Rancho Cordova Police Department (RCPD) has given the Compton City Council a first-hand look at the unintended consequences of implementing a ban on flavored tobacco and menthol products.
On April 28th a video was uploaded to Twitter which shows a snippet of an exchange between a young Black man and a white RCPD officer which has garnered over 7.4 million views.
The video shows the officer punching the 14-year-old in the face and driving his face into the dirt for simple possession of a swisher sweet. Visions of Eric Garner in a chokehold over selling loose cigarettes and dying on the street flash through our minds.
City Attorney Damon Brown, in conjunction with Mayor Aja Brown and Councilwoman Emma Sharif, have reignited their quest to ban certain tobacco products due to alleged ties to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
It is disheartening that they are attempting to use a global pandemic to push an agenda entailing taking away the rights of Black and Latino residents, many who use cigarettes to ease their nerves during this stressful time.
Rancho Cordova, which is located in Sacramento County, does not have a ban on either flavored tobacco or menthol, so it is unknown why the officer became so aggressive with the teen.
These bans, as highlighted by criminal justice advocates, underscore the need to closely examine the potential deadly consequences that could derive from enforcement.
In January, USC Law Professor Jody Armour spoke to the Compton council about the unintended consequences of a tobacco ban that would disproportionately affect African-American’s by resulting in more traffic stops.
Mayor Brown spoke passionately at a “know your rights” forum about being pulled over by Compton deputies, with her family in the car, while she was the driver. She spoke about how the situation frightened her especially due to her daughter being in the backseat.
Mayor Brown would not like to see her daughter face down in the dirt, on social media, for simply possessing a banned menthol cigarette and law enforcement blaming her daughter for “not following their commands”.
Everyone on the Compton dais has children that could also become victims of abusive cops who could inaccurately conclude they are in possession of a banned substance that warrants unnecessary contact with law enforcement professionals.
Residents expected more from Councilwoman Emma Sharif who previously served twelve years on the Compton School Board. Sharif failed to adequately address this issue by suggesting educating the students on the impacts of smoking
Instead, Sharif allowed children to be traumatized through suspension for possession. Our children have been traumatized enough.
Residents have grown accustomed to Sharif being unprepared and at time simply in a fog about issues presented before her. During the last discussion on tobacco she sounded like she had no clue what was going on and didn’t do any research on the topic instead choosing to listen to outsiders who brought forth no factual connection between the right to smoke and contracting the coronavirus.
Attorney Brown has a son that could also come into the crosshairs of law enforcement should he decide he wants to smoke and/or hang with friends that do. Would a ban justify the police shoving his child face first into the dirt because his dad drafted an ordinance making menthol cigarettes illegal to possess?
This council should be proactive and seek ways to work with the school district to find creative ways to educate our youth on the impact of smoking. The school district has contact with the children and can assist in obtaining the funding needed to create such a program.
Again, there is no factual link between cigarettes and COVID-19 but there is a direct link between Blacks suffering abuse at the hands of law enforcement that the city attorney chooses to ignore.
When city’s ban legal substances they are in essence giving law enforcement the green light to continue their unbalanced harassment of minorities, who have the ultimate right to use these products.
Are the lives of Compton residents worth the risk of this particular ban?
Police officers in Rancho Cordova, CA using excessive, and lethal force on a 14 year-old child after accusing him of smoking
This little boy has a heart condition and is still suffering chest pains after this.
His family wants JUSTICE #Justice4JAHpic.twitter.com/bVdOcKhyfT
— StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) April 28, 2020
3 Comments
So will menthol cough drops be banned as well? How dumb is this ?
I don’t understand why this is being singled out as only applying to people that aren’t considered “white”, since many millions of men and women around the country, of various backgrounds or ethnicities, smoke menthol cigarettes.
There is so much misdirection, and outright lying about tobacco products (by which I mean everything we’re told, basically) that are constantly being drilled into the popukace’s minds, through underhanded propaganda tactics, that everyone seems to have no clue as to what all of the tobacco regulations actually exist for: generating revenue.
The farcical, and completely contrived, notion of “secondhand smoke”, which has no real science to back up the outlandish claims we’re told daily, is the perfect example of how far this has gone. So many people these days actually believe every ridiculous lie said about the smell of tobacco smoke, but nobody freaks out about sitting next to a campfire that contains far more burning organic matter than a tiny cigarette, even though the smoke is virtually identical, minus the nicotine, which isn’t harmful, anyhow.
The worst part is that everyone gets all of this supposedly “scientifically proven” information from television advertisements. If you turned in a paper to a college professor, and cited TV commercials as research, you’d get laughed at, and deservedly so, but our lives revolve around the outlandish lies claims made in those adverts, and our freedom and liberties are constantly being compromised because people won’t listen to reason, or even use their own brains.
The government doesn’t care about anyone’s health, that doesn’t make any sense from a businessman’s point of view. The government only cares about one thing, and it’s preceeded by a dollar sign.
Since Compton voters still have not learned that their entire city council, including their mayor, is totally clueless, hapless, and incompetent, it should come as no surprise that they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity to display their ignorance. These are the same people and the same city council that wanted and still wants to hoist marijuana dispenseries upon the city for profit. So it’s ok to smoke marijuana but not certain kinds of cigarettes. YES that’s what we got!