Indianapolis City County Councillor Zach Adamson is not exactly pleased with the Police Chief’s comparison of the First Church of Cannabis to the Jim Jones massacre. Adamson is also furious at what he called “police overreach” in response to the church opening their doors to the public last Wednesday.
Adamson issued a statement calling out the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s response to the First Church of Cannabis on July 1st, the first day that Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act went into effect. The First Church of Cannabis argues that the new state law protects their right to smoke marijuana within a religious setting.
Adamson’s full statement reads as follows:
Yesterday, as Hoosiers watched as several new state laws took effect, one issue of particular local interest has been a bit more high profile in the news. Specifically, The First Church of Cannabis, as they push the limits of the liberties the state says they wanted to protect.
Sadly, more than the reaction of the state, the OVER-reaction by local authorities has been of greater disappointment. Indianapolis residents have watched over the weeks as the media wars on both side of the issue have battled it out on both mainstream and social media.
“I’ve been very troubled by the reaction by our city and the by and large overreaction by our police chief, who actually compared this religious institution’s leader to Jim Jones. That’s a jaw-dropping comparison to a horrific crime and it is an insult to the lives that were lost in that tragedy. It is even more disappointing to see this overreaction using scarce public safety resources during a time of great need in our neighborhoods”, said City-County Councilor Zach Adamson.
Adamson continued, “Many residents have rightfully raised concerns about the city’s inappropriate use of taxpayer resources to fund harassment of this minority religious group. After reading several media reports of selective enforcement of municipal ordinances, the undue installation of police surveillance cameras – at a time when so many of our areas hardest hit by crime don’t have such attention – and the literal recruitment of opposition protesters by the mayors IMPD chief, many fear that Chief Hite’s actions have exposed the City of Indianapolis to expensive and preventable civil liabilities for violations of Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, among others.
As our city saw with yesterday morning’s homicide on the near northwest side, we need more officers on the streets and more dollars for neighborhood policing strategies – not unwarranted harassment.”
The Council intends to take all possible actions to give IMPD the necessary tools they need to prioritize enforcement and we hope that we can pull back this encroachment onto the religious freedom of our residents. We call on the public safety agencies to allocate the officers and cameras where our residents have, for years, been begging for them and stop this highly inappropriate use of scarce taxpayer resources. We also call on Chief Hite to issue an immediate apology for the inappropriate invoking of the Jonestown Massacre.
Our citizen journalists were on the scene throughout the whole service. They were subjected to police checkpoints and witnessed literally hundreds of police officers surrounding the building.
Two plain clothed officers were spotted sitting in the very last row of the church. Both of the muscular men refused to stand, clap or participate in services at any time.
The city wasn’t content just to place undercover Narc agents in the service. They also had the city install surveillance cameras, pointing right at the church building. The installation was scheduled to take place as congregants arrived, just to send a message that “you are being watched.”
(Article by M. David)
