4/20 rally organizers banned for three yearsTop Stories

May 22, 2017 09:40
4/20 rally organizers banned for three years

Mayor Michael Hancock’s administration banned the organizers of this year’s 4/20 rally from hosting any event for next three years after citing a series of violations at the marijuana celebration.

The administration identified substantial violations of city requirements after conducting a review on this years event and imposed a fine of $11, 965 and $190 in damages.

The executive director of Denver Parks and Recreation, Happy Haynes said in a statement: “We will continue to ensure that events in our parks are safe, compliant and of high quality.”

An attorney, who is defending the 4/20 rally organization called the ban “extreme overkill” on the part of Mayor’s administration. He suggested the real explanation is the mayor’s opposition to weed and pledged to get the decision overturned on appeal.

“I think we’ll be able to show … the city’s motivation is to silence the message of the event, because there are no any actual concerns or problems, they are all technical in nature,” said Robert Corry, the group’s general counsel.

The 4/20 rally’s organizer, Miguel Lopez issued an statement on Saturday afternoon.

"The 420 Rally disagrees that it committed any substantial or intentional violations and will promptly appeal this finding, although we realize this "appeal" is to Happy Haynes, the same person who already wrote this letter. The next appeal above her will be to the courts.

We understand that the City political structure disagrees with our message, and is using this process as a pretext to silence the message. Every Civic Center event has similar features and none of these issues were identified in past years 420 events.

Anything identified in Haynes' letter as a violation is of a hyper-technical nature, and no actual problems, permanent damage, nor injuries occurring from the Rally."

A letter was sent to Lopez and Robert Corry that goes more detail about the rally’s violations and penalties.

Permit holders have the right to appeal within 15 days of notice, Denver Parks and Recreation said.

420 Event Violations Notice Letter by 9news on Scribd

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Tagged Under :
Denver  4/20  Michael Hancock  Happy Haynes