Video: Police raid second cannabis store in Six Nations within 10 days
Chair of Six Nations People’s Cannabis Coalition once again demands to speak with Deputy Chief Tim Bomberry about ongoing raids on sovereign dispensaries after the Purple Room had its products stolen.
SIX NATIONS – On Thursday May 13th, the Six Nations Police Department (SNPD) raided the Purple Room, a medicinal cannabis dispensary on the territory. This marks the second raid by the SNPD on stores affiliated with the Six Nations People’s Cannabis Coalition (SNPCC) within ten days. On May 3rd, the Upper End Stash & Glass store on Sour Springs Road was raided.
SNP officers were seen loading items from the dispensary into an unmarked pickup truck. Officers arrived in three marked Chevy Tahoe SNP cruisers, an unmarked black Tahoe and an unmarked black pickup truck.
Derek Doolittle, the acting chairperson of the SNPCC arrived shortly after the raid occurred, and filmed a portion of the raid and posted it to his Facebook account. In the video Doolittle asks “Who’s in charge here?” A SNPD officer dressed in all black with no badge number or name tag says “I am.” When asked under whose authority he is acting, the officer simply looks down at the large “POLICE” emblazoned on his tactical vest and taps it with his fingers.
When Doolittle continued to ask where SNPD gets their authority from, the officer delivered a boilerplate response, “If you have any questions or concerns you can request to speak to Deputy Chief Tim Bomberry or Chief Jerry Monture, okay?”
The officer in charge and other officers on scene continued to ignore Doolittle’s questions and requests for identification as they got into their vehicles and prepared to leave with the property they had confiscated. Only one officer on the scene provided her badge number and name, however it was inaudible in the video. As the officers walked out of earshot Doolittle loudly demanded to know “Who delegated you your authority?”
It appears at one point Doolittle had to yell “Whoa! Watch out!” as one of the marked SUVs nearly backed into traffic, and the black SUV then nearly collided with it. As they drove off the property Doolittle shouts “You can’t tell me who delegated you your authority? You can’t prove you have authority here! You are acting on sovereign territory land! You do not have the right to act… in this manner!”
After SNPD left Doolittle turned the camera on himself, saying:
“They can’t tell me who they work for, they can’t tell me who delegated them their authority. They can’t tell me if they’ve sworn an oath to an office. They can’t tell me their badge numbers or their names. There is a problem here and it is rampant in our community. This needs to be addressed, okay?”
Doolittle continued, “This has to be addressed one on one at the police station with Tim Bomberry. That’s who I was told to speak to. I’ve already requested multiple, multiple meetings with Tim Bomberry. I’ve called him out personally, I’ve gone to his office, I’ve dropped off papers. The papers necessary to get this dealt with; I have already done that. On top of that I have called him out on social media and everything else that I can possibly think of to get their attention.”
“This is a problem. This was an illegal raid on a dispensary. They had zero authority, zero authority, to come on sovereign land, Six Nations, and take the property out of this store. Keep that in mind, contact SIx Nations Police and make your own complaint. This is gonna go further as far as the legalities of this; they are acting outside the scope of their authority and they are terrified to let you know that. They will not let you know that they are acting illegally, outside of their own oath of office. Keep that in mind.”
Doolittle was granted access to the store after the raid, which he posted to his Facebook account. He noted that the store was left in disarray and product was left behind. “Why did they take (product) if they weren’t going to take it all? What is the point?” As he panned the camera around the empty store Doolittle commented, “It’s just a complete rush job.”