AURORA | Whether smoking marijuana on private property — but in potentially public view — is illegal may be largely left to individual police officers, a city council committee heard Tuesday.
“Our officers make reasonable decisions and exercise discretion over reasonable quality-of-life decisions every day,” said police Chief Dan Oates during a meeting of the Aurora City Council’s Amendment 64 Ad Hoc Committee at city hall.
“Public and private places can become thorny issues,” said Assistant City Attorney Dave Lathers, referencing a recent issue in Denver’s city council where residents sparred over whether consumption on private property would be classified as a crime. “Our neighbors (Denver) nearly died in that ditch. I suggest that we don’t die in that ditch.”
The committee discussed proposed legislation that would leave undefined whether citizens could smoke marijuana on their front porches, yards or driveways. As it stands, police would decide whether a complaint of smoking marijuana was a nuisance. In the end, the issue of whether it would be a crime to smoke marijuana in plain view on private property was left largely unchanged.
At the meeting, Lathers compared the process to an adult drinking a beer while washing a car in a driveway. Police likely wouldn’t see a problem if an adult was drinking a beer on private property while washing a car in plain view of children. However, he said, if the adult were urinating instead of drinking a beer, officers may have a problem with that.
Oates said he was confident officers could discern between nuisance and constitutional right, and wanted to leave option the option for cops to write tickets.
“If someone is (smoking) marijuana on their front yard, there’s a question of open consumption, especially if we’re getting complaints from someone in the community about that behavior … I want to — under what we put forward here — to reserve the option to pursue that as a violation, and we’ll see where that works out in court,” said Oates.
Dan Oates has no concept of constitutional rights. He is an oath breaker and should be treated with disdain.
What are you expecting from a Democrat, New Yorker and Obama lover?
He probably has an autographed and framed picture of the POTUS in his office.
I’ve been worried sick for this city since the day I saw him take that presidential ride.
There’s always Marijuana Jury Nullification for when authority becomes overbearing. https://FB.com/MJNullification
Police are more prone to enforce than to accept given the option. But, as the article says, “we’ll see where that works out in court”. If there are no convictions, there will be fewer arrests and violations cited.
we’ll see where that works out in court
we’ll see where that works out in court
we’ll see where that works out in court
Be sure to tell everyone you know about Jury Nullification, not just for weed, but for every unjust law. The citizen is the final check against an over reaching government.
Wrong and not in this city Kevin. They don’t have time to enforce it because they are short handed and have far worse offenses to get after than an irritating neighbor.
Here’s a question. Why does everything with this Chief have to land up in court? Even his own employees sue this guy.
Wrong how? The fact is that laws are being enforced still. Until the laws change, the cops will continue to enforce whatever laws they can. This is when jury nullification is about the only option to reduce the problem from the civilian side. It should not end up in court, but the truth is that it will and we need to use every possible way to convey the message that we do not support enforcement of unjust laws (even in our courts).
How many tickets have been written by APD officers because someone complained about a neighbor smoking weed in public?
We really need a new Police Chief.. Maybe one we can respect!
T.Bell
Reading this makes my head spin!
It’s legal to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes on Private Property, as should marijuana! Discussion OVER! DONE! NEXT ====>
I COULDN’T AGREE ANY MORE THE CHIEF OATED, REALLY HAS LOST HIS MIND AND HIS BROWN NOSING FRIENDS NEED TO