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Westword: Marijuana protest at Aurora mall: Pro-pot, no problems
Written by Michael Roberts
Tuesday, 01 June 2010
On Friday, SAFER's Mason Tvert announced that he would lead a march at Town Center of Aurora to protest
the treatment of John Gailey a week earlier.
Back then, Gailey was cited for trespassing and banned from the mall
for a year because he wore a "Yes We Cannabis" T-shirt, and refused to remove it.
Approximately thirty marchers participated in the event, and none of
them were hassled by mall security -- which is the way it should be,
Tvert says.
"The mall was very hands off, and didn't
stop a single person wearing a marijuana T-shirt," Tvert notes. "And we
hope they'll continue that policy in the future."
The group entered the mall together but soon scattered. In Tvert's
words, "Everyone just went off about their business."
He hung around for about 45 minutes or so and was heartened by
comments from store workers. "The staff was incredibly supportive," he
maintains. "Someone in one of the stores said, 'Did you know someone got
thrown out of the mall for wearing a shirt like that?'"
The protest caused no problems or disruptions, which only proves to
Tvert how unnecessary its actions against Gailey were.
"If the mall can ignore thirty people wearing T-shirts that say the
word 'cannabis' on them, they should have ignored the other one," he
allows. "Clearly, they picked on that gentleman that one day, and
hopefully refrain from doing so in the future."
After all, he believes there'll be a lot more people wearing T-shirts
that display their positions on marijuana issues.
"Marijuana policy reform was the number one issue in the legislature
this year," he says. "It's also an issue that's going to be on the
Aurora ballot" -- for more about that, click here -- "and its an issue we expect to see on the state ballot in the next couple of
years. We don't want to see individuals showing their support being
harassed."
Look below to see Channel 4's coverage of the protest. According to
Gailey co-counsel Jessica Corry, quoted in another post on this subject, there's one error in
the piece. Correspondent Howard Nathan says Aurora police dropped
disturbing the peace charges against Gailey in exchange for him being
banned from the mall for a year. She says that's untrue.