Three officers are facing charges stemming from a raid on a medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana, California last year. The raid was conducted at the Sky High Holistic medical marijuana dispensary, and involved alleged police misconduct. I say alleged, because the officers haven’t been found guilty for what they did, but video footage from the raid speaks for itself. The officers are clearly eating edibles at the dispensary during the raid, unnecessarily damaging property at the dispensary, and even going as far as threatening a disable amputee. Per the OC Register:
After most of the cameras are taken down, a camera they didn’t detect shows the officers talking about a woman with an amputated left leg who at the time of the raid was in her wheelchair inside the dispensary.
“Did you punch that one-legged old Benita,” a male officer asks a female officer, apparently referring to the woman in the wheelchair.
“I was about to kick her in her (expletive) nub,” the female officer replies, according to subtitles with the video.
The video referred to in the excerpt was put together by the attorneys representing the dispensary. It was leaked to the media after the raid. Apparently the cops destroyed what they thought was all of the video surveillance equipment. However, two cameras kept rolling. Below is a video that has been edited, and subtitles added for clarity, to show what happened that day:
The officers facing charges tried very, very hard to get that video footage thrown out. That didn’t work, and now the officers are are expected to enter pleas today, for vandalism and theft charges. The officers maintain that they didn’t eat any marijuana products, but instead were just eating ‘protein bars’ that the dispensary left out for visitors. The officers are facing less serious charges than they should, but are facing charges nonetheless. People are speculating that the reason the low level charges are still being pursued against the officers is because if they are convicted, even though the crimes are small, it will make it easier for the officers to be fired. For the sake of compassion and justice, I hope that proves to be the case.
