Bob Walker
James Walker
Clark
Flying Possum Leather owner Robert (Bob) Walker, 64, was arrested earlier this week, and faces felony charges for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
Walker’s son, James Wallace Walker, 32, of Mendocino, Calif. and Aimee Clark, 24, of Fayetteville, were also arrested on the same charges.
According to several reports, FedEx workers in Springdale called police on Monday to identify a suspicious package. Police obtained a warrant, searched the package, and found that it contained 10.75 pounds of marijuana. Undercover officers then delivered the package to Clark’s residence on South College Avenue.
Reports indicate police arrested Robert and James Walker when the men picked up the package Monday evening.
Both James and Robert Walker were released on $3,500 bond. Clark was released on her own recognizance.
Bob Walker recently moved to Fayetteville from California to re-open his brother Bruce’s landmark business, Flying Possum Leather. Bruce died in a fire at the store last March.
Walker relocated the shop to Block Avenue, and officially opened last Friday.
dang. when were the rest of the items from the fire going to be sold off? I thought it was sometime in April.
Bummer, but no sin in my eyes. Bob is a cool, stand up guy from what I’ve seen. The sooner weed is decriminalized, the better.
Nicest guy ever. Shouldn’t be doing jail time. Decriminalize it , NWA! He might be the best new addition to our Fayetteville community. Hope this blows over quickly so he can get down to business!
Ridiculous archaic laws. It’s just a freak’n plant. Oh well, the business will be fine.
We were in the store Saturday. Super nice people.
Your local Keystone Kops at work…
ARKANSAS LAW .The IRS might want to seize his assets since that PRODUCT had about $70,000 street value …If you are caught with possession of one or more ounces of marijuana, then you will be charged with attempt to sale or cultivate, even if it is for your own personal use. The penalty for being caught with one ounce to 10 pounds of marijuana is a felony offense, which requires a prison sentence of four to 10 years and a maximum fine of $25,000. If you are caught with 10 pounds to 100 pounds of marijuana, you will be charged with a felony. This charge requires a prison sentence from five to 20 years and a maximum fine of $50,000. If you are caught with more than 100 pounds of marijuana you will be charged with a felony and may face six to 30 years in prison with a maximum fine of $100,000.This CAT wishes he stayed in CA. now..
Why would anyone ever ship with Fedex…? USPS overnight insured in the best route… Fedex is a corporation and can do whatever they deem necessary to their packages… USPS on the other hand requires a search warrant… Just sayin,.. anyone wanting to mail copious amounts of ganja to Fayetteville… use USPS, works 100% of the time… Don’t know first hand, just heard it through the grapevine..
They don’t call it the Flying Possum for nothing.
Isn’t Fayetteville a “city of second chances”?
+1. Wish more people got the reference, but probably a lot of FF readers do.
such a stupid law. “The government could take away all the drugs in the world, and people would spin around on their lawn until they fell down and saw God.” (Dennis Miller)
@Barney: Minor correction – Arkansas law changed last year and now possession of 4 oz or less of pot is a Class A misdemeanor.
The War on Drugs has destroyed more lives and harmed more people than it has ever done to protect citizens. Good people like Bob aren’t criminals. I hope this doesn’t hurt his new business. Marijuana has never killed anyone from an overdose and you can’t even say that about aspirin. It’s time that we reformed our nations draconian drug laws. Who are we protecting? I don’t care if it was 100lbs. Marijuana is a safe and natural herb. Let’s legalize!
The citizens of Fayetteville voted in 2008 to make misdemeanor amounts of marijuana the cities lowest law enforcement priority. And although this 10lbs is a lot more than a small amount, I think that the majority of Fayetteville citizens would support full marijuana legalization. I think we should remove the city of Fayetteville as the head of the 4th Judicial Drug Task Force. Fayetteville has no business representing this multi agency group.
