Montebello Protest
October 9th, 2009 | by Don Duncan |
More than one hundred people showed up to protest a training luncheon hosted by the California Narcotics Officers Association (CNOA) at the Montebello Country Club on Wednesday morning. The training is one of a series designed to teach local police and prosecutors how to close medical cannabis collectives. Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley told reporters afterwards that “about 100%” of collectives are illegal and vowed to close them down.
Read more about the significance of Cooley’s comments on the Americans for Safe Access (ASA Blog) – “Speaking Up to Rattling Sabers.”
Sometimes it is hard to tell if you are making a difference at a protest. Wednesday was not one of those days. We scheduled the protest to reach its peak attendance just as officers were arriving for lunch. There was a massive traffic jam entering the Montebello Country Club, so attendees had to creep slowly past our signs before turning right. I have never seen so many scowling faces behind the tinted glass of government-issued sedans.
At one point, a senior staff member from City Attorney Trutanich’s staff got out of his car and approached Yami Bolanos from Purelife Alternative. He recognized Yami from a meeting she attended at his office with ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford and me in August. He tried to tell Yami that the City Attorney was working to help patients by only targeting the bad collectives. “That’s not what your flyer says,” Yami replied and presented a copy of the invitation reading “Eradicating Medical Cannabis Dispensaries in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.”
Media coverage for the protest was uncharacteristically good. KTLA, FOX, the LA Times, the NY Times, and others covered the protest before cornering District Attorney Cooley outside the restaurant. I was even interviewed by a film crew from National Geographic! We can never know when there may be a chance to use the media to frame the debate about medical cannabis. Every protester should be dressed in a professional manner (or at least be presentable!) and ready with talking points. You could be the one in the paper or on TV telling the patients’ side of the story.
The medical cannabis community has come a long way since 2005, when only a dozen dissidents turned out to protest Drug Enforcement Administration raids in Los Angeles. On Wednesday, more than one hundred came – bringing signs, bullhorns, and drinking water to share. Nicely done!
Protesters gather in Montebello
GLACA members at the protest
Tags: carmen trutanich, medical cannabis, Montebello, protest, steve cooley, yami bolanos
By mark on Oct 11, 2009
While no one could have foreseen this level of betrayal of campaign promises, why don’t you put Trutanich on the spot for getting you, Don, to get the community out to campaign for him?
Lots of people not only voted but made calls, walked precincts, joined him in the smiling photo thing on the night of May 19th.
You wrote about what a victory it was for the community. Don’t let him get away with hiding behind Cooley’s coattails and pretending that this is some sort of new reaction to Holder’s comments in February as they are – that was months before the election.
They’re pandering to their rightwing Republican base instead of honoring the intent and spirit of 215, flipping off the State Attorney General himself as well as the voters – don’t let them get away with pretending they’re somehow only doing this to “keep their promises to uphold state law.” They’re twisting it for partisan purposes to shore up their personal political futures. As we tell our kids, “character counts.”
By herbalicious on Oct 15, 2009
http://waronme.blogspot.com/2009/10/trutanich-throws-medical-cannabis.html
Mark,
You’re comments sparked me to write a blog about the topic. I know I voted for and even rallied others to vote for FALSEtanich. I sent emails, changed my facebook status, posted at least 7 facebook notes (tagging everyone in LA). And I even posted it to the CA Drug Policy Forum that many of us use. I truly believe the medical cannabis community got FALSEtanich elected and I believe we can get him unelected too.
By mark on Oct 17, 2009
herbalicious, checked out your blog, cool, good reminder of the history and framework of this.
Check out the article and video in today’s LACityWatch.com, the blog of the conservative- skewing Neighborhood Council people, something like “Did the City Attorney Act Like A Bully?” to a female medical cannabis advocate and patient (cancer survivor) who questioned his methodology and reasoning to claim pesticide-spiked pot as the pretext to ban all dispensaries. This was at last Sat’s monthly meeting of NC’s at City Hall. She was trying to argue that it would have taken much bigger samples than Trutanich used (along the lines of yesterday’s post in this blog) but he totally lost it and walked right upto her face as if he were interrogating a hostile witness in court, yelled at her to be quiet and go sit down and go home and feed her kid lead and spray pesticide on their salads if she so didn’t care about health. She tried to hold her own but according to the article really fell apart outside. The next woman in line to speak said, “so you’re being a hard-ass about it,” and he screamed into her face, “I’m not hard-ass! I’m compassionate!” OK if he says so, but sounds to me to use his phrase on Fox TV, “if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck,” sure sounds like a bully to me.
By coincidence (?) tonight’s L A Times features a story (by Phil Willon, City Hall reporter) that “City Attorney Threatens Officials with Jail Time in Sign Fight.” Told the head of Building & Safety he’d jail him if he dared allow AEG Live to put up signs per a grandfathered deal he must have missed, and told Councilwoman Jan Perry he’d toss her in jail if she continued to challenge him.
FALSEtanich sounds a little…? Out of control? Abusing his power big-time? Ethically and legally challenged seems just a start.
By herbalicious on Oct 17, 2009
Mark,
Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, I saw the video and read the article of FALSEtanich yelling at the medical cannabis patient and I regretted ever voting for him and asking others to vote for him too.
Herbalicious