Land of the free, Home of the Brave

[TerryB]

masked gunmen enter private property and take stuff (but it's cool, they're paid by the State)

Texas Police Hit Organic Farm With Massive SWAT Raid

Posted: 08/15/2013 10:42 pm EDT | Updated: 08/16/2013 11:10 am EDT

A small organic farm in Arlington, Texas, was the target of a massive police action last week that included aerial surveillance, a SWAT raid and a 10-hour search.

Members of the local police raiding party had a search warrant for marijuana plants, which they failed to find at the Garden of Eden farm. But farm owners and residents who live on the property told a Dallas-Ft. Worth NBC station that that the real reason for the law enforcement exercise appears to have been code enforcement. The police seized "17 blackberry bushes, 15 okra plants, 14 tomatillo plants ... native grasses and sunflowers," after holding residents inside at gunpoint for at least a half-hour, property owner Shellie Smith said in a statement. The raid lasted about 10 hours, she said.

Local authorities had cited the Garden of Eden in recent weeks for code violations, including "grass that was too tall, bushes growing too close to the street, a couch and piano in the yard, chopped wood that was not properly stacked, a piece of siding that was missing from the side of the house, and generally unclean premises," Smith's statement said. She said the police didn't produce a warrant until two hours after the raid began, and officers shielded their name tags so they couldn't be identified. According to ABC affiliate WFAA, resident Quinn Eaker was the only person arrested -- for outstanding traffic violations.

The city of Arlington said in a statement that the code citations were issued to the farm following complaints by neighbors, who were "concerned that the conditions" at the farm "interfere with the useful enjoyment of their properties and are detrimental to property values and community appearance." The police SWAT raid came after "the Arlington Police Department received a number of complaints that the same property owner was cultivating marijuana plants on the premises," the city's statement said. "No cultivated marijuana plants were located on the premises," the statement acknowledged.

The raid on the Garden of Eden farm appears to be the latest example of police departments using SWAT teams and paramilitary tactics to enforce less serious crimes. A Fox television affiliate reported this week, for example, that police in St. Louis County, Mo., brought out the SWAT team to serve an administrative warrant. The report went on to explain that all felony warrants are served with a SWAT team, regardless whether the crime being alleged involves violence.

In recent years, SWAT teams have been called out to perform regulatory alcohol inspections at a bar in Manassas Park, Va.; to raid bars for suspected underage drinking in New Haven, Conn.; to raid a gay bar in Atlanta where police suspected customers and employees were having public sex; and to perform license inspections at barbershops in Orlando, Fla.

Other raids have been conducted on food co-ops and Amish farms suspected of selling unpasteurized milk products. The federal government has for years been conducting raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in states that have legalized them, even though the businesses operate openly and are unlikely to pose any threat to the safety of federal enforcers.

Radley Balko is a senior writer and investigative reporter for The Huffington Post. He is also the author of the new book, Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces.

[Herv100]

Don't you know that only huge multinational food companies who who pay their tribute to the royalty are allowed to be free of such raids?

[Pinky]

Proto, I know you don't like berries, but calling in bogus crime reports just to get a SWAT team to destroy blackberry bushes is over the top.

[Herv100]

Oldie but goodie

Feds Raid Guitar Maker…Looking for Illegal Wood

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/08 ... egal-wood/

[baffled]

edit:
As the commenters at Reason like to say "Fuck you, that's why" and "for the children".

[Batboy2/75]

I used to buy a lot raw milk and it seemed States and the Feds loved to fuck with Raw milk dairies and raw Milk co ops.

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good
of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live
under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.
The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may
at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good
will torment us without end for they do so with the approval
of their own conscience."

[Testiclaw]

Ah, more conservative small government.

[DrDonkeyLove]

Ah, more conservative small government.

I thought TX was one of the so called "free" states.

[Protobuilder]

They had chopped wood that wasn't properly stacked - not sure how you people are defending that.

[milosz]

These guys are friends of some hippie friends - they smoke copious amounts of pot but they've always been very careful to not sell or have much on the property since there are kids and the 'farm' there.