Police Brutality and Pot on Long Island

Kyle Howell: "The next thing you know, I got a knee to the face. And then the next thing I remember, I was in the hospital.”

Nassau County police beat a 20-year-old man they pulled over for a cracked windshield. They say he was trying to eat marijuana, he says he was hit in the face and the officer kept punching for no apparent reason.

“They came out of the car, I gave them my information, they opened up the door and my paycheck started to fly out the door," Kyle Howell explains. "I went to go reach and the next thing you know, I got a knee to the face. And then the next thing I remember, I was in the hospital.”

He received a broken nose and fractured face, and was charged with assault, resisting arrest, tampering with evidence and marijuana possession. The charges have since been dropped and the officer, Vincent LoGuidice, is now facing three counts of assault.

The two plainclothes cops involved are white, the victim is black (see clip below). Howell claims he's been stoppd and frisked by police over a dozen times over the last year. He was previously charged with petty larceny and marijuana possession.

The incident took place on April 25 in Westbury, NY. It's yet another example of the excesses of an out-of-control drug war.

Steve Bloom

Steve Bloom

Publisher of CelebStoner.com, former editor of High Times and Freedom Leaf and co-author of Pot Culture and Reefer Movie Madness.