So far the media has only been talking about tazer safety, but the real issue is doesn't the Boulder area police have anything better to do than sit in a field looking for the owner of a couple of mj plants? I hadn't heard they found the killer of Jon Benet (//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Benet_Ramsey) yet. I think they must have been harrasing him because he's homeless and living in a field. From the video on tv, it really looked like 3 or so plants in five gallon buckets. Really, this is Boulder, Colorado - there are major grow operations on every block in the city and farmers in the rural areas with more than "several" plants that could easily be found.
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LAFAYETTE, Colo. -- A man who died after being shot by a stun gun during a pursuit by drug police was identified Sunday as a Louisville resident.
Ryan Michael Wilson, 22, died Friday night after he was shot with a Taser gun, Boulder County Coroner Thomas Faure said.
The cause of death has not been determined. An autopsy was scheduled Monday.
Police Sgt. Terry Maschka has said the suspect displayed "assaultive behavior" and that the officer feared for his life before firing the Taser.
Officers said the incident started with police surveillance of an outdoor marijuana grow operation in a field. Police said Wilson may have been living in a field growing marijuana plants...
More at:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/96 ... etail.html (http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9637698/detail.html)
I certainly know about this kind of crap.... I had the misfortune of being hit twice by some sadistic cop!!---- The first time he zapped me, it knocked me out of the chair I was sitting on.... I began standing uo, and shook my head saying "now, you guys are some real electrifying mother-fuckers now, aren't you"?? The cops (their were 6 in an interrogation room with me) all looked surprised that I was not unconcious or whatever.... sooooo, the damn pig zapped me a second time, whereupon I fell into a corner of the room, used my arms for support, and flat refused to go down. The pale green painted cinderblock room seemed to sparkle somehow, as I concentrated on one tiny speck of mortar.... For what seemed eons, the cop "juiced me up".... Eventually he backed off the current. All the pigs seemed surprised/shocked that I had managed to remain standing.... The cop that shocked me, looked at me an said " I'll say this, you got alot of balls and spirit"... Then. all the cops left the interrogation room..... It was obvious that they had decided to use senor as a "test subject" for demo purposes...... Assholes!!!! Funny thing is; senor weighs that 135lbs himself :wink: --------------
More judges should resign. They gave up "judging" along time ago - choosing more comfortable roles as administrators anyway. Sentencing people to prison based on "legal fallacies"! Is their conscious catching up with them?
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New pot penalty ignites protest
ACLU, SAFER weigh in, local judge quits
By Quentin Young
Colorado Hometown Newspapers
Lafayette officials are facing intense blowback following a preliminary decision to greatly increase the maximum municipal penalty for marijuana possession.
Advocacy groups have threatened action, and the city’s own associate municipal court judge this week resigned in protest.
“I cannot in good conscience sit on the bench while being unwilling to enforce the municipal ordinances,†wrote the judge, Leonard Frieling, to Lafayette Mayor Chris Berry.
Frieling’s superior, Municipal Judge Roger Buchholz, requested the increased penalties.
He asked that the maximum municipal penalties for possession of less than 1 ounce of cannabis and drug paraphernalia be increased from the current $100 fine, which matches the maximum state law, to the state-set maximum for municipal offences, which is a $1,000 fine and/or imprisonment not exceeding one year.
Buchholz said an increased sentencing range could be used as a deterrent with repeat offenders.
Also, he said, it doesn’t make sense that marijuana users face a maximum $100 fine when, for example, minors facing their second alcohol possession charge can face fines of $200.
The Lafayette City Council during a Tuesday, Feb. 6, meeting voted 5-1 to approve on first reading the judge’s request. Mayor Pro Tem David Strungis was the dissenting vote.
The council is expected to vote on final approval at its next meeting.
“We’re considering how to do advocacy to convince Lafayette that this is a bad idea,†said Judd Golden, chairman of the Boulder County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
He said the argument that an increased maximum penalty for marijuana possession could work as a deterrent has “no basis in fact,†and that adding more discretion in sentencing leads to a risk of abuse.
“We’ve learned that’s not the kind of discretion we should be giving to prosecutors and judges,†Golden said.
He also noted that the trend in the state and elsewhere in the country is toward smaller, not bigger, penalties for marijuana possession, and that Lafayette is a place where a man suspected of growing about a dozen marijuana plants “was summarily executed by Taser.â€
Ryan Wilson, 22, died last August after a Lafayette police officer shot him with a stun gun.
Frieling, a legal committee life member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said he supports legalization of marijuana for responsible adult use.
“Personally, if somebody is smoking cannabis and not doing something else illegal, I don’t care about deterring that,†Frieling said. “They should not be deterred.â€
Frieling, a Lafayette resident who practices law in Boulder, said he has received many messages of support for his decision to resign.
Mason Tvert, the executive director for Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, a Colorado-based advocacy group, denounced the Lafayette decision in a press release this week.
“(SAFER) is organizing opposition to the measure,†he wrote, adding that the group will give a press conference before the Lafayette city council’s Tuesday, Feb. 20, meeting.