Rights lost: the most horrifying story of the year

 The last few years, we've been fighting regulations, admonitions to get out and move, the threat of increased taxes, bankruptcy, TSA gropers, loss of personal freedoms due to the current political environment.
  Yet none of those stories, not one, compares to this story over at Long Island Lawyer Blog. It is a horrifying attack on a public citizen, probably because she owns a rifle and presumably because law enforcement officers perceived her to be a "teabagger" and a "right winger."
  UPDATE: Let's not forget the story of Brian Aitken, who served time in jail for having legal arms locked in his trunk.
  If you've been following the news about law enforcement's war on photographing their actions, you know that a number of problems have been developing around the country regarding the right to carry, the right to free speech and the right to assemble.
  Popular Mechanics wrote about the war on photography last summer:

Tennessee law student Morgan Manning has compiled a list of incidents in which individuals were wrongly stopped. Cases like that of Seattle photographer Bogdan Mohora, who was arrested for taking pictures of police arresting a man and had his camera confiscated. Or NASA employee Walter Miller, who was stopped for photographing an art exhibit near the Indianapolis City-County Building and told that "homeland security" forbade photos of the facility. More recently, a CBS news crew was turned back from shooting the oil-fouled gulf coastline by two U.S. Coast Guard officers who said they were enforcing "BP's rules." 

  As mentioned in the above article, Maryland is a particularly touchy place to try to film police officers. Wendy McElroy at Gizmodo writes this:

In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. 

Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists. 

  Even Michelle Obama has gotten in on the act, having cell phones of diners confiscated so they couldn't take pictures of her wolfing down a cheeseburger. The NY Post:

"Three starving Secret Service guys were literally standing over the grill as Spike made the burgers, but didn't eat," our source adds. Fellow patrons had their cellphones temporarily confiscated to prevent pictures from being taken.

  And we all know the TSA has been confiscating cameras to avoid pictures of their agents' feeling up fliers. 
  But let's go to the story of Nancy Genovese, who stopped along the side of the road to take a pic of a "decorative helicopter shell" on display at her local airport. Unfortunately for Nancy, she had an unloaded rifle in a locked case in her trunk and thousands of dollars in her car to pay some local school tuition bills.
  And unfortunately for Nancy, it appears the local policeman had some real attitude issues. While we admire and support our police forces, no one wants to meet someone like this:
  Over at LongIslandLawyer: 

Using force, Lieutenant Iberger pushed Nancy Genovese when she objected to the seizure of her rifle. Deputy Carlock taunted Nancy, asking in a disparaging tone, “You’re a real right winger, aren’t you?”, and stating in words or substance that she was never going to see her rifle again.

During the remainder of the six hours that Nancy Genovese was forcibly detained on the side of the road, she was taunted, verbally harangued, threatened, belittled, abused, humiliated and harassed by members of the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office. For example, Deputy Carlock repeatedly referred to Nancy as “a right winger” and “tea bagger”, and threatened that they were going to arrest her for terrorism to make an example of her to other “tea baggers” and “right wingers”.

  But the story doesn't end there. If she'd been released after six hours, that would have been a really bad experience, but nothing like what this woman experienced, apparently as a "lesson" to "teabaggers."
She was thrown into jail for 3 days with the general population. These are her claims:

• She was injected with unknown fluid. 
• She was stared at by guards when told to remove her clothes. 
• She was put into a strait jacket, accused of being crazy. 
• Much of the money she was forced to leave in an unlocked car was stolen. 

  Mediaite claimed she was a Glenn Beck fan. Well, she must be guilty, for sure.
  The charges were eventually dropped, but the damage was done.
  Sounds like an episode of Fringe, right?
  Murtha and Murtha deal with the scoffing that this actually occurred here.
  Once she got out of jail, Nancy sued. The town of Southhampton defaulted, having its head attorney distracted by personal problems, as he said. Nancy therefore won a judgment of $70 million, which will likely be challenged.
  The Examiner also discusses this story here and here.
  Make no mistake.
  If this is true, which it appears to be, there's a lot more at stake here than just one woman's story.