April 20, 1999
From The Nelson Daily
ndnews@netidea.com
http://www.nelsondailynews.com/
By Paul DeFelice

A HOLY SMOKE OWNER WRITES...

To the Editor:

I’m writing regarding the Editorial "Seeing both sides through the Smoke" NDN April 14, 1999.
I have an obvious bias as a Holy Smoke owner/defendant. Some comments:

First of all, the Judge did not just "infer" that the police "misrepresented" the facts, staged the evidence, and violated our Chartered rights, he said so! The Judge did not "impugn (impugn: to contest falsely) the character of these men" as you put it. They did it to themselves over 5 days of testimony. That’s a hard thing to fake. The transcripts are there for anyone to read.

Of course I feel sorry for the police and their families who now have to live in this town under the shadow of their past indiscretion, but what about the lives that have been ruined, families torn asunder and costs incurred to peaceful cannabis users by police using Gestapo tactics and taxpayer’s money? Cannabis arrests are up 70% in Nelson. Lucky for the police there is no penalty for violating a person’s rights or they could face a conviction, record, and fines and imprisonment like cannabis users do. A big difference to remember here is that, unlike rights violations, there is no victim/complainant in a drug prohibition crime.

The police are trained, armed members of a paramilitary force. They must be kept under tight regulation if they are not to become more dangerous than the criminals they’re supposed to be chasing. The police here admitted being angry and acting hastily. This is the kind of attitude that leads to people getting hurt. Like 22-year-old Daniel Possee being shot dead by police in his apartment in a Vancouver pot raid, or David Glover who was shot in the chest (and survived) by Vancouver police because they say they thought his TV remote control was a gun. I hope that NCP recruits from Vancouver do not bring this Big City attitude with them.

At Holy Smoke I constantly hear stories of Nelson police conduct that I find offensive. If law enforcers cannot question the validity of law then why are police allowed to set up their propaganda presentations in our schools and shopping malls? They are obviously vested interests lobbying for stricter laws, more power, and more money.

In closing, I would like to thank the hundreds of kind people who donated the thousands of dollars that it took to defend ourselves.