LF: Santa Ana Cops Caught On Camera Apparently Eating Pot Candy, Joking About Kicking Amputee Patient In Her "Nub"

Title: Santa Ana Cops Caught On Camera Apparently Eating Pot Candy, Joking About Kicking Amputee Patient In Her "Nub"
Source: OC Weekly
URL Source: http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazi ... amputee_patient_in_her_nub.php
Published: Jun 12, 2015
Author: Nick Schou
Post Date: 2015-06-12 06:24:57 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 4769
Comments: 30

John Gilhooley
Marla James
The Weekly has received footage from a recent marijuana dispensary raid that appears to show Santa Ana police officers eating pot candy and throwing darts after destroying--or so they thought--all the surveillance cameras inside the cannabis shop.

The video footage shows an officer stuffing something into his mouth and handing something to another cop, who asks him "What flavor?" The officers then laugh. The footage is too grainy to be certain that the item that the officer picks up from the counter of the cannabis shop is in fact a pot edible, although the behavior of the officers suggests this is the case.

Also in the footage: a female police officer joking that she wanted to kick Marla James--a marijuana activist and wheelchair-bound amputee who was present during the raid--in her "nub."

Click through to see the video.

Yikes! Presumably, the police officers depicted in the video thought their actions and statements would not be recorded, but they were: the officers failed to remove all the secret cameras. Other footage obtained by the Weekly shows police officers, some of whom are wearing ski masks, battering down the dispensary's front door and then storming the establishment with guns drawn. The footage also shows the officers using a crowbar to dislodge various surveillance cameras and a DVR machine.

"Destroying Cameras, etc"

As the Weekly reported yesterday, a Superior Court judge has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the city's Measure BB, which will allow some 20 dispensaries to operate legally in Santa Ana. The judge's order came in response to lawsuits filed by dispensaries that failed to win during the city's controversial Feb. 5 lottery process.

The May 27 raid depicted in the video--which led to a dozen arrests and shut down the Sky High Collective on 17th St.--is just one of numerous busts of dispensaries that failed to qualify in the ballot and which the city says are operating in violation of Santa Ana's current ban on marijuana dispensaries. James and her husband David told the Weekly that they were present at Sky High because their attorney, Matt Pappas, had learned the collective would be raided from Santa Ana's city attorney, Sonia Carvalho."

"When they came back into the back room when David and I were, they asked us why we were there, and I told them we were there to observe them, the police," James recalled. "And they were really surprised about that." When James told the officers that "Sonia" had told her attorney about the raid, the officers didn't recognize the name. "They had no idea and it made them seem kind of stupid and maybe that's why they got mad."

James struggled to understand why the female officer in the video would make fun of her disability.

"You know what, I was really nice to that woman," James said. "I even complimented her on her hair. I treated that woman with respect and I have no idea why she wanted to kick my stump."

Commander Chris Revere told the Weekly that he'd watched the footage, which he described as "edited" and "non-chronological."

"Obviously we are concerned with what we see on the video," Revere said. "We have initiated an internal affairs investigation. I'd like to see the unedited video to get a clearer picture of what is happening."

Revere said he could not comment further on the video because the department's investigation was "ongoing."

Pathetic police work. Any illegal activity (criminal mischief or drug consumption) should be met with arrest, termination and a swift kick to the groin until the nose bleeds.

It's surprising yet refreshing to see that you are capable of rational thinking at times.