Texas Police Hit Organic Farm With Massive SWAT Raid

Huffington Post

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.

WTF

So SWAT held farmers at gunpoint for a half an hour on "suspicion of growing marijuana" and pulled up plants that can't possibly be confused with marijuana... why?

It seems to me to be a two-fold issue. One, agri-business is lobbying for a crackdown on independent farmers and two, any excuse possible to show excessive force and authority. I understand that using SWAT for drug raids is pretty common but if there had been documented minor code violations wouldn't they have already known there were no drugs present?

I wonder if there's a way to go state by state and begin filing class action lawsuits against excessive force, property damage and trauma...

already up ..
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by goou111


Lol sorry, I did a search :/

reply to post by Kali74


it happens... Mine kind of died early.. Did not get as much attention as I thought it might

reply to post by goou111


Added my post to yours with a SF

Overkill (and thankfully no one was "killed").....why dont they just send a couple of agents with a warrant to search for marijuana plants, etc? And taking those berry bushes? An absurd abuse of authority and a waste of the public treasury.

reply to post by Kali74


ty

I wonder if there's a way to go state by state and begin filing class action lawsuits against excessive force, property damage and trauma

Sounds like a good idea to me

And probably dropped marijuana seeds all over for the next raid!

They were doing something nefarious.

I'm glad you posted this again, I read the first thread and didn't have time to reply with anything other then a S&F at the time. This whole "suspicion of growing marijuana" is bogus, they have planes with ultra violet technology that can see pot plants if they are grown outside, probably inside too, but I don't know that for sure.

They trashed these people's garden for no reasonable reason other then the "neighbors" complained of the property being unsightly, which if true would only justify a warning to clean it up, and a subsequent inspection to see that had been done. This kind of harassment is becoming all too common. I would say anyone that owns an organic garden should just invite the cops there to begin with and give them some veggies, but they would probably find some kind of "violation" and cause you grief anyways....

As noted above, the thread already exists. Please continue the discussion here.

Thread closed.