On New Year's Eve, police broke up a house party in Cartersville, Georgia and arrested all of its approximately 70 guests for possession of marijuana, WBHF reports. All because less than an ounce of weed was lying around the house.
The police first responded to the sound of what they believed were gunshots, though the party guests say they were fireworks. The officers entered without a warrant or the occupants' permission to find the weed, according to Channel 2 Action News. After getting a search warrant, they found two guns, a substance they believed was cocaine, smoking instruments, and some cocaine-related items, according to a news release. Since nobody at the party said the weed belonged to them, the officers decided to arrest everyone.
Several of the party guests—mostly black men between ages 19 and 25, according to Think Progress—told Channel 2 Action News the police threatened them with tasers and restrained their hands with zip ties. Some said once they got to jail, they were put in cages. They stayed in jail for almost three days, and some lost their jobs.
"I was throwing up water," one attendee, a pregnant woman, said. "The whole saying 'innocent until proven guilty' went out the window. They told me I was an unfit person to have a baby."
Deja Heard, who had rented the house to celebrate her 21st birthday, told Channel 2 Action News, "all of us are innocent—it's just not right." The NAACP is currently looking into the case.
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