feelinghellastabby:

Just this morning, the local news was reporting that the Long Beach police raided a pot dispensary that didn’t have the proper permit. Trashed the place, roughed up a few employees while arresting them, and then took metal poles and smashed the cameras in the dispensaries to hide their obvious abuse of power and use of excessive force. Thankfully the cameras’ digital video was being fed directly into a hard drive, which kept the video of their abuse intact until the camera was physically destroyed. All this because the dispensary didn’t have the proper PERMIT.

LONG BEACH - A review was under way today into allegations that Long Beach police used excessive force during a raid of a medical marijuana dispensary.

Video of the raid shows a Long Beach police officer stepping on the neck of a dispensary worker and another using a club to disable a surveillance camera.

The THC Downtown Collective in the 300 block of Atlantic Avenue was raided on June 19, according to Long Beach police spokeswoman Nancy Pratt.

The dispensary owner’s attorney, Mission Viejo-based Matthew Pappas, plans to file a claim on behalf of his client, he told the LA Weekly.

Five men were arrested during the service of a search warrant at the dispensary, which was raided because it did not have a permit, Pratt said in a statement.

“A thorough review into what occurred during that operation will be conducted once all of the facts have been collected,” Pratt said. “This is a personnel matter and we are unable to discuss any further details.

“The Long Beach Police Department takes any act or potential act of misconduct seriously.”

Anyone with information about the raid was asked to call the department’s Internal Affairs Division at (562) 570-7343.