November 1, 2013

South Carolina Police Chief Threatens Facebook User After Pro-Marijuana Comment

November 1, 2013
police authority

It’s been a wild week for police officers and marijuana comments on Facebook. I recently wrote about a Missouri police officer that inferred marijuana activists are ‘stupid welfare-sucking potheads who probably can’t read.’ If that wasn’t ridiculous enough, it appears now that a police chief in South Carolina issued a threat to a Facebook user because he suggested the police focus on real crime.

According to Raw Story:

A South Carolina police chief threatened a resident with possible arrest Thursday for making pro-legalization comments about marijuana in a Facebook post about a drug suspect’s arrest. Interim Police Chief Ruben Santiago announced on the Facebook page for the Columbia Police Department that officers had seized about $40,000 in marijuana from an apartment during a drug investigation.

Below is the screen shot of the Facebook post by the police, as well as the screen shot of the comment that resulted in the threat:

facebook police threat marijuana
via popehat.com

 

What is sad to me is not only did the police feel that this comment was appropriate, but it looks like five of their friends agree based upon the number of ‘likes’ the comment received. Brandon Whitmer didn’t say, ‘hey cops, I’m participating in criminal behavior.’ He was making a public policy statement suggesting that public resources would be better spent going after violent criminals instead of harmless marijuana consumers. The response by the police station was very unprofessional, and is clearly trying to intimidate Mr. Whitmer into giving up his First Amendment right to speak freely.

I hope the ACLU in South Carolina is aware of this attempt by a public employee to squash the rights of a South Carolina citizen. There is simply no excuse for this. If you would like to send a message to the police station from this article, here is their Facebook, and their ‘contact us’ page from their website. If you look at the ‘contact us’ page, you will see the police chief’s phone number located at the top. And if the police chief just so happens to come across this article – THREATEN ME ALL YOU WANT. THREATS LIKE THAT MIGHT FLY IN SOUTH CAROLINA, BUT I’M IN OREGON, AND WE DON’T TAKE THAT CRAP!

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