Last month, a gang of masked police officers from Santa Ana, California stormed into a neighborhood medical marijuana dispensary. Then, after disconnecting the video surveillance system positioned throughout the dispensary, officers unleashed a disgusting fury against the business, even suggesting violence against a disabled patient—all under the assumption that there would be no video evidence of their behavior.
However, the cops overlooked a single camera—a proverbial nail in their coffin—which appears to reveal police officers consuming marijuana edibles and making jokes about kicking an amputee in her “nub.” The video, which was obtained by OC Weekly, even shows officers playing darts behind the counter of the dispensary during the raid.
Once the cops believe they have successfully managed to disabled all of the security cameras, they gather around the main display counter, laughing, perhaps even daring each other to sample the goods. Then, the footage shows one of the officers shoving what appears to be a pot edible into his mouth before handing something else to a cohort who asks, “What flavor?”
The video hits disturbing heights, however, when a female officer begins to tell her colleagues about how she wanted to kick medical marijuana activist and patient Marla James, an amputee confined to a wheelchair, in her “fucking nub.”
According to OC Weekly, the raid was one of many shakedowns to happen across the city because of a lottery that was put in place at the beginning of the year that only allows Santa Ana to operate 20 dispensaries. The report indicates that James and her husband were at Sky High when the cops kicked down the doors because they received word earlier that day that a raid was about to go down.
“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 said. “And they were really surprised about that.”
James said that when she told the cops that the tip was handed down from Santa Ana City Attorney Sonia Carvalho, they were not familiar with the name.
“They had no idea, and it made them seem kind of stupid and maybe that’s why they got mad,” she added.
Perhaps this is the reason the female officer felt the need to poke fun of the disabled woman, but even James admitted she is clueless as to why the cop said those things about her in the video.
“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, who leads this troop of cops, claimed the video may have been doctored before it was made public and that it was difficult for him to determine whether the officers were actually consuming the marijuana edibles or not.
Revere has since requested the raw footage be made available for an internal investigation.
While federal lawmakers work to strip the DEA of their power in medical marijuana states, it is important to understand that this by no means implies that dispensaries and patients will be protected from raids and prosecution. In fact, some of the latest proposed amendments, if passed, would allow the DEA to work with state and local law enforcement agencies to pursue providers suspected of breaking their state medical marijuana laws. Realistically, we could start seeing more raids in medical marijuana states.
