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Report: Full Video Shows Those Santa Ana Cops Eating Even More Edibles
When a medial marijuana collective's lawyer released an edited video that appeared to show Santa Ana police officers eating edibles, destroy security cameras and mocking an amputee during a raid of the dispensary, many wondered what the rest of the video contained. As it turns out, the video wasn't cherry picked to show the officers' worst behavior. There's more.
OC Weekly managed to get the unedited footage from a raid conducted on Sky High Holistic Collective in Santa Ana on May 26. The edited footage was released in June by the collective's lawyer, Matthew Pappas. The collective is suing the City of Santa Ana and Pappas has alleged that the Mayor of Santa Ana, Miguel Pulido, took bribes from dispensaries for a coveted spot in a lottery that would secure them a license to operate.
The complete footage consists of several hours of footage captured by four different cameras. Up until now, it was up to the imagination what the full video would show.
While it was previously up for debate as to what an officer might be unwrapping and eating—Santa Ana Police Department Chief Carlos Rojas said it could have been a protein bar, not an edible—the unedited footage seems to make it pretty clear. According to OC Weekly, an officer in the lobby is heard saying he found some "pretty good looking chocolate bars" in an unlocked safe full of edibles in another room. That officer then removes something from the safe—this is seen on a separate camera in that room that does not have sound—and then returns to the lobby area with it. It appears that at least four officers indulged, as they're all seen unwrapping and eating the chocolate. One officer is heard saying, "Those candy bars are pretty good. I kinda feel light-headed though." Then they make good use of their time by playing darts.
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Later, the female cop who was heard in the edited video saying she wanted to kick someone "in her f*cking nub"—that someone presumably being marijuana activist Marla James, who is an amputee—comes into the lobby. She, too, also appears to munch on the candy.
Another choice moment is when an officer identified as Alex Sanchez tells a hilarious story about how he drank beer with John Fish, the judge who signed the warrant for the raid, while the two drove to Staples Center. This was apparently when Fish was working in the Orange County District Attorney's Office as a prosecutor.
The shenanigans all occurred after 8:05 p.m., after all of the people in the collective at the time of the raid had been arrested and while the officers were loading up the collective's product as evidence.
At around 8:35 p.m., a man from the fire department walks in and informs the cops that they've ordered a pizza. "Y'all hungry yet?" he asks. Oh, we're pretty sure they are.
Remember, this is a bunch of officers who, at the beginning of the video, bust in the door, point guns at everyone, and order them all down on the ground with their hands on their heads. Makes you wonder what these officers, and other officers, have done in the numerous raids of dispensaries where secret cameras didn't record their actions.
Here's the edited video again, just for fun:
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