Son of SEIU 721's Julie Butcher killed in Medical Marijuana Shop Robbery
SEIU 721 Regional Director Julie ButcherThe LA Weekly is reporting that the 27 year old son of SEIU 721 Labor Leader and City Hall regular Julie Butcher, was killed in an apparent robbery.
Matthew Butcher, the oldest son of Julie and Don Butcher, was fatally shot inside the Higher Path Holistic dispensary on June 24 around 4:10 p.m. in the 1300 block of Sunset Blvd. A co-worker at the Higher Path Holistic shop was also shot and was in critical condition at a nearby hospital.
Julie Butcher posted these comments on her Facebook Page.
Matt Butcher was shot & killed yesterday, when armed robbers brokeinto the Echo Park medical marijuana shop in which he was working.
Matt was a kind, decent, quiet young man, who was extraordinarily loved by his parents Don & Julie Butcher & his younger brother Steven.
All abhor the senseless violence. RIP
Our Prayers go out to the Butcher Family.
Your thoughts..............
Scott Johnson in CD 14
Labels: Julie Butcher
Posted by Red Spot in CD 14 @ 6/25/2010 08:33:00 PM
37 Comments:
How incredibly sad for any mother, no matter what the circumstances.
I posted a comment over a year ago where I said that Marijuana Shops need to be regulated like if they were a gun shop. Well there are only about 3 or 4 gun shops in Los Angeles, or roughly one for every million persons. I think that Marijuana shops are more dangerous than gun shops and need to be even more controlled than gun shops.
In order to work in a gun shop you need to have a clearance from DOJ and when you buy ammo or a gun you have to leave a fingerprint. Well if this same procedure was followed in Marijuana Shops they would have a list of potential robbers. These shops also should not accept cash or check or credit card to make sure that they don't operate beyond the law and pay all of their taxes.
If they Marijuana Shops can't abide by these rules they need to be closed.
Maybe this way assualts and deaths could be eliminated or reduced.
I hope Nuch is happy.
Yes there were people in it just for the money, mostly the johnnie come latelys.
Yes there are true altruists involved in this movement.
And yes, the more people involved the lower the price of marijuana driving those in it for just the money (i.e. gangs) out in the cold and dealing other drugs.
Abiding by good old Republican, conservative business principles based on competition and the problem was solving itself.
The LAPD Chief has repeatedly stated that dispensaries do not pose a higher than normal crime threat. Anyone can be robbed for anything, it's just the pains of an ultra freedom loving society.
The closing of the over 400 shops in L.A. has created a higher demand than supply situation naturally driving the cost up, in some cases doubling in price. This has created a nice incentive for a high priced commodity that didn't need to be artificially inflated.
Let the market take it's course and we all win. Placing asenine controls on it and the criminals win out, they don't follow the rules Nuch - we did.
3:38AM "I hope Nuch is happy." Why do you say that? Is it because it was Nuch who pointed out the dangers in allowing marijuana shops to exist as presently constituted?
It was Nuch who stood firm on the principle that the law does not allow sales of marijuana, and the stupid city clowncil changed that to allow "sales but not for profit."
Now we have another dead body, only this time it's not a minimum wage security guard, it's the son of a union organizer. Killed because the marijuana shop he was working at was in the marijuana supply business for profit, not for compassionate use.
If you cannot break away from your petty political hatred for Trutanich and Cooley, at least wake up and see where so-called 'legalization' is taking us - straight into the hands of the Mexican drug cartel violence that's creeping across the border.
Cooley was the only one who had the guts to call for the eradication of all marijuana shops and the whole bullshit nonsense about marijuana being medicinal. We all know that the 'medicinal' thing is a complete joke and that all it does is pave the way for the Mexicans to take over the drug trade north of the border from the back gangs.
Julie, I am sorry for your loss. Your son just needed a job, and sadly found one in a very dangerous place. I hope your loss will help others understand that marijuana shops are a disaster of biblical proportions designed to make millions for drug barons, and leave a bunch of dead bodies on the way to the bank.
Sorry for the families loss. It is very sad.
And, I totally agree with 1:12AM. You must have had some good coffee. It is totally true what you said. You should speak to your city councilmember about what your ideas or run yourself.
You sound like you have much more brains than they do and some good ideas.
And, what happened? I thought most of these shops were suppose to be closed?
I hope Carmine the Clown is happy. He used the Med 420 pro medical pot community to campaign bigtime, used that gullible Don Duncan (aboutmedicalmarijuana.com) and others to put in lots of manpower as well as money and all along planned to throw them under the bus with Laura Chick and a cast of dozens soon as he got elected.
