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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMore illegal raids on "dirty hippie" types raising their own organic food.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/15/texas-swat-team-conducts-_n_3764951.htmlA 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 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.
madashelltoo
(1,716 posts)Arrest everybody while you're at it. Old ladies and kids for singing. Hippies for planting f...ing vegetables. Don't think about washing your windows, they'll see you playing with your own kids and raid your house. Please.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)The best we can do now is to fight it. We can't prevent it. It's already here. We have to now fight it to reduce it's power.
gopiscrap
(23,814 posts)this is so typical of pigs!!!
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)This is how these sorts of things usually happen.
Towns encroach on rural.barely-rural, and the newcomers suddenly realize that their carefully tended lawns look "prettier" than the "farm-ish" property that was probably there before they came, so the set out to "reform" the farmers..
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)lpbk2713
(42,821 posts)They must think it's the "patriotic" thing to do to protect the mega corps.
They acted because the big chain grocers were losing a few bucks from them growing their own food.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Go out and buy all your groceries like real Americans! It's the law! Or it should be!
nebenaube
(3,496 posts)Though I doubt many gave shit...