Organizers of a rally in Manitou Springs that was intended to educate the public about the benefits of marijuana use are complaining that the city’s police department snuffed out their event Saturday.
Police, however, say they only told a handful of vendors who were part of the event that they had to discontinue food sales because they lacked the proper city permit – and never ordered an end to the rally.
The dispute occurred less than two weeks before Manitou Springs voters will decide whether to ban recreational marijuana sales in the city.
Manitou’s City Council had approved such sales – which were allowed as a result of the passage of a statewide constitutional amendment in 2012 – and the city’s first recreational marijuana store opened in July. However, a Nov. 4 ballot measure asks city residents if they want to reverse the council’s action.
Saturday’s flap took place around 10-10:30 a.m., as some people opposed to the ballot measure gathered near the 300 block of Manitou Avenue in Manitou Springs.
Event organizers couldn’t be reached for comment.
But a Facebook post by a Manitou resident who appeared to be an organizer contends that “our political event” was shut down by police. Manitou Councilman Kevin “Sarge” Mac Donald told television station KRDO that the event had become “a big fiasco” because of the interference by Manitou Springs police; Mac Donald told the TV station that he steered the rally’s organizers to the city to obtain the proper approvals for the event.
Although police say they only told food vendors to pack up because they lacked the proper permit, Mac Donald told The Gazette that “if you take away all the vendors that they had, and leave them standing there with their posters, then what’s a rally? It’s just a bunch of people standing around with posters.”
Officer Odette Saglimbeni, a Manitou Springs Police spokeswoman, told The Gazette that the failure of vendors to have the proper city permit for food sales was called to the attention of the city’s code enforcement officer. Once that was confirmed, police asked vendors to leave.
“It had absolutely nothing to do with the rally,” Saglimbeni said of the police’s response. “They were free to continue on about their business as they were before. We were simply there to make sure that the vendors had shut down and once that happened, we left. If they stopped their rally, it was completely on their own accord. It had nothing to do with the police.”
In a video posted on Facebook that was taken at the rally, an unidentified Manitou Springs Police sergeant can be heard telling what appears to be a rally organizer, “you can be out here politically, but serving food without the proper permits, you can’t do it.”
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Contact Rich Laden: 636-0228
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Different sides have different views in snuffing out of Manitou Springs marijuana rally
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