Cops Raid Long Beach dispensary with excessive force
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Dorian Brooks had no choice but to let officers walk all over him—literally.
“I felt 300 pounds on my neck,” Brooks told reporters at NBC Los Angeles. Brooks, a volunteer employee at THC Downtown Collective, a Long Beach, CA medical marijuana dispensary, was arrested June 19 during a police raid of the pot shop. Footage from the dispensary’s security camera reveals a brutal bust, including cops walking on Brooks’ back and standing on his neck, while officers prepare to handcuff the suspect. “I just felt violated and disrespected,” said the 28-year-old volunteer, one of five arrested in the raid. “We got beat up and arrested for a citation that’s equivalent to someone jaywalking.”
Brooks filed a lawsuit against the Long Beach PD this week, claiming the police used unnecessary violence in the raid, on top of destroying property and evidence. Surveillance videos show an undercover cop smashing the store’s video camera with a metal rod, while post-raid footage reveals complete destruction, with knocked over cabinets, boxes and files strewn across the floor.
Although police admit the dispensary was compliant with California state law, Long Beach PD said the raid was ordered because the store was operating without a city permit
http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/05/police-stand-on-volunteers-neck-destroy
“I felt 300 pounds on my neck,” Brooks told reporters at NBC Los Angeles. Brooks, a volunteer employee at THC Downtown Collective, a Long Beach, CA medical marijuana dispensary, was arrested June 19 during a police raid of the pot shop. Footage from the dispensary’s security camera reveals a brutal bust, including cops walking on Brooks’ back and standing on his neck, while officers prepare to handcuff the suspect. “I just felt violated and disrespected,” said the 28-year-old volunteer, one of five arrested in the raid. “We got beat up and arrested for a citation that’s equivalent to someone jaywalking.”
Brooks filed a lawsuit against the Long Beach PD this week, claiming the police used unnecessary violence in the raid, on top of destroying property and evidence. Surveillance videos show an undercover cop smashing the store’s video camera with a metal rod, while post-raid footage reveals complete destruction, with knocked over cabinets, boxes and files strewn across the floor.
Although police admit the dispensary was compliant with California state law, Long Beach PD said the raid was ordered because the store was operating without a city permit
http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/05/police-stand-on-volunteers-neck-destroy
Mott the Hoople
Sweet Jane
Pretty thuggish behavior. If the officers had a legitimate mission why did they feel compelled to bust up the security cameras?
Cancel 2018. 3
<-- sched 2, MJ sched 1
the video didn't show excessive force. as to the "carnage" after the raid, any residence or business (unfortunately) looks that way after the police rummage through everything.
my concern is the destruction of the video cameras. i'm pretty sure that is not legal and not part of the warrant, assuming that had one.
my concern is the destruction of the video cameras. i'm pretty sure that is not legal and not part of the warrant, assuming that had one.
SmarterthanYou
rebel
because they can, they are the state. they will walk away with a reprimand at most. free to do it again with the forewarning of taking out the cameras at an earlier time.
wanderingbear
Radical liberal
Cops suck.
Althea
Althea told me...
To be clear...this wasn't the Feds.
Disillusioned
New member
"I feel violated for the cops busting me commiting a crime. Bad cops, they shoulda let me go and continue to commit crimes. Next time I'm going to rob a bank I'm expecting them to hold the door open for me and make sure I get away clean. After all anything else would be police brutality."
(Sigh)
(Sigh)
Can you read?
Although police admit the dispensary was compliant with California state law, Long Beach PD said the raid was ordered because the store was operating without a city permit
Badge blowing moron.
correct. not this one. They're all booked up with the jack booted policy
DEA Executes Orchestrated Raids on 14 Pot Dispensaries in Seattle Area (Updated) Posted by Dominic Holden on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 2:39 PM
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/ar...iding-pot-dispensaries-in-western-washington/
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided three medical marijuana dispensaries in San Diego at exactly 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, acting on a "landlord law" that was put into action after a crackdown announced by the U.S. Attorney's office last October.
