Married couple Wesley and Eshanae Chumbler were traveling with their 3-year-old child across the Illinois border into Kentucky when they were stopped at a police checkpoint by Kentucky law enforcement. For reasons that were hard to discern, police asked law enforcement to park their car on the side of the road. After asking Eshanae, who was driving the vehicle, to show her insurance information and driver’s license, police asked her to step out the car, and would not provide a reason when asked for one. When the couple refused, police violently forced them from their vehicle. Wesley was thrown to the ground in the process, and lost three teeth as a result. Officers proceeded to conduct a search on the vehicle, finding a small amount of marijuana. Cannabis is legal in Illinois, but not in Kentucky. The Chumblers say they were not aware that the marijuana was even in their vehicle. Kentucky police proceeded to arrest the couple for possession, and slapped additional charges on husband Wesley for obstruction.
The Chumblers’ case exemplifies how law enforcement is conducting itself across the country. Police departments emphasize the collection of fines and fees needed to continue feeding their ever-expanding budgets, rather than activities that promote the safety and health of communities. As cannabis laws change at an uneven pace throughout the country, states that still criminalize marijuana are increasingly targeting interstate travelers for legally questionable “fishing operations” that often trap unwitting drivers into legal nightmares far from home.
Studio: Stephen Janis
Post-Production: Stephen Janis, Adam Coley
Transcript
The transcript of this interview will be made available as soon as possible.
This post was originally published on The Real News Network.