Police Beat

Kayla Webley
2005-02-03
The Daily

Weed whackers

UW Police Department officers observed a group huddled close together in the small entry alcove of the abandoned Northlake building at 3 a.m. Jan. 22.

Officers decided to contact the group -- who were all later identified as UW students -- because they knew the empty building is "frequently used for narcotics use."

As officers got out of their vehicle, they immediately smelled the odor of burnt marijuana. Officers made contact with the individuals and told them they were not free to leave, as officers believed they were smoking marijuana.

"Yeah, okay," replied an unknown member of the group. Officers told the students that it would be fair if the marijuana were given to them. One student handed a small bag of marijuana and a glass pipe to the officers.

The students received a warning but no further action was taken because of their compliance and the small amount of marijuana in their possession.

'Not enough' alcohol

UWPD officers observed a group of males with open containers talking loudly on the 2100 block of Northeast 47th Street. at 2:15 a.m. Jan. 22.

The two men began to walk away when they saw officers approaching. Officers called after the men to come back twice, using loud voices before they responded. One man threw his Bud Light beer can into a bush before turning around to face the officers, while the other man kept a half-full bottle of Bacardi Rum in his back pocket.

When the officers poured the rum out, the man told them that it was not his and he was just holding it for a friend.

When an officer asked one of the men how much alcohol he had consumed during the evening, the man replied, "Not enough." Officers then asked him if he had a problem with alcohol, to which he replied, "I wish."

When officers told the man that he would be served with a subpoena for being a minor in possession of alcohol, the man told officers he worked at a law firm, so "this would all be taken care of."

Pro-choice poster bandit

UWPD officers responded to a disorderly person in the breezeway of the Allen Library at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 24.

Officers observed a man who appeared to be forcibly trying to disrupt a group of women by not allowing them to put their posters on the ground and attempting to destroy the posters.

Officers pulled the man aside and asked him to explain what he was doing. The man said the women were "killers," and he completely disagreed with the "pro-abortion" posters they were placing on the ground.

Officers told the man that he could not violate the women's constitutional right of free speech. They told the man the proper way to voice his concerns in a "contemporary society" included expressing his own opinions in a designated area.