By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
A cannabis activist in Oklahoma was attending a forum Monday evening regarding Question 788, a proposed medical cannabis bill, when a local sheriff forced him out of the room, shoving his head into a door along the way.
Chip Paul, co-founder of Oklahomans for Health, and his wife arrived at the meeting after it had already begun and sat in chairs near the back.
“Immediately when we sat in the back of the room, we had two sheriff’s deputies behind us,” Paul told NonDoc in a phone interview. “I did shake one of the young sheriff’s deputies hands. I thanked him for being there.”
According to the Claremore Daily Progress, Walton claims he was standing in the back of the room because of people were talking, raising their hands, and being disruptive.
Frustrated by statements made by Dr. Mark Paul Bishop during a presentation, Paul raised his hand to offer input on the topic as it’s one that he’s invested much time into researching. He commented to Deputy Helton how frustrating the discussion was.
“We announced more than once that there would be time for discussion at the end of it, but that had to be re-announced a couple of times,” said Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton. “They would raise their hands, try to interrupt, try to turn it into a debate.
Walton approached, and according to Paul, told him that if he had something to say, he could get out.
The ACLU released a statement about the incident
“Okay, I’ll be quiet,” Paul responded.
Walton says that when he asked Paul to wait for the discussion period, he was ignored.
The Sheriff told Paul that he wanted to talk to him out in the hallway, but Paul folded his hands in his lap and was silent.
It was then that Walton grabbed Paul by the throat, stood him up, and kicked his chair out. Pushing through double-doors at the back of the forum, the officer forced Paul’s head into the door before escorting him outside the building.
“Oh man, you banged my head,” exclaimed Paul upon impacting the door.
In a statement released by the ACLU, the organization says that “with the unwarranted, violent removal of Mr. Paul from a public forum, the Sheriff’s actions have become criminal.”
Videos of the Monday evening forum posted online do not show Chip Paul being vocally disruptive or the interactions immediately before the incident with Sheriff Walton.
