Pubdate: Mon, 20 Aug 2007
Source: Daily Breeze (Torrance, CA)
Copyright: 2007 The Copley Press Inc.
Contact:  http://www.dailybreeze.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/881
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

LAPD IS TAKING LAWS INTO ITS OWN HANDS

The Police Department shouldn't be able to pick and  choose the laws 
it wants to enforce.

When federal agents busted down doors raiding medical-  marijuana 
dispensaries in Los Angeles in July, Los  Angeles Police Department 
officers were their comrades  in arms.

The department's assistance in the raids infuriated  some City 
Council members, who chastised them Wednesday  for cooperating with 
the Drug Enforcement Agency and  for enforcing federal drug laws that 
are in conflict  with California's medical-marijuana law - and the 
will  of the public.

They even threatened to forbid the LAPD from  cooperating with the 
DEA, but that would require the  council to actually take an unequivocal stand.

LAPD officials just brushed off the criticism,  essentially telling 
the council to get over it. The  department will continue to help the 
feds bust medical-

marijuana dispensaries, they said, even though Chief  William Bratton 
has declared that the department  supports the state law.

The explanation officials offered was simple: The LAPD  has a policy 
of enforcing federal laws.

That would make sense if it were a policy the  department actually followed.

But the truth is that the LAPD only enforces the  federal laws that 
it feels like enforcing.

Despite pressure from federal authorities and many  residents of Los 
Angeles, the LAPD has refused to  enforce immigration laws, and 
officers don't ask about  citizenship status except in the rarest instances.

The department has stuck to Special Order 40, which  prohibits LAPD 
officers from asking people about their  citizenship status. So much 
for working with the feds.

Medical-marijuana dispensaries exist legally under  state law, but 
not under federal law. In L.A., city  officials are finally trying to 
craft regulations that  will make them less flagrant for feds to 
bust. But the  DEA doesn't care what the city or the state does.

That leaves the LAPD in an awkward situation, but selectively picking 
which laws it will enforce and which it will ignore does nothing to 
enhance the department's credibility.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom