The McDonough County Sheriff’s Office in Illinois is under fire after a 31-year-old Black woman was pinned down inside a jail cell and stripped naked in front of male officers.
According to Vice News, Ariel Harrison is a mother of 3 who is partially blind. She was driving from a liquor store in Macomb County back in October 2019 and was pulled over by officers for allegedly driving recklessly.
She was also accused of driving under the influence, but Harrison said she wasn’t drinking at the time and didn’t know the reason for the arrest. She was then placed into a police car uncuffed.
“When they pulled me over, they didn’t really explain to me; they just pulled me out of my car,” Harrison reportedly explained to VICE News.
Harrison recalled that her alcohol level was never tested and that she was tased a number of times before being taken to McDonough County Jail.
A video obtained of the incident shows two corrections officers and a sheriff pointing a taser at her and forcibly removing her clothes after she allegedly refused to remove them herself. Harrison repeatedly asked for privacy, according to the report, and expressed fears of being sexually assaulted.
“I had told her that it’s not right. That he wasn’t supposed to be there while I changed,” Harrison said, referring to the female officer. “She told me, ‘Well, he’s here with me.’ Basically, she didn’t really care. I felt like she violated my rights.”
The officers reportedly stated that they removed Harrison’s clothing because she was non-compliant. Instead of giving her the privacy that she requested, the two officers removed her clothes as a third officer restrained her by kneeling on her legs. She was left naked before they returned back to her cell to give her a cloak to put on.
“That stuff happened so fast,” Harrison said recalling the incident. “When I watch the video of them doing that stuff to me, I’m in shock. It’s like I look at them and say, ‘That couldn’t be me.’”
Harrison is now facing anywhere between five to seven years in prison for charges including, “aggravated battery, driving under the influence, resisting a peace officer, and improper lane usage.” She lost custody of her three children and reportedly hasn’t seen them in a year.
“I’ve never done wrong. I’ve never messed with the law,” said Harrison, who moved to Macomb from Chicago back in 2015. “I came down here to Macomb to let my kids live and be free. But now my kids have been taken from me, and I have these cases against me.”
The Macomb Police Department reportedly stated to VICE News that they’re in full support of the officers.
“The incident was documented by involved personnel. Additionally, the incident was further reviewed by Department Supervisory personnel and documented per Macomb Police Policy and Procedures,” the statement said. “The Macomb Police Department serves our community in a fair and unbiased manner as we report events objectively, impartially, and without bias.”
The video of Harrison in the jailhouse was obtained by the Democratic Women of Mcdonough County (DWMC) via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
“Ariel’s being given multiple, simultaneous, and even contradictory instructions as a disabled driver who is blind in her left eye,” DWMC founder Heather McMeekan told VICE News. “She’s being told, ‘Put it in park, open the door, unbuckle your seatbelt, give me your driver’s license, give me your vehicle registration.’ They literally give her just a few seconds.”
Harrison said the rush of commands was overwhelming. “I was in shock mode, I guess. I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I was still trying to process why I was being pulled over exactly when they snatched me up out of their car.”
“As a former paramedic and trained health educator, I can tell you that was not enough time for anybody to be able to process all those commands at once,” McMeekan said. “Even under the best conditions, let alone at night, when you’re already exhausted from taking care of kids all day, running errands, and then you’ve got a frightened person who you were just trying to help.”
Sarah Grady, a partner at Loevy & Loevy in Chicago and head of the law firm’s Prisoner Rights Project, said jail staff must comply with federal standards when conducting searches of individuals.
“They shouldn’t be done in view of, or by members of, the opposite gender, unless there is an exigency. There has to be a justification for why there would be a cross-gender strip search because there is a recognition of the fact that cross-gender strip searches are particularly intrusive, they’re particularly harmful, especially for women,” Grady told VICE News.
The DWMC put together a petition for the charges against Harrison to be dropped. The group also started a GoFundMe to help with Harrison’s legal costs.
“What Ariel was given was brutality and no apparent adaptations or understanding that she was blind in her left eye,” McMeekan said. “Why are they assuming she’s a hardened criminal? Why are they assuming they have to take that heavy-handedness with her? Why the urgency in this interaction with a petite disabled woman?”
Reportedly she was found guilty by a judge of all charges during a bench trial. Harrison is being sentenced on August 10th.
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