Read the whole article because it’s hilarious.
Officers allegedly raided the diagnostic center, located in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, thinking it was a front for an illegal cannabis cultivation facility, pointing to higher-than-usual energy use and the “distinct odor” of cannabis plants, according to the lawsuit.
MRI machine probably draws quite a bit
“Doctors are just a bunch of overeducated assholes who think they are smarter than everyone else. What could they possibly be doing with all that electricity?”
- LAPD probably
The real takeaway here is that they bullshitted smelling an odor of cannabis when there was none as an excuse to justify starting the raid in the first place. Some officer(s) lied on a form somewhere.
Or an employee regularly smokes a joint in the alley. Article says there was one employee in the office during the raid.
Didn’t they recently rule that cops can no longer use the “I smelled weed” excuse as reasonable suspicion/probable cause? Maybe that was just one state.
Seems doubly ridiculous that this happened in California
And if it did smell like weed near the MRI place, you know what I’d suspect? That’s a venn diagram with cancer patients in the middle.
You really want to crack down on cancer patients?
I don’t know if there is any single takeaway here, this story is just fucking ridiculous on every single level.
- They bullshited themselves into a search warrant based on typical cannabis “investigation methods”.
- In a state where recreational cannabis use is legal.
- Persisted in the search even after their main argument for it, high energy usage indicating a grow-op, fell away when it was clear it was indeed a medical facility.
- Made the motherfucking “Gun flies to MRI” TV trope a certified reality. This is a thing that verifiably happened now.
- Instead of getting help, used a sealed (!) emergency shutdown button…
- …which damaged the machine. And released thousands of dollars worth of helium gas.
- Forgot their loaded magazine on the ground.
This can’t be real. I’m fucking dying over here. Please let there be bodycam footage of the cop speaking in a high pitched voice after. (I know the helium was probably not released into the room, but one can hope I guess)
