A viral video shows North Carolina police enter a home without a warrant on April 8th because they smelled marijuana.
Residents became upset about being violated and pandemonium ensued when the officers realized they were being recorded.
Vera McGriff, who initially posted the viral video, said police came to her door and demanded to search the house.
When she refused because the officer did not present a search warrant, eight cops barged in anyway and began terrorizing the household.
“I told the officer, No you cannot come in my house without a search warrant. The officer put his foot at the bottom of the door and 4 of them bum rushed me …”
After barging in without a warrant, Durham police claimed two of their officers were assaulted, but McGriff and the video tell a different story.
“Everybody was tased, one officer hit my son in the face with his Glock 9, we were choked, kicked, thrown down on the floor,” McGriff stated, according to opposingviews.com.
When they arrived, police did not have a warrant at 10:30 pm.
Only after they were already inside of the home, and had everyone detained, did they go to a judge and return with a warrant at 12:50 am.
McGriff wrote on Facebook, “We all sat in handcuffs for 4-5 hours while they waited for the search warrant.”
In the warrant, Officer J.M. Foster said he received information from another officer that Khadir Cherry was selling drugs when he was arrested on April 4th.
Foster stated that he was just conducting a follow up investigation at the home of Cherry when he encountered Raynell Hall in the driveway and asked to talk to the homeowner, Vera McGriff.
He stated that when Hall opened the door and walked inside, he smelled marijuana.
In the warrant he wrote, “Through my training and experience I know that the only thing that smells like marijuana is marijuana,” he said in the warrant.”
That’s when police decided to “seize the house” and conduct “safety sweep for suspect,” according to the petition for the warrant.
Wil Glenn, a spokesperson for Durham police, explained why residents in the home were tased, “In order to execute the arrests during the volatile scene, officers deployed a Taser on Mr. Hall and an officer struck Mr. Cherry with a baton in the area between the hip and knee.”
Police charged42-year-old Raynell Hall with assault on a government officer and resisting a public officer, which is a tactic police often use to avoid civil liability.
Police also charged 24-year-lold Jahmon Cedeno with assault on a government official.
Khadir Cherry was arrested, again, for possession of marijuana with the intent to sell, as well as assault on a public officer and resisting.
And homeowner 48-year-old Vera McGriff was charged with maintaining a dwelling and resisting a public officer.
McGriff wrote on Facebook after being released from jail.
“After being falsely accused of using and harboring marijuana, we were subject to the physical assault and terrorizing actions from a gang of police officers that included assaults with batons, an officer’s gun and over four hours of handcuffed detainment. The terror, by these officers, did not stop when my 11 year old son, recently home from the hospital, began to vomit and seize. Nor did they stop when my 10 year old daughter screamed and called out to her mommy in fear.”
The video raised questions from the public about harassment, use of force, warrantless searches and racial profiling.
But Durham police say they were responding to complaints about drug dealing.
Nia Wilson, executive director of community organizing non-profit SpiritHouse said, “such searches are not unique in Durham and support the contention that police are using marijuana enforcement to intimidate and ‘terrorize members’ of the black and brown community.”
In November of 2015, a Self-Help Credit Union report found that, African Americans continue to comprise over 80% of the people charged for misdemeanor marijuana violations, while whites remain a small fraction of those charged.
The report also found that African Americans ages 25 and under represent about %15 of Durham’s population, yet this group represents %46 of misdemeanor marijuana charges.
Further, only %12 of misdemeanor marijuana charges are instigated by a citizen complaint. The overwhelming majority are actions initiated by the DPD.
In another study, a recent RTI International study commissioned by Durham interim police Chief Larry Smith, results concluded HEAT officers disproportionately stopped black drivers.
The illegal invasion seen in the video, as well as the subsequent arrests, were carried out by HEAT officers.
HEAT officers are used by the department to handle so-called crime “hot spots”, according to the city of Durham’s website.
According to newsobserver.com, Charlie Reece, a Durham City Councilman, who is an attorney and former assisted attorney general, said he wants to look into how HEAT operates from a policy maker’s point of view.
“I think once we are confronted with the reality of what these situations look like from the perspective of the people who live inside a home where this happens, I think it forces all of us to confront whether or not this is the best interest of our city. That’s the conversation I intend to move forward in the weeks and months ahead.”
While we’re at it, let’s also take a look at the issue of the war on drugs nationwide.
HEAT is operating on tax payer funds. And one would bet the tax payers could find better ways to spend their money, rather than using it to enter homes without a warrant to terrorize folks inside–for smoking a plant.
McGriff’s video is just one more example of why the conversation of the war on drugs has come to the the forefront.
And it looks like the people have had enough.
The question is, when will the politicians actually listen?
https://www.facebook.com/RaphaelRJ2/videos/10154024254309526/
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