His dogtrainer Cooley wanted to shut down all the dispensaries so he can campaign as "tough on crime" to the conservatives in the Republican party who branded him "soft" on his Three Strikes take.
So he got Carmine, Jane Usher and Bill Carter to persuade the stupid City Council to adopt an ordinance that shuts down more than 95% of the dispensaries, and many aren't going quietly or at all, but he's declared them scofflaws not subject to protection so they're fair game for criminals.
Two killed in one day - you don't even mention the other one in Hollywood, just hours apart.
This is tragic but maybe it will shed light on your friends the local Republicans hacks and their role in this.
1:12 is an idiot.
First, assuming the killer was a customer which is likely NOT so.
Then saying repeating Nuch's stupid opinion that shops cannot be paid by credit card OR check OR cash.
WHAT does that leave, you moron?
Indian trading beads?
Oh yeah, right - patients are supposed to just exchange plants they've grown themselves. like THAT makes any sense whatsoever.
OF course you're a groupie of Nuch since you're clearly a moron.
I work for the City of Los Angeles and have been on the "other side of the table" on issues concerning management and SEIU. Albeit she's a tough rep for her members, she's still a decent person once you get her away from that environment.
Regardless of your views on these shops, Julie and her family have to be going through hell. My prayers and thoughts are with them.
L A City Sinecure
A sad and tragic lesson for Trutanich. Robbers know with so many collectives closed all at once, the too few remaining will have much more cash on hand. But new rules also mandate cash only. You can't use credit or ATM cards. But it's not as if Trutanich thinks things through. He has a motif and he is going to bulldoze it no matter what. And I am devastated for Julie who I know will be putting up a good front and carrying on with class and dignity even though it will be a tough act.
In closing down the shops Nuch and his clowns have handed the pot business back to the gangs and criminals.
Expect more of this violence.
Nice going Carmine!
Nuch at Cooley's insistence also made the stupid city council write into the ordinances governing Med 420 shops that the security guards are not allowed to carry guns or even tasers.
They've long complained they're sitting ducks, duh.
Now with so few shops left, having been branded as virtual criminals by Cooley and Trutanich and being unable to defend themselves, Nuch brought this on the victims.
How stupid not to even allow the shops to use credit cards, ATM's or checks to reduce amount of cash.
Also those would make it easier to track customers in case of actual criminals. But he says credit cards AND cash are illegal, so what does that leave, besides pretending the whole situation doesn't exist, and threatening to just throw everyone, from shop owners to patients, in jail.
So another case of him not thinking things through, just wanting to do Cooley's bidding no matter the consequences, all so Cooley can cater to the Republican right and dim-wits like 1:12.
Julie Butcher is a very nice person
Instead of working on the recall, now that villaraigosa is being scrutinized, Phil is writing about Michael Jackson and how Spielberg is a greater entertainer.
What is it that you see in him Higby?
How many employees of collectives were killed before Trutanich's new law shut down so many? None? Way to go Carmine.
matt butcher wasn't killed you idiot. he was MURDERED. have some fucking respect and tell it the way it IS, not the way you want it to be.
I know. Just shut ALL of them down. Problem solved. No more crime.
Medical need - my A$$. You're just a bunch of druggies that can't face reality unless it's on a TV show or you smoke a joint. Pitiful loozers.
Does the new law really mandate that the collectives can only take cash? OMG!!! How egregiously thoughtless was that?!!!!
This is funny. The name of the second murder victim is "Packman"
Isnt that wild Scott! How funny is it that the murder victim's name is Packman! Get it? Pac-Man, Packman!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/06/authorities-released-name-of-dispensary-worker-killed-in-hollywood.html
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Butcher Family. My wife and I have known Mateo for a few years. He was a great man! We will miss him very much. He always made us laugh and knew a lot about a lot of things. He was peaceful, smart, funny and had a great energy to him. We would like to attend services for Mateo, so if anyone has info please post or email me at mrromero9@yahoo.
To the anon ahole who said "In closing down the shops Nuch and his clowns have handed the pot business back to the gangs and criminals."
The pot business has always been in the hands of gangs and criminals, they just used 'innocent' dupes to do the dirty work in the shops.
Even Jerry Brown has confessed that "selling marijuana is illegal" as reported by KFI, so why are you still wondering why people are getting killed over drug money when it's supposed to be a "compassionate use" law?
