Global Ganja Report

California cannabis activist Ed Rosenthal has filed the first formal complaint in a notorious SWAT team raid of a home in Columbia, Mo., that has garnered more than a million hits on YouTube.

Rosenthal is challenging the decision of  Police Chief Ken Burton to exonerate the officers involved. Rosenthal said there was no reason for a forced entry into the home where a small amount of marijuana was found, and that the shooting of a small dog in the February raid was "unwarranted."

The appeal is the first for Columbia's Citizens Police Review Board, which has been authorized to accept appeals since Jan. 1.

The letter, dated June 10 and received by Columbia police last week, calls for an appeal of the investigation into the actions of an eight-member SWAT team that raided 1501 Kinloch Court in southwest Columbia, held a family at gunpoint, and fired shots. Two dogs were shot in the raid, one fatally, as the terrified family looked on. Only a misdemeanor amount of marijuana was found.

Resident Jonathan Whitworth was also roughly treated in front of his wife and child. Rosenthal claims Whitworth complied with officers and should not have been "manhandled." (Columbia Tribune, KRCG, Columbia, June 21)

Photo by thivierr.