Landlords who rent to dispensaries were warned to evict their tenants are face prosecution and forfeiture of their property, reports Tony Shin at NBC San Diego
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/01/dea_agents_raid_san_diego_medical_marijuana_dispen.php
Obama Explains Increasing Medical Marijuana Crackdowns, Raids In 'Rolling Stone' Interview
"I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws [on medical marijuana]," Obama promised in 2008, according to an earlier Rolling Stone report. But Attorney General Eric Holder announced in 2010 that federal authorities would continue to prosecute individuals for marijuana possession, despite its legalized status in some states.
The Huffington Post's Lucia Graves reported recently on subsequent enforcement activity:
Since then, the administration has unleashed an interagency cannabis crackdown that goes beyond anything seen under the Bush administration, with more than 100 raids, primarily on California pot dispensaries, many of them operating in full compliance with state laws. Since October 2009, the Justice Department has conducted more than 170 aggressive SWAT-style raids in 9 medical marijuana states, resulting in at least 61 federal indictments, according to data compiled by Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/25/obama-marijuana-raids-rolling-stone_n_1451744.html
Obama's Sudden, Senseless Assault on Medical Marijuana
Posted: 05/05/11 When Attorney General Eric Holder announced in October 2009 that the Dept. of Justice would respect state medical marijuana laws, the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief. By that time, any lingering support for aggressive federal raids on medical marijuana providers had dwindled into invisibility. The American people wanted to see patients protected, and Obama's pledge to do so earned him nothing but praise from both the press and the public.
Unfortunately, recent months have brought about what can only be described as the rapid collapse of the Obama Administration's support for medical marijuana. Following dozens of aggressive DEA raids, along with some unusual IRS audits, the Dept. of Justice has now begun openly endeavoring to destroy carefully regulated state programs before they get off the ground:
It's a sweeping intervention that instantly divorces the Obama Administration from its stated policy of not focusing resources on individuals who are clearly compliant with state law. Unlike the numerous recent dispensary raids, which could theoretically result from competing interpretations of state law, this new incursion constitutes a direct threat of arrest against state employees acting in good faith to administer perfectly lawful state programs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-morgan/obama-medical-marijuana_b_857852.html
Posted: 05/05/11 When Attorney General Eric Holder announced in October 2009 that the Dept. of Justice would respect state medical marijuana laws, the nation breathed a collective sigh of relief. By that time, any lingering support for aggressive federal raids on medical marijuana providers had dwindled into invisibility. The American people wanted to see patients protected, and Obama's pledge to do so earned him nothing but praise from both the press and the public.
Unfortunately, recent months have brought about what can only be described as the rapid collapse of the Obama Administration's support for medical marijuana. Following dozens of aggressive DEA raids, along with some unusual IRS audits, the Dept. of Justice has now begun openly endeavoring to destroy carefully regulated state programs before they get off the ground:
It's a sweeping intervention that instantly divorces the Obama Administration from its stated policy of not focusing resources on individuals who are clearly compliant with state law. Unlike the numerous recent dispensary raids, which could theoretically result from competing interpretations of state law, this new incursion constitutes a direct threat of arrest against state employees acting in good faith to administer perfectly lawful state programs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-morgan/obama-medical-marijuana_b_857852.html
My best guess is that Obama doesn't really want a second term.
I doubt it, the partisians who ignore Obama's wars on weed. drones, escalation of Afpak, NDAA, destruction of Libya, etc. will still vote for the warmonger.
I won't
Here's what is happening on the local level - proximate caused by Fed'l policy."a fooled man won't get fooled again" (Bush)
http://forfeiturereform.com/2012/05...-amendment-will-stop-medical-marijuana-raids/
Will the Rohrabacher-Hinchey-Farr Amendment End DEA Raids of State-Legal Dispensaries?The Amendment reads:
None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to the States of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, to prevent such States from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.
If this amendment passes, I predict that the DEA will continue raiding state-legal marijuana dispensaries.
The justification will be that while any state can “implement their own State laws” regarding medical marijuana the amendment does not (explicitly) prohibit the enforcement of federal law criminalizing all aspects of marijuana, and a court is likely to sanction the interpretation that a federal agency can enforce federal law without “preventing” states from “implementing” their own laws.
