Turns Out, They Had Nothing To Hideby Radley Balko, The AgitatorMar. 01, 2012 |
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Good reporting by Lucy Steigerwald on an outrageous 13-man SWAT raid, with flashbangs, on a home suspected of illegally growing medical marijuana. It’s of course legal to grow the stuff in Colorado if you have a patient card and stay under the state limit. The residents appear to have received the full brunt force of the SWAT team because they dared to exercise their constitutional rights. Further details from KRDO reveal that when the police came to the home previously (at around 10 p.m. on Christmas 2011), Ball and Glandorf showed their medical marijuana cards, but refused to let officers in because they didn’t have a warrant. This, says Colorado Springs police spokesperson Barbara Miller, is kind of dubious:Can we please send every cop who utters the “if you have nothing to hide . . . ” line to Fourth Amendment reeducation camp? Miller, however, told Reason that she understood that the reaction to a so-called “knock and talk” on Christmas was understandable, and she might have done the same thing. And also that she “really appreciate[s] everybody’s constitution rights” and “everybody should use them.” However . . .Whenever a police spokesperson talks about respecting constitutional rights, you can expect a however isn’t far behind. . . . Miller said officers smelled a very strong presence of marijuana in the home, and continued their investigation. Miller said police found out that someone living in the house had a prior felony weapons charge, and also noted that the electric bill was very high for the property.”That’s really important when you’re talking narcotics because that’s a tell-tale sign that they’re doing a grow there.”Tell-tale. And in this case, false. And after that, no arrests were made or charges were filed, because the patients were not growing more than Colorado state law permitted after all. Supposedly a handgun was found, but Glandorf denies this.Two dogs were apparently injured by the flashbangs. The police deny this. Because, as we all know, flashbangs are perfectly safe. I mean, except when they aren’t. |