Drug court is a joke for marijuana offenders. They treat you like an addict and you have to pay thousands of dollars while they control your life for months. I hope that all these defendants can get their charges lowered, and get off with fines. But the sad fact is that if they were black or hispanic than they would likely go to prison.
If you don’t speak up and tell your elected officials how you feel then we’ll never make real change. Get involved today!
Bob is a straight-up solid guy. So sorry he had to come under fire for this retardation of society. Stay strong, Bob! Fayetteville is still behind you.
By all accounts, Bob is a super nice guy, and I wholeheartedly agree that we need major drug law reforms. However…to place blame for his arrest on anyone or anything other than his own very poor judgement is dodging the takeaway lesson here.
I don’t think he made a good call and he’s surely going to have to deal with the legal system and face whatever sanctions come down.
However, I’d prefer the generally idiotic (IMO) law enforcement clowns here to crack down on crimes that affect me and my life a lot more than being tough guys on an old pothead. I mean… who gives a crap if someone gets high, as long as he doesn’t sell it to kids or do something unsafe?
I’d prefer the cops do something about the jerk tailgaters/road ragers/lightrunners/text-and-drivers on every street, or the punk who stole my decorative Hog from my front porch, or the noise violators who are never ticketed, or the litterers/people who think it’s ok to throw ciggy butts in the street, or the people whose barking dogs are a nuisance every night, or the drunks wandering home and yelling after the bars close, or countless other things that never get the attention of busting someone holding a quantity of weed.
I agree 99%.
I am curious what the local police have done to earn such heavy disdain? I have had several interactions with them as a mother to a teenage son. Hell, one of those incidents involved my son and several of his friends having a contingent of cops with guns drawn and trained on my son and said friends. I won’t go into details but suffice it to say the cops had good cause and the boys had done nothing wrong. Even my son said the cops acted extremely professionally and were great. I was so impressed, and grateful, that I called the supervisor and conveyed my thanks. I believe firmly that police perform a job few of us would be willing to do and risk their lives every time they go to work. Their family never knows if they will make it home. They perform their job, at risk of their lives, in order to keep me and mine safe. Are there some bad apples in the bunch? Of course, happens in any and all professions. But given the service they perform for me and at the potential cost and limited pay and respect, I feel like the least I can do is give them the benefit of the doubt and my gratitude. If you are really torqued about the drug laws take it up with the legislators who have the power to change them. The police don’t make the laws, they just have to enforce them.
Well, law enforcement in Northwest Arkansas has a very impressive weapon discharge/fatal shooting record. I’ve read about more shooting/death-by-cop in Northwest Arkansas in the last five years than I have in 15 years of living in a city of four million residents.
Does that mean they were unjustified shootings? Does it mean they are all bad police officers? Does it mean we have more bad guys that your old 4 million population town? Does it mean crime is more prevalent now? Does it mean the police officers just like shooting people? All honest questions.
I’m always puzzled by the implied notion that perhaps the police just like to shoot and kill people or are incompetent. I guess it’s my nature but it’s hard for me to believe that a police officer would get off on killing someone. Aside from the fact it seems to be counterintuitive to the nature of a police man’s personality (or police woman) I find it hard to believe they would do so intentionally, knowing the amount of grief and ramifications doing so would bring down upon them, never mind the fact they would then have to live with the fact they killed someone. I also find it hard to believe they are all incompetent given the amount of training and testing they must go through.
I could be totally wrong but I don’t think so. Granted, that’s just personal opinion based on my experiences and what I know and have learned. The incident where my son and his friends all had guns pointed at their heads with cops yelling at them did nothing but solidify that opinion. Had any one of those dozen cops been incompetent or trigger happy I would have buried my son. For that reason alone I will continue to extend them my utmost respect and the benefit of my doubt. Mileage may vary based on your own experiences with the police.
My “disdain” (your word) is that while illegal, some dude getting high is not bothersome to me. The bothersome crimes that affect me are dangerous driving (not necessarily just “speeding”), littering, etc. As for the several incidents of deadly force — 16 killings by our local law enforcement types up here from 1999-2011 — to me, that’s indicative of a trigger-happy mentality that scares me every time I see a cop car, and I’m a boring generic law abider.
