Thursday, April 16, 2009

Phoenix Pastor Details Border Patrol Beating

This video is stunning:

Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Phoenix details his encounter with Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint near Yuma off Interstate 8, which is a main route between the San Diego area and Arizona. After telling agents he was a citizen and claiming 4th Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure, Border Patrol informed him that their dogs indicated that there were either drugs or a human being stored in his vehicle...

His window was smashed, he was tased repeatedly, was forcefully detained by agents, and thrown in jail. Pastor Anderson is doing a great service by telling his story.
The father of four says he exercised his consecution [sic] right not to be searched without a warrant. He says that's when he claims agents broke out his passenger and driver side windows.

"Both windows shattered in the same instant," says Anderson.

In excoriating pain, the pastor claims an agents smashed his head into the door and then another threw him on the ground, stepped on his head and tased him once again.

"I felt like his full body weight was just driving my face into more broken glass and asphalt," Anderson explains.

It took 11 stitches to close the cuts on the pastor's face.

CBS 13
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