Tag Archives: Oregon

Govt Denies Hungry Families Thanksgiving Food Because a Pro-Cannabis Group Donated It

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By John Vibes

Source: TheFreeThoughtProject.com

In the state of Oregon, where marijuana was recently legalized, a government agency has rejected food donations for the holidays because the donations came on the behalf of a marijuana-related organization. A group called Women Leaders in Cannabis was able to raise considerable food donations for people in need and initially their contributions were accepted by Oregon’s Department of Human Services.

However, the agency later changed their mind and decided that they did not want to accept the donations because they did not want to be associated with a substance that is now legal in the state.

Lindsey Jacobsen, the executive director of Women Leaders in Cannabis in Eugene, told KATU that the agency actually gave them a different excuse at first.

“The first place I reached out to was the Department of Human Services because when I was in high school I was in Future Business Leaders of America and we did the same type of program and that’s who we worked with. We discussed in detail how we would make it happen, and a few days later we got a phone call back stating that they wouldn’t be able to work with us due to too much time being spent on it,” she said.

“It’s disheartening. We have lives just like everybody else, families, jobs. We’re just happy to be able to give back now that we have the opportunity to,” she added.

Gene Evans, a DHS spokesman later admitted in a statement to KATU that the donations would be an embarrassment for the government.

“Their decision not to accept the donations was based on discomfort with the connection of a marijuana organization to DHS human services. … The Eugene office felt that baskets sponsored by this organization could create the impression that we endorsed cannabis,” the statement said.

“I don’t see how being involved in a positive way could do any harm. We’ll keep finding people that want to work with us and I think in the future people will be reaching out to us, hopefully,” Jacobsen said after hearing the reason why their donations were rejected.

 

Justice System May Be Deaf & Dumb But Not Blind

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Compare and contrast the following recent police encounters. In the first, a man who was reportedly behaving in a hostile and erratic manner rams his SUV into a police car before they have a chance to pull him over. He leads a second police car on a chase before ramming into a third police vehicle. He backs up the SUV and rams it a second time before being blocked in by the car behind him. The man continues to fight the police as they attempt to get him out of the SUV and is eventually tasered and arrested.

In the second case, a woman in a minivan with five kids on board as passengers are pulled over for going 71 in a 55 mph zone. She argues with the police over the ticket and drives off but is pulled over again shortly after. A police officer tries to pull the kids out of the van before being rushed by the driver’s 14 year son who is tasered. The officer begins smashing the van’s windows with his baton as backup arrives. The woman attempts to flee again and an officer fires three shots at her van. She leads the police on a chase before surrendering in front of a hotel.

There’s a number of different factors behind the approaches taken by the police in the two cases, but one can’t help but wonder if race and class may have played a part in the way the respective drivers were treated. The first case took place in Oregon and the driver was Dave Dahl, a white man and founder of a local bread company. The police knew who he was because they received a call from someone believing he was off his medication and suffering from a mental breakdown. Whether Oregon police are better trained and/or afraid of getting sued, they demonstrated that police can effectively stop potentially dangerous reckless drivers without resorting to guns.

In the second case the driver was Oriana Ferrell, a black woman from Memphis on vacation with her kids. Though she didn’t deal with the situation in the wisest manner, she was not trying to ram the police and the police officers were also at fault for escalating the situation. Because she was stopped in an isolated area and was no doubt aware of the reality of institutional racism, she may have felt a need to flee for the safety of her family. Such fear appears to have been justified by documented police actions such as shooting at her van full of kids.

Dash-cam footage of the incident:

Poor training and systemic corruption may also have been a factor. Just ten days after Ferrell and her family’s near-death experience, a New Mexico police officer shot and killed a woman after a high speed pursuit.

You can more about the contrasting police encounters here:

http://www.katu.com/news/local/Daves-Killer-Bread-founder-in-custody-after-three-deputies-cars-rammed-232046381.html

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/11/police_shoot_at_minivan_full_of_kids_after_traffic_stop_gets_heated.html