Marijuana Dispensary wins $100,000!
When Sky High Holistic was subject to a police raid, it was hardly the end of the business. In fact, it ironically gave the marijuana dispensary a big boost, $100,000 to be exact.
The money comes from a lawsuit alleging police harassment of the marijuana dispensary, settled by the City of Santa Ana this week. Santa Ana has also agreed to drop charges against a dozen employees accused of illegally operating.
It's a good thing the cameras were on; The dispensary cameras, that is. Apparently, the cops hung around the establishment long after the raid occurred, playing darts and making demeaning comments about the staff. And once they got comfortable, they indulged in Sky High pot-laced edibles.
Article:
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/pot-shop-busts-cops-surveillance-cam-wins-100000
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.alternet.org/drugs/pot-shop-busts-cops-surveillance-cam-wins-100000
Previously: Police Claim Recording of Marijuana Dispensary Raid is Illegal
Related Stories
Police who raided a marijuana store, destroying security cameras and the DVR, harassing the store's customers, consuming edible marijuana products, and playing darts, were caught on camera. The cops claim that said recording is illegal because the cops had an expectation of privacy after destroying all of the security cameras.
I wish I could make up this stuff.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by canopic jug on Monday October 31 2016, @01:26PM
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Gaaark on Monday October 31 2016, @01:34PM
Yes, please!
Fix the problem by making it THEIR problem.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 31 2016, @08:33PM
Not sure if that is sarcase - but that is the solution. Government employees are almost always exempt from charges of wrong doing. Federal, state, and local - government looks to protect their own.
Yes, however many cops were involved, the settlement should be divided that many ways, and each of them charged. They should also be charged with armed theft/robbery. They used their badges and their guns to get into the place, after all.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday November 01 2016, @06:57PM
Sorry, no sarcasm intended: shite like making taxpayers pay for this malarkey?
This is also another reason I am against the TTP, etc. If Canada decides to ban Monsanto's bee/people killing products, they could sue us for lost revenue????????
WTF?
No... we need to get decent, common sense people in politics, instead of corruption.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @01:49PM
A settlement with the City of Santa Ana probably comes from taxpayers. At best, the cops will be fired and less cops will be hired, saving some money (some cops make well over $100k or even $200k with benefits factored in).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @05:06PM
garnished from the offender's pay checks, accompanied perhaps by firing
I want some of whatever you've been eating.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday October 31 2016, @06:40PM
Too bad, the cops got to it already. Weren't you reading the summary? =P
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @11:37PM
Santa Ana is the county seat and the most populous city in Orange County.
After cannabis advocates had done all the legwork, a twisted business-centric, greed-centric Measure BB was put on the ballot for the November 2014 election in Santa Ana.
It would allow a very political process to pick and choose who got the limited number of licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries in the city.
A more patient-centric, community-centric Measure CC was then qualified for the ballot, with the cannabis advocates once again doing all the legwork.
Measure BB is a mistake but CC will protect the rights of patients and the community [newsantaana.com]
There was a massive infusion of money into the pro-BB/anti-CC campaign (lots of scare tactics).
In the election, BB got the most votes and was adopted, meaning that CC was defeated.
As was predicted, the licensing process was very dirty (the same entity/business group applying many times under different names) and things became very political, with Mayor Miguel Pulido (a shady machine-politics character) being widely suspected of graft.
The Sky High Collective applied for a license, was denied, and, in the Spring of 2015, opens an unlicensed medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana.
On May 26, 2015, the Santa Ana Police conducts a raid on the Sky High dispensary and are extremely disrespectful to the people there, in particular to a one-legged wheelchair-bound worker.
video [jifeed.net]
Police officers Brandon Matthew Sontag, Nicole Lynn Quijas, and Jorge Arroyo steal consumables, eat them, goof off (playing darts), and are recorded doing so.
The cops smash the surveillance cameras after there is already video of them being criminals.
An edited version of the recording is released June 10, 2015.
On July 1, 2015, the unedited video is released.
Report: Full Video Shows Those Santa Ana Cops Eating Even MORE Edibles [laist.com]
On June 20, 2016 the 3 bad cops plead not guilty to charges of theft and vandalism.
3 Santa Ana police officers plead not guilty to theft in raid of pot shop [ocregister.com]
On July 14, 2016, the 3 dirty cops are FINALLY fired.
Santa Ana Police Department Fires Officers In Pot Video Case [ocweekly.com]
October 26, 2015: There is a civil settlement with the dispensary for damages.
.
...and for Fristy (and others)
Who's == Who is; Who was
Whose == Belongs to whom
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Tuesday November 01 2016, @09:59AM
Who's == Who is; Who was
Whose == Belongs to whom
Thanks.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @05:33PM
Additionally, was the $100,000 actually enough to cover the repairs, restock the store, and if necessary cover the downtime since this all started back in the summer?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 01 2016, @12:04AM
See "Timeline", above.
