Don Chavez

A witnessed pointed out a man in Woodland Park who he said was exposing himself and masturbating Friday afternoon. But after the police approached the suspect, the man said he didn’t have his pants down – he was only there with $25 of marijuana he’d bought.

The exposure? The man said he was only listening to music on his cell phone and tapping his thumbs on his front pants pocket.

An officer found him carrying 3.3 grams of marijuana and a glass pipe that had residue, according to the police report that provided details of the arrest. The man allegedly admitted to smoking weed.

The arresting officer took the man into custody for investigation of indecent exposure. He also requested that a drug possession charge be added.

In 2003, Seattle voters passed an initiative making the investigation, arrest and prosecution of marijuana offenses the lowest law enforcement priority when the drug was intended for adult personal use.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been walking down the street and I’ve thought someone was jerking off, but in reality they were just stoned and rocking out to their Ipod. I mean I’d be more surprised if I didn’t see this happen at least once a week.

I think it’s pretty clear that the police were just looking for some way to ring this guy up for having weed on him, and what better way that to investigate him for spanking it. One question, exactly how do you investigate someone for masturbation once you get them into the station? Sure you could give him the black light treatment, but I guarantee you that this dude’s clothes would fail a black light test on 13 out of 14 days. His money goes to keeping a fresh supply of herb, not a clean supply of tube socks and t-shirts.

Via Seattle Police Blog