It was just yesterday we brought you the story of how police officers conducted a thorough “investigation” at a strip club where they were “forced” to get lap dances. Now there’s this story of another difficult undertaking of cops raiding a medical marijuana dispensary, where they took the liberties of snacking on edibles.
The Santa Ana Police Department has launched an internal affairs investigation after a video surfaced of cops engaged in some rather questionable behavior. Last month, eight cops can be seen raiding the appropriately named Sky High Holistic dispensary in Santa Ana, California. Surveillance cameras in the pot shop show the officers busting into the dispensary with their guns drawn, and shouting “everybody on the ground” to customers and workers.
Hidden cameras appear to catch officers eating marijuana-laced edibles and playing darts. The footage also captures one female cop saying, “I was about to kick her in her fucking nub,” about a customer with an amputated leg in a wheelchair. The video shows cops dismantling video equipment and cameras.
The weed purveyor is unpermitted because it was not one of the 20 dispensaries that were granted permits to operate in February. That hasn’t stopped the dispensary from operating nonetheless.
Some suggest that it was not an edible that the cop ate, but possible a regular food bar because the video does not give a clear view of the wrapper.
“I don’t know if that’s [a marijuana] edible. Where did [the officer] get it?” Santa Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas told the Voice of OC. “Is that a protein bar or an edible?”
Meanwhile Matthew Pappas, the attorney for the pot shop, disagrees, “I believe they are consuming edibles and the behavior exhibited gives every indication that’s what they’d be doing.”
Pappas said that he would be filing a lawsuit on behalf of Marla James, the patient with the amputated leg, who is alleging gross mistreatment by officers. The Long Beach attorney also declared that he would file another lawsuit aimed at invalidating a voter-approved measure permitting only 20 marijuana collectives to operate in an industrial section of the city.
“I’d like to see the police officers disciplined for the behavior that goes on here,” Pappas said. “I’d like to see the city stop engaging in illegal conduct.”
The Santa Ana Police Department is conducting an internal investigation in response to the video. “We’re obviously concerned about the conduct that we saw in the edited video,” police Cmdr. Chris Revere said. “We’re also concerned that the video was heavily edited. We’d like to see the original video in its unedited version.”
Maybe the cop was just doing some investigative research to ensure that the edibles were indeed marijuana?
[KTLA]