This dispensary was **unlicensed**.
By city ordinances and procedures, the place had no right to be doing business.
The instigation of the raid was legit.
Now, what the -individual- cops did was criminal.
Note also that the Sky High Collective hasn't been granted a license since then.
(One of the current license holders would have to lose theirs first.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 01 2016, @06:49AM
what's criminal is making nature illegal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 01 2016, @11:52AM
I won't disagree with you.
Now, if you've got a plan to rein in the economic power of Big Pharma (which leads to their political power), I'm all ears.
I've previously suggested a constitutional amendment that makes all public elections publicly funded.
Actually, I got that from Ralph Nader.
It's really hard to beat that smartie's ideas, but I'll listen if you think you have something better.
...and political careerism is a big factor too.
The jackass congressman who pushed through the Marihuana[1] Tax Act of 1937 ended up on the Supreme Court.
[1] Yup. That's the way the jackass spelled it.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Informative) by sjames on Monday October 31 2016, @05:49PM
The people paying the taxes that fund the settlement will need to demand loudly that the money come out of the cops' pay. They will also need to demand that the cops involved be fired.
And those cops really should be fired. They acted worse than common looters and thugs. At least the gang bangers don't try to frame you up for a crime after they rob you blind and trash your property.
And given that the video is incontrovertable, I would go so far as to say that any cop who doesn't want them jailed should probably go with them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @09:43PM
Have you actually seen the video and can pass judgment? I haven't, but I could be convinced either way.
It could be a mustache-twirling evil like you say, in which case they should be thrown out on the ear (and probably in jail for abuse of power).
Or it could be a benign mistake. For example, they weren't sure if something was actually cannabis, so they broke evidence handling procedure to actually try a small sample at the scene (which would be an issue of bad training and/or bad judgment, not maliciousness). In this case, a departmental slap on the wrist and correcting the mistake would suffice in my opinion.
Of course, if you have actually watched the video and know they were effectively thieves and planting evidence... then yeah, they deserve worse than they'll likely get.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 01 2016, @12:59AM
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday November 01 2016, @01:07AM
I have seen the Video [youtube.com].
What they did had nothing to do with their job. They even made fun of people with disabilities ("I wanted to punch her in the nub"). They battered down unlocked doors. Really, just watch the video, there's too much wrong doing to list here.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday November 01 2016, @11:22AM
Have you actually seen the video and can pass judgment?
Yes, it was posted on Soylent a few months ago when the story first broke.
I haven't, but I could be convinced either way.
So you don't really have anything constructive to add. Go and watch the video - the police were behaving in a totally unprofessional way that crossed the line into criminal several times. Even if everything in the shop had been illegal, the police deserve prosecution.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Monday October 31 2016, @01:27PM
Are cops just getting stupider?
Is their whole hiring process just bad?
WTF?
Don't be stupid! Yes. YOU!
Just the facts, ma'am? No thanks... but i does got the munchies!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @02:49PM
> Are cops just getting stupider?
No. They thought they had destroyed the cameras before they decided to party.
They just missed one because it was hidden.
Decoys FTW!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @03:11PM
No, this is how cops have always been. A friend of mine owned a bar many years ago, and he told me how some 30 years ago it was broken into and the cops showed up to "help guard it" and helped themselves to ton of his booze while they "stood watch." Only different between Police and criminals most of the time is we give the police a badge.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday October 31 2016, @06:04PM
Exactly.
They're not getting stupider, they're getting caught (for not getting smarter about ubiquitous cameras).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Monday October 31 2016, @06:43PM
No, not at all.
What I'm coming to realize is that the cops were *always* like this. In learning about history I've been understanding that Chicago cops quite often moonlighted as enforcers and assassins against organized labor. Something like that would've been quite hard to believe in those days. Normal people couldn't or wouldn't bring themselves to do so because the implications were that horrible and easier to deny.
Fast forward to a time with ubiquitous surveillance and at a cheap enough price that it is affordable by the masses. Now all of the sudden we have video, after video, after video, after video of cops acting dishonorably to say the least, and murderous at worst?
Unlikely. It's far more likely that our increases in technology are simply shining the light into dark places... and scattering the cockroaches that lived comfortably in the dark.
In the last 10 years we've had more proof and unexpected disclosures of government malfeasance and corruption to the extent now that denial of the problem is impossible. Instead of cops, the good ones left, fighting for reform and purification of their ranks, they use labor organizations (who they abused in the past when it suited them) to defend themselves against transparency and our rights to monitor them.
If any part of government is truly broken, it's law enforcement.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Monday October 31 2016, @01:33PM
I'm guessing these were weed donuts?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Monday October 31 2016, @01:45PM
In some cities "cop" mean chaperone, I live in a nice area where all they do is break up teen parties and arrest drunk drivers and yell at speeders and that's really all they do, at least that is all that is in the weekly police blotter.