Nor does the Rohrabacher-Hinchey-Farr Amendment provide an affirmative defense for defendants caught in the federal medical marijuana crackdown.
In other words, the Rohrabacher-Hinchey-Farr Amendment provides only the barest of restrictions on the actual conduct of the Department of Justice and its subsidiary agencies towards medical marijuana. And before we finish beating this horse
, I should note the Amendment does not reach non-DOJ agencies like the IRS, who are also currently part of the federal crackdown on medical marijuana.And…this Amendment would also not prevent state or local agencies from enforcing the federal law at the behest of the Drug Enforcement Administration. How is this the case? Keep reading…
Beyond Appropriations: Asset Forfeiture Allows for Agency Independence
A basic, structural feature of Drug War funding are the federal asset forfeiture laws that drive hundreds of millions of dollars of seizure revenue into funds not appropriated by Congress but by the Department of Justice itself. I’ll excerpt this overview from the FY 2013 Performance Budget of the Asset Forfeiture Fund of the Department of Justice:
OK, so what is Obama's motivation?
Corporate whore to Big Pharama.
Sativex is an oral spray invented in Britian, it has THC and CBD (cannibinoids). It's under FDA approval process, it's suppsed to use the whole plant, but just uses the 2 main cannoibinoids.
What will happen, is Sativex - because it's not smoked, and the DEA refuses to recognize smoked weed as medicinal - will subplant medical marijuana, entirely.
Big Pharma has a lot of lobby power, instrumental in writing the AFHC Act. Also the DEA pressure is relentless, and Obama CAVED ( again) to the presure.
You'd have to read the Rolling Stone interview in full to get a comprehensive idea -let me find it.
In other words, because of the numerous cannibinoids NOT in Sativex -that allows future patenting by adding a cannibinoid or 2 at a time - in effect giving Big Pharam excluse patent rights to marijuana sprays. They can simply alter the formulation, or manipulated the cannibinoids, for perpetual patent rights.
There is a guy who posts as Dharma Bum who already uses the "whole plant ( Sativex does not) in a spray form that is very effective.
But Big Phama doersn't want these local mfg/s to get in on the incredible potential for cannibinoids; thus trying to stamp out not only medical marijuana, but any attempt to market an oral spray -they want control and profits.
Let me see if I can find the Rolling Stone interview. a msut read, distills this down to a read.
Not seeing how this helps Obama get re-elected.
Holder Admits Obama Misled Rolling Stone About Marijuana Law
By: Jon Walker Monday April 30, 2012 8:02 am
Tweet38
While attending the White House Correspondents’ dinner Attorney General Eric Holder admitted to the Huffington Post that President Obama misled Rolling Stone about federal marijuana law. From the Huffington Post:
After Kimmel’s speech, a Holder deputy told HuffPost that there was no coordinated war on medical marijuana, but that some individual clinics were breaking both state and federal laws.
In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Obama provided a factually wrong answer that radically distorted the nature of federal law in an attempt to deflect criticism for the federal crackdown on medical marijuana. Obama claimed he “can’t nullify Congressional law” when it comes to medical marijuana, even though the Controlled Substance Act actually gives the Executive branch the authority to “reschedule” (reclassify) marijuana without Congressional action.
By simply moving marijuana to a lower schedule the Obama administration could make medical marijuana legal under federal law. Obama would not need to nullify this Congressional law, because Congress already gave him the authority to change marijuana’s legal status.
It is very important that Attorney General Holder himself admits that Obama’s “can’t nullify Congressional law” statement is completely misleading, because the relevant section of the Controlled Substance Act specifically gives him, the Attorney General, the power to implement a process to reschedule cannabis administratively.
