Surveillance video shot at the THC Downtown
Collective in Long Beach, Calif. shows one of the more than a dozen officers
that participated in the raid stepping on a volunteer's back with both feet and
stepping on his neck while arresting him. The man, Dorian Brooks, had
surrendered to police on camera.
In the video, another officer is later seen
destroying a surveillance camera at the dispensary with a metal pole. However,
NBC Los Angeles reports that the video was being recorded off site.
The video was posted to YouTube on July 1 by user
"Long Beach Raids," and came to the attention of officials on July 3,
police told NBC Los Angeles.
Employees of the dispensary are claiming $10,000
in damage and destruction of evidence in addition to allegations of police
brutality.
"A thorough review into what occurred during
that operation will be conducted once all of the facts have been
collected," a police spokesperson said in a prepared statement, calling
the incident "a personnel matter."
Police said that the dispensary had been
operating under state compliance, but did not have a permit from the city of
Long Beach.
In October of last year, a California appeals
court ruling outlawed the city's permit system for pot distributers, though a
reprieve was granted to 18 collectives in February, according to the Contra
Costa Times.
On Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council narrowly
voted down an extension for those permits, which could spell doom for the
city's short-lived legal marijuana industry when the reprieve expires on August
12.
An attorney for Brooks told NBC Los Angeles that
the dispensary was denied a permit by the city.
The raid on the THC Downtown Collective was part
of a wider crackdown by law enforcement across California. In June, federal
authorities arrested six people associated with a chain of Southern California
dispensaries owned by G3 Holistic, Inc. In April, police in Oakland arrested 11
people and seized more than $1 million in cannabis.