In some cities "cop" means military occupation force infantry, and they shoot unarmed black dudes in the back because whats another dead enemy soldier, its just like Somalia and black hawk down out there, etc. I'm pretty thankful I don't live there.
In some cities "cop" means just another organized crime criminal gang. "We're not MS13 we have badges instead" Apparently that is the situation in Santa Ana.
There are probably even more definitions of "cop".
The word and concept seem inadequate as people talking about a military infantry unit are going to be totally confused when talking to people who think they're talking about high school dance chaperones or whatever other possible misunderstanding.
Someone completely politically incorrect could notice certain correlations in races who live in the community vs how the cops behave toward them ... It is amazing sometimes how predictive wrongthink and badthink can be.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Monday October 31 2016, @02:24PM
I also live somewhere the police are more like chaperones to run with your analogy. It's not the wealthiest town in my metro-ish area (not the tax haven at least), but we have a strong middle class. Looking on Wikipedia for the town (amazing I can just do that) we have let's say for the purposes of wrongthink 90% whitie (including Asian, mostly Indian I think) and 5-ish% “those people.” Looking to the town to the north where the police are more like an organized crime gang, it's 70% whitie, 25-ish% “those people.” It also lacks a strong middle class. So there's all kinds of correlations one can expect there.
Correlations can tell us what to expect, which is the only sense they're “predictive.” They don't tell us the why though.
I think the big big big thing the moon matrix media and the lizard people don't want us to catch on to is that the strength of the middle class is the predictor of what a “cop” exactly is. Instead, you tune into the moon matrix and it's all about race. We've got people talking about reparations yet again. That's convenient for the lizard people to keep us divided and at each other's throats.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @04:51PM
> I think the big big big thing the moon matrix media and the lizard people
It is such a good thing that you mention those points. They help to remind me that even though you sound reasonable, you are actually batshit crazy and I shouldn't take anything you say at face value because it all comes from the land of the lost mind.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday October 31 2016, @05:14PM
I sort of think its creative writing using analogies, substitute and sarcasm.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @06:11PM
You might think that... if there wasn't a long history of constant references to those things in their previous posts. Once or twice its creative. 20+ times and its a delusion.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday October 31 2016, @06:41PM
She can be nuts and still be correct, you know. Remember what we were calling "tinfoil hat nutshittery" just ten years ago?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @07:33PM
Sorry, but that is false logic. Just because one thing is possible does not make something else, completely unrelated, likely.
There are no lizard people. If you think Snowden's revelations about the NSA have the made the case for the existence of lizard people even an iota stronger, then you may even be more batshit than kuro.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday October 31 2016, @08:09PM
Uhh...what? I don't think there are any lizard people. Maybe you misread something here?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 31 2016, @08:46PM
So - what's the difference between "ruling class" and "lizard people"? It isn't clear to me that the people harping about lizard people believe that some people are literally lizards in people skins. There are, however, a very small number of people who either own or control almost all of the world's wealth. The conspiracy nuts have been searching for evidence of the conspiracy for a long time now, but haven't uncovered anything definitive.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/18/richest-62-billionaires-wealthy-half-world-population-combined [theguardian.com]
One half of the world's population shares less wealth than that accumulated by the 62 wealthiest people on earth. Conspiracy or not, you can bet that none of those 62 are willing to see laws changed that might reduce their share of the wealth.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday November 01 2016, @01:18AM
Who are you and what have you done with the real Runaway1956? You're...you're being reasonable, and telling the truth, and citing sources, and caring about other human beings. Did you have a religious experience recently or something?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 01 2016, @09:57AM
All three of you range between extreme and rational views.
Personally I take the Lizard People thing as metaphorical. And more than likely intended to convey 'cold bloodedness', which given the current presidential candidates in the US seems very fitting, the top two are definitely 'lizard people' if you defined them as 'cold/blue blooded', and having read further on those below the top 4 current candidates, they are ALL whackjobs in one way or another. To the point where I would be submitting a blank ballot as an american voter.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @07:11PM
-1 no transgender hunnies references
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @05:26PM
Yeah, just an amusing reference to Media and the wealthy elite.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RamiK on Monday October 31 2016, @02:41PM
A petty theft indictment is a slap on the wrist.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 31 2016, @03:04PM
Prosecutors are very creative when it comes to cops. Judges are very creative when they are found guilty. The cops are still on a "plateau".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 01 2016, @12:12PM
You got it in 1.
To my knowledge, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has NEVER gotten a conviction against a cop.
OC judges seem to be a fairly competent and conscientious bunch.
Now, there was a race last time around (in Cali, judges are elected) where the Democrat was the dirtbag and folks who voted strictly along party lines didn't do the system any favors.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 31 2016, @08:48PM
Armed robbery ≠ petty theft.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 4, Informative) by richtopia on Monday October 31 2016, @03:39PM
I believe this is from when the infraction first occurred. Should have been a fast case with that video evidence.
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/08/09/0741206 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday October 31 2016, @07:17PM
Thanks! Added.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]