAME TIME. ON OFF NIGHTS THEY SWITCH IT UP. THEY DO LEFT WRIST TO RIGHT ANKLE!
COCKSUKERS DONT TRY THIS AT HOME!
10:20 am
Rick Mangus I actually agree with your statement. We need to say "to hell with labels" and actually LISTEN come election time. As a black female (democrat) - i'd HAPPILY vote for a White/Jew/Asian Republican (for Mayor) because clearly what we have is not working!!!
11:33 am
I guess we need to tell Chief Lanier that fornication was decriminalized earlier this decade.
3:06 pm
Cathy Lanier has repeatedly shown shown that she either lacks even the most basic understanding of the Bill of Rights (particularly the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th amendments) or simply believes herself and her department to be above the law. This attitude has severely damaged public perception of the MPD, fostered distrust and resentment of the police which hamstrings the department's ability to interact with the people it is supposed to protect and serve and cost the district countless millions of dollars in litigation costs and settlements after she persisted in ordering actions which she had been warned were unconstitutional. For these reasons alone Ms. Lanier has clearly shown herself unfit to hold the position of police chief and should resign or be fired.
5:34 pm
Lanier was even wrong about the preventing-sex part. You can still screw when hogtied.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2121478_hogtie-lover.html
5:38 pm
DCBob, that's hilarious!
6:05 pm
"Oral argument." Snicker, snicker.
6:56 pm
Apparently she thinks of sex a lot. Here's the link City Paper gave to her own 'sexual harassment' suit against the department:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/lips/2006/lips1201a.pdf
8:37 pm
"People need to become OBJECTIVE in their voting and stop looking for LABELS."
But what do you think happens after they vote? You have winners and losers. Two inescapable labels.
8:48 pm
"For these reasons alone Ms. Lanier has clearly shown herself unfit to hold the position of police chief and should resign or be fired."
...either that or she's shown herself to be a quite-capable police-chief who has the trust and respect of the city elite and middle-class, the sort of people who are not very likely to be swept up in a mass arrest zone surrounding a protest-site. All depends on your perspective. Trust me the fact that she is still the chief speaks volumes about public opinion of her and her work.
People the bottom-line is that when our elected officials do something, it's right, unless they act far outside the norm for their position and entirely outside the range of "reasonable responses" for whatever inspired them to act. Again according to the government itself not the public. The sole concern of the police at this point in time is to not inspire the public to call for their heads in a way that would be taken seriously by either the mayor or the judiciary. And you know that she's not going anywhere as long as Fenty wants her there. The city may lose this case on the law or the judge deciding the case may decide that this was an exceptional situation that warranted exceptional measures, with a little confusion thrown in as well, and that between concern for public safety and a lack of desire to "hog-tie" the police in the future when dealing with situations like this, at most a "slap on the wrist" is called-for. A verbal rebuke and some financial compensation, but no real criminal punishment and certainly no lost jobs. That's the most that they are looking at and as such they know that they will do well to just ride it out, play as a team.
Not to mention that they all collect checks just for showing up in court to testify, and while this drags out in court.
11:10 am
As an attorney I demand that the OAG attorneys who repeated show tripe be brought up on DC Bar ethics charges.
They should also be hogtied and flogged in Pershing Park and then thrown into the Potomac.