Remember those militarized cops who raided a California medical marijuana dispensary, harassed a disabled patient in the store, and were recorded on a security camera gobbling what was almost certainly marijuana-infused edibles that they swiped during the raid? Well, those cops are under investigation, and are trying to get off the hook by claiming that the security camera violated their right to be bullying, hypocritical asshats without be recorded on video.
From The Daily Beast:
As brazen as the apparent behavior of officers that day is the argument being made by their lawyers. The three unidentified officers and their union are attempting to suppress the video’s use in ongoing disciplinary action against them by the city and police department.
In a lawsuit, the Santa Ana Police Officers Association and the three police officers argue that the video does not paint a fair version of events, and that it should not be allowed as evidence because the police had a reasonable expectation of privacy since they thought they had disabled all of the dispensary’s cameras.
“We believe that under California law, if you are being recorded, or eavesdropped on – which is the legal term for it – without your knowledge or consent, that it is illegal,” Corey Glave, the attorney representing the SAPOA and the three officers, told The Daily Beast. “Upon the direction of supervisors, all the cameras were disabled, so once those cameras were disabled, there was no expectation that there were any other cameras or that they were being recorded.”
There are signs all over Sky High saying that the premises is being recorded by video cameras, and not just clearly visible cameras.
Besides recording the cops as they ate edibles, the camera also recorded the cops saying nasty things about the disabled patient in the dispensary:
What that camera saw is now adding a new chapter to an ongoing and tragic American saga of the profoundly troubling behavior that some police officers engage in when they think no one is looking.
It saw one male and one female officer talking threateningly about [Marla] James, who is missing her left leg. “Did you punch that one-legged old Benita?” asks the guy.
“I was about to kick her in her fucking nub,” the lady cop appears to reply.
So what did James do to rile the cops up so much? She told the truth and she exercised her legal rights.
