[resipsa]

Please come out and support Peter Keyes is you can, he'll be coming from Sacramento so it's unlikely friends and family from home will be there.


What: Keyes vs. Burbank Airport Police
When: Tuesday, December 4th, 8:30am
Where: Burbank Courthouse, 300 East Olive Avenue, Burbank, Ca.
Courtroom 3
Why: To deter senseless police brutality imposed upon traveling patients

On January 14th, 2007, veteran medical marijuana patient/advocate
Peter G. Keyes was apprehended by police at Burbank's Bob Hope
Airport. Peter was returning home from the 2nd statewide conference
of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the largest medical marijuana
advocacy group in the nation. Peter declared his documented patient
status outright, but the airport police have a policy of arresting
everybody caught with cannabis, doctor's recommendation or not. The
officers were able to find about 2 grams of pot on the patient, but
not until after they had engaged in some invasive and brutal search
methods.

One particular officer's conduct was so extreme that the police must
now answer to charges of excessive force in State Court.

Peter was arrested and released. His charges were dismissed upon
presentation of Peter's physician's statement recommending that he use
medicinal cannabis. Assisted by ASA's brilliant attorney Joseph
Elford, Peter filed for the return of his property - medical marijuana
and a pipe. That request was ultimately denied by Court Commissioner
Kirkland Nyby. The unfavorable decision has been appealed all the way
to the State Supreme Court.

Representatives of the Burbank/Glendale/Pasadena Airport Authority
will face excessive force charges on Tuesday, December 4th at 8:30am,
in courtroom 3, at the Burbank Courthouse, 300 Olive Avenue, in
Burbank California.

[JwheelOU812]

Looks like Burbank airport police are going to get there just due. Hope this sends a message to airport police that MMj patients have protection from this kind of behavior.

[DSW90049]

Go figure. Airport cops feel so strongly about enforcing non-existent MJ laws that they rough up a MMJ activist. Why oh why don't they focus on real crime and stop wasting our tax dollars. I thought we were engaged in a War on Terror- what, was he going to hijack a plane with his 2 grams of MMJ? Give me a break.

[stanley]

Someone should ask these thugs in Police uniforms how their action made flying or the public ANY safer.

Public Safety Officers my ass.

While they were hassling legitimate MMJ patients, BillyBob the BOMB maker was dancing thru the airport....

Someday, we will have educated the public well enough that they will not TOLERATE squandering our police efforts on idiotic persecution of non-threatening patients.

If indeed the officers involved are guilty (yes they get there day in court too), I hope they are SEVERELY punished.

A message MUST be sent.

Update?

[pot4life]

"Hey, what are you doing?" Cried patient Peter Keyes, as the stern female officer grabbed him in the groin area.

"She’s allowed to do that," retorted Officer Shannon.

Peter was in the process of being arrested, detained, cited and released for possession of marijuana at Burbank, California’s Bob Hope Airport. Police their arrest everybody caught with marijuana, regardless of any medical documentation, and pursue criminal court cases against the hapless traveling patients.

"She crushed my testicles! She caused me considerable pain," complained Peter - a 95 pound, vegetarian peace and pot advocate. When Peter presented his doctor’s recommendation for medical marijuana, the court quickly and quietly dismissed the case against him.

All negotiations to try to coax a reasonable policy out of the airport have so far been unsuccessful. At one point, the Chief of Police for the airport, Ed Skvarna said, "I have nothing against medical marijuana. If our lawyer finds that our policy is unlawful, we will be glad to come into compliance with the law."

But on February 4, 2008, Paul Coble, attorney for the Airport Police, wrote, "[T]he Compassionate Use Act found in California law does not...exempt anyone from arrest or citation for possession of marijuana...Airport Police... take appropriate enforcement action, i.e., the seizure of the marijuana and, if found appropriate, the issuance of a citation..."

Bob Hope Airport’s misguided policy continues, unabated.

Other notable patients who have been falsely arrested at Bob Hope Airport for their medical marijuana include Snoop Doggy Dogg, Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana director Valerie Coral, and Christopher Fusco, formerly of Americans for Safe Access to Medical Marijuana.

Please take a moment to copy and paste the letter below, altering it to suit your personality, and send it to this form:

http://www.burbankairport.com/contact-form.html

Or even better, write your own letter, and send it through the airport’s convenient comment form!

Thank you for helping to encourage Bob Hope Airport to adopt a more compassionate medical marijuana policy.

************************************************** ******************************

To: Ed Skvarna, Chief of Police, Bob Hope Airport

Dear Chief Skvarna,

I am writing to urge you to adopt a reasonable, compassionate, lawful policy in regards to encounters with qualified medical marijuana patients at the Airport.

It has come to my attention that many patients have been falsely arrested, detained, cited and had their medicine confiscated at the Airport. Some of those documented, qualified patients include Valerie Corral, Peter Keyes, Chris Fusco, and Calvin Broadus.

LAX, SFO, Oakland Airport, and the California Highway Patrol all permit qualified patients to transport their medicine unmolested. I urge you to adopt a similar policy at Bob Hope Airport.

Thank You,