In an incident caught on video, two Aspen cops and a firefighter are shown pinning down a 16-year-old boy, after spotting him rolling a joint at a bus stop, in what they call a “pain compliance technique.”
Officer Adam Loudon claims when he approached the boy and confronted him, the students did not answer and tucked something into his sleeve, which he considered “probable cause and grounds for arrest.”
Bystanders filmed the incident and asked the cop to settle down.
“If he said he didn’t do anything, why can’t you just talk to him?” one witness asks.
“This is bulls—; he didn’t do anything!” another exclaims.
“If this isn’t excessive, I don’t know what is.” yet another witness notes.
“It’s open-and-shut because we have the videos, we’re able to see the actions that took place and we’re able to explain all of those actions,” Aspen Police Department Chief Richard Pryor told the The Aspen Times. “We appreciate this is an unusual set of circumstances for people to view and it’s challenging for people to see these kind of images.”
“None of us want this to occur, but it’s the nature of the business we’re in," added Chief Pryor.
Pain Compliance is the use of painful stimulus to physically force the subject to comply.
Under Colorado’s liberal marijuana laws, adults 21 and over are allowed possession of up to one ounce of pot. However, it is still illegal for minors to possess and consume the drug.
