{"id":75877,"date":"2024-06-03T09:55:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T17:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/06\/03\/video-of-nyc-cops-marijuana-raid-raises-questions-about-mayors-enforcement-offensive\/"},"modified":"2024-06-03T12:45:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T20:45:36","slug":"video-of-nyc-cops-marijuana-raid-raises-questions-about-mayors-enforcement-offensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2024\/06\/03\/video-of-nyc-cops-marijuana-raid-raises-questions-about-mayors-enforcement-offensive\/","title":{"rendered":"Video Of NYC Cops\u2019 Marijuana Raid Raises Questions About Mayor\u2019s Enforcement Offensive"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is restarting the war on drugs under the guise of a civil process.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

By Rosalind Adams, THE CITY<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a new mayoral task force conducts sweeps of hundreds of shops suspected of selling illegal weed, a video of a raid on a Staten Island store obtained by THE CITY captures how enlisting police to conduct regulatory inspections can lead to criminal charges, igniting concerns about potential due process violations.<\/p>\n

The 90-second clip taken from a store surveillance camera on May 18 shows seven uniformed law enforcement officers, most of them in NYPD gear, cursing, jumping over the store counter and charging at a shopkeeper after he asked them for a court order before opening the door to the back of the store.<\/p>\n

Instead, the man was cuffed\u2014before any unlicensed cannabis products were found\u2014and taken to a local precinct where he was charged with obstruction of justice, records show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a cop tells you to do something, you fucking do it,\u201d one officer told the shopkeeper.<\/p>\n

The surveillance video was shared with THE CITY on the condition that the identity of the shopkeeper be protected. The arrest and criminal charge was confirmed by police records.<\/p>\n

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The shopkeeper\u2019s lawyer, Steve Zissou, told THE CITY that the video shows both due process violations and personal civil rights violations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsking for a court order is not an obstruction of justice,\u201d Zissou said, adding that the shopkeeper was asserting his constitutional rights. \u201cThis is restarting the war on drugs under the guise of a civil process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams, told THE CITY, \u201cwe will examine this video in\u00a0the course of the city\u2019s continuing review of inspection and enforcement protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n

She defended the mayor\u2019s new enforcement initiative, as one that would \u201cclose down illegal cannabis and smoke shops to protect vulnerable New Yorkers from exposure to illegal cannabis and smoke shops and better support the legal cannabis market by allowing justice-impacted cannabis business owners to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The regulatory inspection process was outlined in the 2021 state law legalizing cannabis use. A section<\/a> of that law enshrines the right of individuals to refuse a regulatory inspection, though subjects them to a civil fine if they do so. Once a regulatory inspection is refused, then the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) or its board must request a court order, the law says.<\/p>\n

Last May, Governor Kathy Hochul expanded<\/a> the state\u2019s enforcement powers from the 2021 law, empowering OCM and the Department of Taxation and Finance to enter unlicensed cannabis establishments, seize products and get a court order to padlock shops shut.<\/p>\n

But over the last year, the legislation did little to curb the number of illegal stores<\/a>. The state agencies did not have the resources<\/a> to inspect a significant number of unlicensed stores as they continued to proliferate around the city. And when products were seized from unlicensed cannabis shops, the stores often reopened the next day.<\/p>\n

In April, Hochul expanded the state\u2019s enforcement powers again, this time authorizing local jurisdictions to conduct regulatory inspections, adding more manpower behind the state agencies. It also made it easier to padlock stores after one inspection, rather than seeking a court order.<\/p>\n

Empowered by the legislation, Adams last month formed a task force of NYPD officers, the Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection as part of his enforcement effort, called Operation Padlock to Protect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As of May 29, the task force has completed 329 inspections, padlocked 224 stores and issued 231 cease and desist orders, the mayor\u2019s office said. The move comes as the number of unlicensed shops in New York City has exploded since legalization. Officials estimate there are 2,800 unlicensed shops in the city. By comparison, there are 58 legal shops within the five boroughs.<\/p>\n

But the involvement of police officers as part of regulatory inspections has already broadly drawn some worry from city public defenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re concerned that with the NYPD being the agency that\u2019s now conducting lockouts, more people will be arrested as a result and then subject to contact with the criminal legal system,\u201d said Jackie Gosdigian, supervising policy counsel with the Brooklyn Public Defenders.<\/p>\n

It is clear that the initiative has begun to curb the number of unlicensed stores in the city. Some smoke shops have started keeping cannabis products off-site in case they\u2019re inspected, only bringing them to the counter after a customer asks for a specific product. Others have moved to delivery-only service. Still others have decided to close altogether, saying it wasn\u2019t worth the risk to operate anymore.<\/p>\n

The Staten Island incident highlights how quickly an inspection can escalate from a regulatory matter into a criminal matter once NYPD are involved. The Office of Cannabis Management, which is still completing its own inspections alongside local jurisdictions, does not have the power to arrest or charge shopkeepers who refuse access to the back of a store, for example.<\/p>\n

Joseph Bondy, a cannabis lawyer who has represented some unlicensed shops in administrative hearings, said the Staten Island arrest is part of a larger pattern unfolding in these inspections. Lawyers like Bondy and Zissou argue that the new legislation does not erase the provision in the 2021 law that allows merchants to refuse an inspection and does not \u00a0permit searches and seizures without a warrant.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of these merchants are having their rights violated,\u201d said Bondy, who also serves as vice chair of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, an advocacy group.<\/p>\n

Despite legislation expanding the state\u2019s enforcement ability, \u201cit doesn\u2019t supersede the Constitution, and it certainly doesn\u2019t authorize someone to break into a closed store for the purpose of conducting the inspection that would trigger the seizure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In the video of the Staten Island raid, the shopkeeper denies having any cannabis for sale when asked whether the store carries Stiizy products, a well-known California brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese days we just don\u2019t want problems, you know?\u201d the clerk said.<\/p>\n

Seconds later, the group of officers entered the store and asked to be let into the back of the shop. The clerk asked several times to see a court order. Officers warned he was obstructing justice, then jumped the counter and handcuffed him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll go to jail for that,\u201d an officer told him, according to the surveillance footage.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be fucking stupid,\u201d a second officer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did nothing wrong,\u201d the shopkeeper replied.<\/p>\n

Police later found less than a pound of cannabis products in the back of the store and padlocked the shop.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office declined to answer specific questions about the arrest of a shopkeeper.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Hochul fought for major legislation to shut down illicit cannabis shops that gives localities the enforcement tools they need while putting important guardrails in place to protect the rights of New Yorkers,\u201d a spokesperson for the governor, Justin Henry, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Office of Cannabis Management deferred to the statement from Hochul\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

The store clerk is scheduled to appear in criminal court on Staten Island next Friday.<\/p>\n

THE CITY<\/a> is a nonprofit newsroom that serves the people of New York. Sign up for our SCOOP newsletter<\/a> and get exclusive stories, helpful tips, a guide to low-cost events, and everything you need to know to be a well-informed New Yorker.<\/em> DONATE to THE CITY<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

New York Agency Will Stop Overseeing Marijuana Dispensary Construction As Lawmakers Grill Governor\u2019s Nominee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

The post Video Of NYC Cops\u2019 Marijuana Raid Raises Questions About Mayor\u2019s Enforcement Offensive<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\u201cThis is restarting the war on drugs under the guise of a civil process.\u201d By Rosalind Adams, THE CITY As a new mayoral task force conducts sweeps of hundreds of shops suspected of selling illegal weed, a video of a raid on a Staten Island store obtained by THE CITYContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75878,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75877\/revisions\/75878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}