NW Arkansas isn’t New York, Los Angeles, or any other major metropolitan area known for crime problems. For an area this small to average more than one killing by law enforcement each year, I find that troubling. Having family members involved in law enforcement, I’m keenly aware of the dangers they face, as well as the difficulty of their jobs as well as the public perception that sometimes demonizes them even while they protect and serve.
The incidents of deadly force here are statistical outliers that should raise serious questions about the training and quality of our law enforcement officials. Those good cops you cite should as much as anyone want to rid their ranks of the cowboys and gunslingers who only bring more public scrutiny and mistrust to the table.
PS: nwaonline.com list of those 16 shootings here… http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2012/mar/13/man-shot-killed/
@Morgan. You thanked the cops for pointing guns at your son…WTF? I was pulled from my car last year and had over a dozen fayetteville coppers pointing their weapons at me and I will never forgive them! Those ass bags will never regain my respect.
IA, I think I made it clear that there are likely to be some “bad” cops. I still say there are more good ones than bad and the public does those of them a huge disservice when they collectively speak of them as “law enforcement clowns.” That’s my point. That and the fact they don’t make the laws so perhaps your irritation over what they arrest people for is misplaced.
What?,
Taking my words out of context or making them up doesn’t pass muster with me, sorry. I did not say I thanked the cops for pointing a gun at my son’s head but rather that I was impressed with how they handled the situation. Had any one of those cops been incompetent or trigger happy my son and/or his friends could have been dead. The police handled it professionally and everyone went home that night safe and sound, both the boys and the police officers. All of the boys involved and their parents agreed the police handled it exactly how they should have. I don’t know what you did, or didn’t do so I can’t speak to if drawing guns on you was appropriate but it was appropriate in our situation. So you’re damn skippy I went and thanked the police afterwards. I have nothing but respect for the police but then again I’ve never had a bad experience with them. A large part of that stems from the fact I make a concerted effort to stay on the correct side of the law. I was just raised that way.
I agree with @Inarrested that most of those crimes, especially the driving ones are far more offensive to me than someone wanting to smoke some pot. @Morgan, I don’t think most of those shootings were justified. The shootings are not the only over the top actions I have heard about from Fayetteville police. They broke down the door of a man with Down syndrome in the middle of the night looking for his brother (who does not live with him) and used some type of smoke bomb that set fire to a couple of places in his living room. Either this is poor investigation or poor protocol in my opinion. That man was traumatized and continues to avoid his home. I’m glad you’ve had a good experience with them, but I don’t think that is the case for everyone.
Atomic Yard Bomb, yes, I have had good experiences with the police. I don’t know if any or all of the shootings were jusified since I was not privy to the investigation. I do think the public forgets sometimes that the police are only imperfect humans like the rest of us and sometimes screw up, sometimes really badly. I’m not saying they are all great or perfect. Hell I lived in California during the LA riots after the beating of Rodney King and the trial of the police officers who beat him. All I am saying, and will always say, is they have my gratitude and respect for the job they do and I will give them the benefit of the doubt whenever possible.
^He has a pretty good pointe there.
Just wondering. Are people here suggesting that the police should only investigate crimes that citizens agree with? Maybe they should do a poll at the farmers market to ask citizens to rank which leads they should follow.
Actually, they did that, with the result being a resolution declaring certain marijuana crimes to be “low priority.”
#ugotpwndbra!
Except that it wasn’t just an informal Farmer’s Market poll. It was a resolution on a ballot.
1st line… interesting
2nd line… childish
Oh, now all of a sudden you’re sooooo mature.
Cops should enforce laws.
Laws, however, should only uphold the agreed-upon standards of the community.
Many would argue that the majority in Fayetteville doesn’t want anti-marijuana laws enforced.