Posted on 12/10/2008 6:33:57 AM PST by Dutchgirl
A crack SWAT team of sherrif's deputies, health inspectors, and Ohio Department of Agriculture officials busted into the Manna Storehouse food co-op in LaGrange, Ohio, in a raid last week. The co-op is also the home of the Stowers family, so Katie Stowers, her children, and her in-laws were held at gunpoint while the agents took tens of thousands of dollars worth of meat, plus computers and cell phone. Chad Stowers, Katie's husband, wasn't home because he is a U.S. Navy Seabee currently in Iraq.
Their crime? The warrant listed the reason for the raid as "beef."
Manna may, perhaps, have needed a license to run a retail food establishment. Mostly a coop, they did sell some leftover products in a small store on the property. The exact nature of the business is in dispute, which is why the Stowers' wrote letters to various agencies asking for advice on how to proceed. Obviously, the best way to reply to that request was with a SWAT team.
The folks over at Peace Chicken (yes, that's a real site, compete with chicken death doomsday clock) are seriously peeved. They offer, from the Lorain county sherrif's page, a list of the legit justifications for a SWAT raid:
* Hostage Situations: the holding of any person(s) against their will by an armed or potentially armed suspect. * Barricade Situation: the stand-off created by an armed or potentially armed suspect in any location, whether fortified or not, who is refusing to comply with law enforcement demands for surrender. * Sniper Situations: the firing upon citizens and/or law enforcement officers by an armed suspect, whether stationary or mobile. * High-Risk Apprehension: the arrest or apprehension of armed or potentially armed suspects where the likelihood of armed resistance is high. * High-Risk Warrant Service: the service of search or arrest warrants where the warrant service matrix or policy recommends or requires the use of SWAT. * Personal Protection: the security of special persons, such as VIPs, witnesses, or suspects, based on threat or potential threat to the well being of those persons. * Special Assignments: any assignment, approved by the SWAT Operations Commander, based on a high level of threat and/or need.
Not on the list:
* Licensing Confusion: when a farm might be a retail establishment, or it might not, based on high level of threat from pitchforks and/or women and children.
I don't see anything wrong, from a small "l" libertarian perspective, with a reasonable regime of licensing and inspection of stores selling and producing food to the public.
Individual consumers do not have the ability or expertise to figure out whether the food they are buying is dangerous (except in extreme situations). So, the burden needs to be shifted to the producer/seller to ensure that we're not unknowingly buying ratburgers and cockroach sausage.
I can see rules for co-ops being different, so long as the co-ops do not sell food to the general public.
Didn't you go after another poster for this kind of crap?
I am against government control of all food sources.
Think about what's going on. Obama said that we can't continue driving our SUV's, eating as much as we want and keeping our heat on 72.
Using GW, the Gov can ration fuel.
Government has "bought" banks and the car industry is next.
They want to tax "cow gas".
Yeah. Let's allow them to control food too.
Are you getting what I'm saying? Anarchy has nothing to do with it. The government is out of control and going to get worse.
Guilty until proven innocent? Well now I know why you approve total government control.
Dude! We buy poisoned food from CHINA and the FDA approves it until someone gets sick. Stop relying on government to take care of you.
Permit= taxation buy another name= governmental control
The exact nature of the business is in dispute, which is why the Stowers' wrote letters to various agencies asking for advice on how to proceed.
I have a business and do realize it is up to me to determine what is required and comply- but when I have asked an agency for help in finding out information they have usually been more than helpful. I have had authorities sit down and explain things to me and give me helpful handouts and booklets or refer me to laws and regulations- but only in response to my asking.
In another part of the article it says the people refused to comply- I was giving the people the benefit of doubt that they were trying to find out how to comply.
The exact nature of the business is in dispute, which is why the Stowers' wrote letters to various agencies asking for advice on how to proceed.
I have a business and do realize it is up to me to determine what is required and comply- but when I have asked an agency for help in finding out information they have usually been more than helpful. I have had authorities sit down and explain things to me and give me helpful handouts and booklets or refer me to laws and regulations- but only in response to my asking.
In another part of the article it says the people refused to comply- I was giving the people the benefit of doubt that they were trying to find out how to comply.
Government agencies have been known to spin, and even lie. And if it is the same staff, and they act like a SWAT team, people might be forgiven for the "confusion."
And the sheriff did NOT say that they didn't have "automatic weapons," he said that they didn't have "semiautomatic" weapons. If they have a SWAT team, of course their rifles, like M16s, are automatic.
I favor SMALLER government.
Raiding farms because they don’t have egg selling permits is not smaller government.
I am NOT an anarchist, but I do NOT appreciate government interference in areas where they are not actually needed. And they are NOT needed in the farm-market business by any means.
My “serious argument” is for smaller, MUCH smaller government at ALL levels. YOU apparently don’t believe in smaller government. That is fine. I suggest the Democrat party for you, or the GWB arm of the Republicrats.
PS - Show me my ad hominen attack you “ignorant jackass” (HEY, there’s my FIRST). After all, YOU’RE the one who referred to ME as a yoyo.
Their sheriff’s department still uses revolvers? I find that VERY difficult to believe.
Bingo!
It’s okay. He LIKES having the government “take care” of him.
Best not to argue with him at all or he will call you a Libertarian yo yo.
Won't work. I'm one of those EEEEEVIIIIIL fundie Christians. ;-)
I’m just a “small government, want to be left alone, constitutional conservative”... which is sort of what I thought Free Republic was all about.
“angkor” seems to be some kind of “government and police are ALWAYS right, defendent is guilty until proven innocent, shut up and be governed...”... dare I say it?.... “Liberal!”
Oh dear, now think I need to go wash my keyboard.
There is a wing on FR that believes government is always right. Well, cops actually. I believe each situation (police) needs to be judged singly. Wonder how many robberies and murders were committed while the food police cleaned out these peoples stock.
Exactly.
I sometimes use the tagline below when posting on “police mis-conduct/over-reaction” threads.
And this caase certainly appears to be one of police “way-over-exuberence” if not outright misconduct.
A perfectly "totalitarian" response on your part.
"If you have nothing to HIDE, then why not let us in, mein Herr?"
In Googling for info I found there are several co-ops in the Cleveland area. Makes ya wonder what's going on. Armed Sheriffs confiscating food. *sigh*
FDA “inspected” “food” is allowed to be sold and consumed, and crap that makes people sick hits the headlines all the time. All kinds of noxious chemicals are legal that legitimately should be called poisons.
Screw gov regulations other than a few real ones that might keep people from dying. Like listing the actual food ingredients, country of origin.
IMO.
Foods do have to list ingredients but they don't tell you what country it came from. The FDA allows a lot of stuff in food that we wouldn't eat if we knew about it. There have been all kinds of exposes on allowable debris. Disgusting.
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