Chief Stephen Mills is a municipal police chief in central Oklahoma. He published this assessment of the Norman pipe shop acquittal, in his blog, Peace Officers & Liberty. Yesterday, a little before 10:00 pm a Cleveland county Jury returned a Not Guilty verdict against the owners and management of the Friendly Market in Norman Oklahoma. For those of you not familiar with the case, the market owners and management as well as store employees were charged with possession of drug paraphernalia due to the store selling glass ware and items that could be used to consume drugs. There is a state statute that prohibits selling glass pipes knowingly to be used to consume drugs. Due to the particular zeal of a small group of officers, Norman has long had a zero tolerance policy on the selling of glass pipes. Generally once a store is identified as selling these items the police will notify they store the items are used to consume drugs and therefore can’t be legally sold. If the store refuses to stop selling the items the police will come in and seize all the cash on hand in the store as well as various merchandise items deemed seizable under asset forfeiture laws. |
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Sooner Politics
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