7:36pm do your homework. Especially in the Valley there have been many homicides. There also have been some on the Westside. You should all read up on the Netherland crime stats. Even though dope and other drugs are LEGALIZED in that country they have a huge crime numbers because of them.
Not a fan of Butcher (putting it mildly), but this is tragic.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the whole family.
Scott Johnson continues to be the king of having no tact.
Maybe Carmine and all his mini Carmines WANT to hand the pot trade completely back to the gangs.
The government does make deals. Look at what the US is doing with the poppy trade in Afghanistan. Why do you think Obama fired that General? Because he told to Biden to BITE ME? Ha ha.
8:09 moron, trying to pull a fast one allegedly quoting KFI saying that Jerry Brown said all marijuana sales are illegal -
NO, that's the LIE that Jane USHER and Bill CARTER used to dupe the stupid city council which doesn't do it's own homework before voting
- that comment was actually THE INCORRECT PARAPHRASE OF A RIGHTWING KFI COMMENTER, MISSTATING WHAT BROWN SAID.
HIS OWN LEGAL RULINGS SAY OTHERWISE.
that Usher would shamelessly lie to the council this way to push through her boss's political views, is no surprise - she was caught at it during the campaign on Ch. 7, lying that UCI Law School Dean Chemerinsky supported her and Trutanich's claims that he didn't have to reveal clients.
In fact he had told her the opposite as he clarified AND was appalled that Usher never told him she worked for Trutanich, when trying to ensnare him in support.
Usher is the say-and-do=anything-to get your way puppet of likeminded Trtuanich who is owned by Cooley.
Our city really answers to DA Steve Cooley's demands, only the biggest fools would think he'd have pulled so many strings to elect a night school "fixer" from Long Beach for any other reason.
They wanted to find dirt on Rocky's workers comp claims mess for the campaign so he said he'd support Chick, but when he didn't need her anymore totally dissed her shamelessly and called HER a liar for outing him. He did the same to the stupid Med 420 people in town like Don Duncan/ aboutmedicalmarijuana.com, serves him right but too bad for those who followed HIM. Working so hard to elect this person with no class or ethics.
We now have an unworkable ordinance where the shops aren't allowed to defend themselves, no guns or tasers, can't even use credit cards or checks to reduce the amount of cash, with Cooley and Baca being at a conference to denounce the state's petition to legalize marijuana and regulate and tax it to prevent this chaos - the day these two murders hit thanks to their turning a blind eye to reality and giving the stupid council misleading "advice" via surrogate Tutanich and Usher.
what is your problem red spot?
How fitting. The SEIU killed the city's budget.
This blog never has kind things to say about Julie and that's a shame.
A mother and father have lost a son, a brother has lost A BROTHER. We in the Echo Park community who knew Mateo , knew him to have compassion, he told you stight out what he thought and was never rude or nasty. This young man was "MURDERED NOT JUST KILLED"
.
Services for Mateo will be held Saturday comming 3pm at Brookside in Pasadena next to the golf course. Mateo wasn't even supposed to be working this thursday, he was filling in for someone else. According to the owner he will be shutting down the Higher Path location. A private Haz Mat company was paid Saturday to clean up the crime scene. R.I.P Mateo my friend. I ask our higher power to bless this family in this time of tradegy. It could happen to any of us. Hope Trutanich doesnt use these murder's to advance his personal mantra of regulation. Murder equels regulation. For the person who said MMJ was not medicine, I guess given the choice between taking morphine to kill pain or use MMJ he/she would use Morphine cause it's LEGAL in there eyes. HOW STUPID CAN U BE.
Leave Julie alone you skumbags. shes a greiving Mother. Her job with SEIU has nothing to do with this scenario, shes good at what she does. I hope she takes some time off to recover.
sad sad day.
8:09AM gives the link to Attorney General Jerry Brown's judicial opinion that "anyone who sells marijuana is guilty of a class one felony" and it is interesting that, having listened to what Jerry Brown said, it is clear that Brown does not believe that the people in the so-called 'medical' marijuana business are legit.
Brown does not go so far as to call them all a bunch of low-life, scum-sucking, bottom-feeding, yellow-bellied, illegal alien smuggling, cowardly Mexican shit faced pricks, but he gets real close.
It's these parasitic scumbags who are profiteering from the misery of others who are TRUly responsible for the death of Julie's son, it has nothing to do with Trutanich.
Yet the ghost of the Jack Weiss failed campaign rears her ugly puss-ridden, democrat-worshiping, dirty asshole to besmirch the efforts that Nuch is taking to clean up the grip that the Mexican gangs have on Los Angeles.