Even Obama’s Attorney General admits there is nothing forcing the administration to wage a war on medical marijuana and nothing stopping the administration from making medical marijuana legal under federal law. This is an active choice the administration is making.
http://justsaynow.firedoglake.com/2...ama-misled-rolling-stone-about-marijuana-law/
By: Jon Walker Monday April 30, 2012 8:02 am
Tweet38
While attending the White House Correspondents’ dinner Attorney General Eric Holder admitted to the Huffington Post that President Obama misled Rolling Stone about federal marijuana law. From the Huffington Post:
.
After Kimmel’s speech, a Holder deputy told HuffPost that there was no coordinated war on medical marijuana, but that some individual clinics were breaking both state and federal laws.
In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Obama provided a factually wrong answer that radically distorted the nature of federal law in an attempt to deflect criticism for the federal crackdown on medical marijuana. Obama claimed he “can’t nullify Congressional law” when it comes to medical marijuana, even though the Controlled Substance Act actually gives the Executive branch the authority to “reschedule” (reclassify) marijuana without Congressional action.
By simply moving marijuana to a lower schedule the Obama administration could make medical marijuana legal under federal law. Obama would not need to nullify this Congressional law, because Congress already gave him the authority to change marijuana’s legal status.
It is very important that Attorney General Holder himself admits that Obama’s “can’t nullify Congressional law” statement is completely misleading, because the relevant section of the Controlled Substance Act specifically gives him, the Attorney General, the power to implement a process to reschedule cannabis administratively.
Even Obama’s Attorney General admits there is nothing forcing the administration to wage a war on medical marijuana and nothing stopping the administration from making medical marijuana legal under federal law. This is an active choice the administration is making.
http://justsaynow.firedoglake.com/2...ama-misled-rolling-stone-about-marijuana-law/
how many ppl know about this? how many really care about the suffering whom need relatively cheap weed ( as opposed to an expensive patented medical spray?. Not many.
SIDEBAR: do you know about the destruction of Libya by Obama? (most don't -they just think "we got Gaddafi")
Obama is counting on partisians, and the absurd Romney campaign, to get re-elected. He's making a political caculus, that this is largely ignored, and he's prolly correct.
Will you vote for him? Will most Dems -despite his wars? -you don't have to answer personally, but there's your answer to the question.
The partisan mindset ignores these things, most Americans can't follow the money here, or don't care.
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the Rolling Stone Article - a must read.
Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. "I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue," he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration's high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multi*agency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush's record for medical-marijuana busts. "There's no question that Obama's the worst president on medical marijuana," says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "He's gone from first to worst."
The federal crackdown imperils the medical care of the estimated 730,000 patients nationwide – many of them seriously ill or dying – who rely on state-sanctioned marijuana recommended by their doctors. In addition, drug experts warn, the White House's war on law-abiding providers of medical marijuana will only drum up business for real criminals. "The administration is going after legal dispensaries and state and local authorities in ways that are going to push this stuff back underground again," says Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a former Republican senator who has urged the DEA to legalize medical marijuana, pulls no punches in describing the state of affairs produced by Obama's efforts to circumvent state law: "Utter chaos."
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obamas-war-on-pot-20120216#ixzz1zqvvWDbG
Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. "I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue," he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration's high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.
But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multi*agency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush. The feds are busting growers who operate in full compliance with state laws, vowing to seize the property of anyone who dares to even rent to legal pot dispensaries, and threatening to imprison state employees responsible for regulating medical marijuana. With more than 100 raids on pot dispensaries during his first three years, Obama is now on pace to exceed Bush's record for medical-marijuana busts. "There's no question that Obama's the worst president on medical marijuana," says Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "He's gone from first to worst."
The federal crackdown imperils the medical care of the estimated 730,000 patients nationwide – many of them seriously ill or dying – who rely on state-sanctioned marijuana recommended by their doctors. In addition, drug experts warn, the White House's war on law-abiding providers of medical marijuana will only drum up business for real criminals. "The administration is going after legal dispensaries and state and local authorities in ways that are going to push this stuff back underground again," says Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a former Republican senator who has urged the DEA to legalize medical marijuana, pulls no punches in describing the state of affairs produced by Obama's efforts to circumvent state law: "Utter chaos."
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obamas-war-on-pot-20120216#ixzz1zqvvWDbG
