War On Drugs: Is Torture Allowed in a Ticking-Consent-Form Scenario?

Radley Balko spins some of the golden sounds of the War On Drugs, Tennessee theater of operations. Listen in and read the transcript as a group of flatfoots in the Volunteer State beat, abuse, and threaten to kill an illiterate suspect unless he signs a paper they claim is a consent form to search his premises (they also claim at one point that they have a warrant, go figure).

Unfortunately for the five Campbell County deputies, suspect Eugene Siler's wife Jenny recorded a substantial part of the encounter. The tape doesn't include a portion where the cops allegedly dunked Siler's head into a fish bowl and a toilet, nor the conclusion, in which they made good on a threat to arrest his wife. But you can hear several beatings, a detailed threat to electrocute the suspect (by the testicles, naturally, no plungers being immediately available), lots of Siler moaning, and countless orders to sign the fucking form. That was enough to prompt Sheriff Ron McClellan to fire all five perps, who have received multi-year prison sentences.

Thanks to impressively named reader The Evilest, Moo-iest Moo in da Bloop.