Why? What's in it for these failed democrats to hype the death of an innocent victim of the Mexican drug cartel's war on the United States?
The answer is the same reason that big media keeps on supporting a president and an administration that is built on lies and deception. Democrats suck so much when it comes to law and order. They are nothing but a bunch of limp-wristed, hand-wringing, feel-good liberals, who couldn't fight their way of a paper bag.
So instead of tackling real issues, they lay it off on the good guys who have the gonads to stand up and be counted as making a stand against the bullshit nonsense that marijuana is a magic medicine. It's a freekin narcotic drug, and while there's no real harm in using marijuana, there's real harm in the criminal elements that are inseparable from its cultivation and distribution.
The law under Prop 215 said it's ok to grow your own. It never said you could grow it and sell it. Jerry Brown agrees with that, so why are the democrats so loathe to do the right thing here?
9:20, you said it for all of us who are equally tired of this one Jack Weiss groupie who has been on anti-Trutanich rampage. The marijuana mess was created by our do-nothing City Council who allowed illegal stores to pop up everywhere. The nature of the business is such that it will continue to attract more crime. I certainly don't one within miles of my neighborhood.
9:20 p.m., Psychotic much?
And since you feel you're speaking for Trutanich, it's too bad he didn't at least share his REAL views with the fools behind ASA (Americans for Safe Access), GLACA (the caregivers' assn.), advocates like silly Don Duncan (aboutmedicalmarijuana.com), who INSTEAD he duped into working for him bigtime against mean old, "too tough on pot" Jack Weiss. The Democrats you try to blame this on.
As for Brown's actual opinion, it is FAR more nuanced than what you misstate, again. He's trying to find a balance between the intent of the voters on Prop 215 and the proliferation of weed shops, and trying to sort out what sorts of sales are "for profit" and which are merely vital to pay for the rent, utilities and staff - like Julie's unfortunate son. Only someone truly, truly stupid, or intent on tripping up ALL Med420 clinics with an impossible situation (a diabolical person with no ethics), would claim that ALL sales of weed are illegal, forcing them into a situation where they could be arrested no matter WHAT they do because there is NO way to comply with "the law."
That, combined with restrictions putting 95% of the city off-limits to re-open any shop in (but why bother, when there is NO way for them to operate legally, they're sitting ducks for alleged felony violations as well as for the drug cartels who are the only ones who are benefiting), also put the city into a literally impossible situation.
Take those meds, and try to get a group rate on anger management (and maybe Logic 101) classes and above all, ETHICS, for you and Cooley's tool, Trutanich. And the rest of his gang.
A needless and tragic loss of a young life--my sympathy for Matthew's mother, Julie, his father, Don, and his brother, Stephen; my condolences to his friends, acquaintances, and community. For those of you who took advantage of this tragedy to address your own agendas--shame on you. Where is your humanity? Aside from your political views or opinions of MMJ, this is not the time to voice those opinions. A young life with so much promise has been lost in such a violent and incomprehensible way--don't you get it? We as a community should be able to put views on politics and medical marijuana aside for the while to express outrage and anger at the needless crime that has taken place and offer the victim's families our moral and righteous support. Anything less than that should give cause to question our morality and humanity. Instead, what I see are posts that are all over the place, except where it should be...in solidarity against the vicious and callous criminals that have no regard for the worth of a human life that they would take one without a second thought. Matthew, RIP--you are truly loved and will be missed forever.
9:34, feel your grief but Matthew's death IS a function of politics, and if we want to prevent more murders, we must understand what and who is behind this, the causes and possibly how to minimize such future tragedy.
You are wrong to blame those who are trying to assess that. Even as yes, there are those who are blaming all this on the owners of the shop who employed Matthew as part of some alleged criminal drug underground - the pro-Trutanich people - shame on THEM. His lousy ordinance is the real culprit, it made Matthew a sitting duck by not allowing the shop to defend itself and requiring it to refuse credit cards or checks - that would violate Trutanich's ban on any money of any kind changing hands - and forbidding armed guards. No shop can operate in this city or county under his and Cooleys' version of the law, so until you deal with THAT this is just the tragic beginning. Terrible it took a "name" to call public attention to this situation. (We just found out the other victim's name long after Matthew's tragic death focused attention to this.)
Like others doing what he did, he was just doing a job and was a good human being.
Any progress catching the killers? They took the surveillance video, so now what?
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