Video released of pastor's abuse by Border Patrol, AZ highway patrol

May 14, 12:30 PMCivil Liberties ExaminerJ.D. Tuccille

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Arizona DPS Officer J. Mitchell fires a Taser through
a hole he just smashed in Pastor Steve Anderson's car
window.

Remember Steven Anderson? He's the pastor who claimed he was Tasered and beaten by agents of the Border Patrol and Arizona highway patrol during a stop at a roadblock along Interstate 8 east of Yuma. Video from his camcorder and from surveillance cameras has been released by authorities and packaged by Anderson, and the result is an up-close view of the modern American police state in action.

Anderson was stopped at the sort of controversial suspicionless checkpoint commonly established by Border Patrol within 100 miles of the international boundary -- an area referred to as the "Constitution-Free Zone" by the ACLU because of the loose controls on government action permitted in these areas. Travelers in these areas are expected to submit to brief questioning and inspection, which sometimes turns into intrusive searches alongside the highway or railroad tracks at the discretion of agents.

Anderson himself has drawn criticism, including claims that he got what he deserved, because of his controversial political and religious views and his aggressive expression of the same. The basis for these claims seems to be that rights adhere only to people with the "correct" ideologies and party affiliations, and to those who don't actually assert their rights.

Anderson, these people tell us, deserved to be stomped for questioning the Border Patrol agents about their actions and for believing the wrong things.

But for people mature enough to regard rights as inherent to all people, the events recorded in the video of the assault on Anderson is disturbing. After politely, but pointedly, challenging Border Patrol agents on their authority to stop and question motorists, Anderson's window was smashed, he was Tasered in his car (while only passively resisting by not exiting the vehicle), and then beaten to the point that he required 11 stitches on his face.

The assault was precipitated when Border Patrol responded to Anderson's questions by producing a dog that "hit" on his vehicle, supposedly indicating the presence of contraband. Agents refused to bring dog back for a second try after Anderson objected that the dog hadn't shown signs of detecting anything at all.

Anderson may have had good reason to doubt the agents' claims. First of all, there's no standard way for a dog to alert that something has been detected. Some dogs just sit, others jump up and bark -- interpretation is in the eye of the handler.

Dogs, also, are notoriously easy to manipulate, since they develop close bonds with their handlers. For a 2004 report on the unreliability of detection dogs, Auburn University professor Larry Myers, a leading expert on canine detection programs, told CBS News, “They can tell you that something's there, that's not there, simply to get praise, to get food, to get whatever they're working for.”

In fact, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled in 2007 that canine testimony was acceptable in a case where the dog was only 54% accurate.

You can just about flip a coin for results like that.

Not only was Anderson's mistreatment an injustice visited on a man principled (or obnoxious) enough to challenge police-state practices considered unavveptable by many Americans, but the agents at  the scene may well have manufactured the excuse they used for committing the assault.

You don't have to like Anderson to despise what was done to him by uniformed thugs.

Anderson is being represented by Marc J. Victor, an attorney well-known in the Phoenix area for challenging government authorities.

email J.D.: civilliberties (at) tuccille.com