A Ferguson solidarity march last week in Minneapolis turned ugly when a man drove through activists and pinned a teenage girl under his car, sending her to the hospital. The incident made news rounds (with media capturing footage) and went viral online–and that’s where we meet Santa Ana Police Sergeant Michelle Miller.
On her Facebook page, the sarge shared a wacky right-wing article titled “Driver Plows Through Ferguson Protestors In Minnesota.”
“I would have done the same,” she wrote. “I’m surprised this didn’t happen more.” A friend added, “what are these savages thinking?”
“Most police chiefs understand that when it comes to marijuana use, we cannot criminalize such a large population of society that engage in casual marijuana use,” Houston Police Chief Charles McClelland said last Friday in a radio interview. “We can’t, you just can’t continue to do that, we understand that. …And this is why the federal government really needs to take the lead. Now health-wise, I don’t know what the long-term effects is for marijuana use, just like long-term effects of using an aspirin. I just don’t know. But I do know that it makes it difficult for law enforcement to enforce the law when you have a state law that may allow it, federal government does not. And, and on the other hand, too, sometimes young people make a mistake, and they’ve got to be given a second chance. And, so, I think this is something that, the country has moved, and sometimes you know, government has to move too. You know, in answer to the will of the people.”
In a 30-minute in-depth interview McClelland acknowledged that the war on drugs has disproportionately hurt “young minority men,” and that law enforcement attitudes on marijuana use are beginning to shift. More at the Houston Press.
No sooner had the NYPD received praise for respecting peaceful protests than the force doubled back and reminded everyone that while officers might have let people on a couple bridges this week, they’re still very adept with a bottle of pepper spray.
More than 200 protesters were arrested through the night of December 4, the highest number since protests began. On Wednesday, December 3, a total of 83 people were arrested. On November 24, during the first anti-police-brutality protests after Ferguson, Missouri, Police Officer Darren Wilson was not charged for shooting Michael Brown to death, only two people were arrested — one for pouring fake blood all over NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and his security detail and the other for throwing an aluminum can at an officer. Village Voice has more.
It was impossible for Balboa Peninsula motorists to notice anything unusual when they passed Newport Beach City Hall on the afternoon of March 10, 2011. The warm sun hovering above steady beach traffic and palm trees swaying from a periodic, lazy breeze revealed just a typical, Southern California day.
But not far from Pacific Coast Highway, on a sidewalk adjacent to 32nd Street–a road flanking local government offices until last year’s relocation–high-ranking police officers were teaching a lesson to one of Orange County’s most heroic whistleblowers and his wife: Mess with us, and you’ll pay dearly.
OC Weekly has more on how bad cops work to keep the good ones from improving the state of our wrecked system.
Little Alex Hill would have been turned four-years-old last month. But rather than celebrating their child’s birthday, the toddler’s parents have only the bitter consolation of seeing a judge in Milam County hand Alex’s foster mother a life sentence for murder.
The life sentence is a small victory in the case of two-year-old Alex, whose July 2013 death was caused by devastating injuries at the hands of her foster mother, 52-year old Sherill Small.
Plenty of Colorado municipalities have chosen to ban marijuana businesses, but few have gone to the extremes of Granby, a gorgeous community in Grand County. Officials have threatened to annex land that’s not officially part of the town to prevent a marijuana shop from opening there — a plan it’s slated to defend at a hearing later today.
Since voters passed Proposition D in 2013, which limited the number of dispensaries in L.A. to about 135, the count on registered stores actually ballooned to 1,140 before settling down to 972, far more than you’ll find in the entire state of Colorado. Feuer has furthermore previously said that at least 100 have shut down, thanks to the efforts of his office.
On Tuesday, the top city prosecutor said that the number of shops in L.A. has now been cut in half, with 402 taken out by criminal cases, civil action and more. LA Weekly has the full story.
Despite the fact that about 70 percent of D.C. voters approved of a law legalizing small amounts of marijuana in the city, Republicans in Congress say they know what is best and are planning to fight the legalization vote.
Several media outlets have reported from sources that House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers, a Republican from Kentucky, says he plans to introduce a rider on the omnibus spending bill that would prevent D.C. from funding any changes to marijuana laws. Rogers is picking up where Maryland Republican Rep. Andy Harris left off last spring and summer.
Every parent worries about their child when they drop them off each day at school or daycare.
Will they be taken care of? Will they be fed on time? Will they be treated well by others?
After a sickening “drug lab” bust at a residential child daycare facility in Victorville, California this past week, some parents in Southern California were left asking questions like, “Did my child ever pick up some guns left lying around, or knock over a few cases of butane?”
| Photo by Timothy Norris. |
Now that the era of cannabis prohibition is finally coming to a close, the famous stoners of bygone eras are stepping away from their bongs, wandering out of their man caves and looking to cash in. Bob Marley’s descendants may be trying to brand a strain of weed named after the famed reggae singer, but L.A.’s own Tommy Chong is thinking a big more broadly.
Yes, his own strain — “Chong Star” — is in the works. But more importantly, the 76-year-old is making a play for a lucrative comeback with a recent stint on the hit show Dancing With the Stars and endorsements of everything from fertilizer and joint-rolling machines to pipe necklaces and Smoke Swipes, a product that supposedly removes unwanted smells from clothing and hair. Amanda Lewis at the LA Weekly has more.