Las Vegas, NV — For almost three years, medical marijuana was legalized in various regions of the state of Nevada. However, recreational marijuana sales only started in specific areas of the state at the beginning of July 2017 because of a law that took effect at that time; this law renders persons that are at least 21 years old and bear valid identification legally capable of purchasing the drug in those regions for recreational purposes. However, as a recent video shared with the Free Thought Project shows, police, lots of them, are still willing to attack and assault people for having the plant.
According to the new Nevada law, pot generally can only be legally imbibed on property owned privately by residents, and it may not be imbibed in any public location on the Strip such as a bar or casino. So, when Josh Martin sat in his truck to roll a joint—on private property—he was well within his rights, according to Nevada law, to do so.
The fact that Martin was not breaking any laws, however, was of no concern to the cops who showed up and assaulted the innocent man.
As the body camera footage shows, the cop even admitted to Martin that rolling the joint in his car was not illegal.
“I’m actually gonna interject,” says the officer. “It’s not illegal to roll a joint in your car and you have to identify yourself. Let’s cut the bulls**t.”
After admitting that Martin was not breaking any laws, the cop moved in to attack him, grabbing the innocent man by the neck and choking him down to the ground.
If what Martin was doing was perfectly legal, then he didn’t need to speak to the officers at all. If he was not suspected of committing a crime, the officers had no lawful reason to detain him and certainly no lawful reason to demand his identification.
In Nevada, police can legally stop someone and ask for their identification only if that officer meets the following:
- Any peace officer may detain any person whom the officer encounters under circumstances which reasonably indicate that the person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime.
- Any peace officer may detain any person the officer encounters under circumstances which reasonably indicate that the person has violated or is violating the conditions of the person’s parole or probation.
- The officer may detain the person pursuant to this section only to ascertain the person’s identity and the suspicious circumstances surrounding the person’s presence abroad. Any person so detained shall identify himself or herself, but may not be compelled to answer any other inquiry of any peace officer.
- A person must not be detained longer than is reasonably necessary to effect the purposes of this section, and in no event longer than 60 minutes. The detention must not extend beyond the place or the immediate vicinity of the place where the detention was first effected, unless the person is arrested.
None of these factors were present in the video below. Yet the officers still surrounded Martin, assaulted, and then kidnapped him.
This is the state of affairs in police state USA. Cops, addicted to the revenue and tyranny afforded to them by the war on marijuana, are unable to wean themselves from the immoral and unethical practice of kidnapping and caging people for possessing a plant.