looks like
Posted on 10/06/2010 7:40:12 AM PDT by Notary Sojac
Police last month raided an Española-area school looking for marijuana growing in a greenhouse, but all they found there were tomatoes.
Patricia Pantano, education director of the Camino de Paz Montessori School and Farm in Cuarteles, between Española and Chimayó on N.M. 76, said the raid occurred Sept. 21 during the lunch hour.
"We were all as a group eating outside as we usually do, and this unmarked drab-green helicopter kept flying over and dropping lower," she said. "Of course, the kids got all excited. They were telling me that they could see gun barrels outside the helicopter. I was telling them they were exaggerating."
After 15 minutes, Pantano said, the helicopter left, then five minutes later a state police officer parked a van in the school's driveway. Pantano said she asked the officer what was happening, but he only would say he was there as a law-enforcement representative.
Then other vehicles arrived and four men wearing bullet-proof vests, but without any visible insignias or uniforms, got out and said they wanted to inspect the school's greenhouses. Pantano said she then turned the men over to the farm director, Greg Nussbaum.
"As we have nothing to hide, you know, they did the tour and they went in the greenhouses and they found it was tomato plants and so that was the story," she said.
State police spokesman Lt. Eric Garcia said he knew nothing about the school incident. But he said the Region III Narcotics Task Force — involving state police, county deputies and other law-enforcement agencies, plus National Guard helicopters — did conduct raids on suspected marijuana growers in southern Santa Fe County.
The one successful raid during that week occurred Sept. 20 when police found some 35 marijuana plants on a property on Gold Mine Road near Cerrillos. According to the application for the search warrant, the plants were spotted from the air and when agents arrived on the ground they noticed "a distinct smell of raw marijuana," found some plants in a shed and others "in plain view." The document says the agents later contacted the resident, Kathrine Moore, who admitted the marijuana belonged to her. No arrests have been made.
Residents in the Cerrillos and Madrid areas have complained that the flyovers are scaring livestock, disturbing the peace in the rural areas and resulting in invasions of private property without search warrants.
Marianna Hatten, who runs the High Desert Ranch Bed & Breakfast on Gold Mine Road, said the entire area was subjected to "10 hours of assault" for the 35 plants. "I think it would be found illegal to use aerial surveillance from 60 feet when there's no probable cause," she said.
The nine-acre Camino de Paz Montessori School and Farm in Cuarteles is about eight years old and this year has 12 students, ages 11 to 14, who participate in farming as a context for learning mathematics and science.
Some parents, who did not want to be named, said they, too, were concerned about the raid on their children's school.
Pantano said she did not want to make too big an issue out of the raid, but questioned why such a commotion was necessary when anyone who asked would have been given a tour of the greenhouses.
"We're sitting here as a teaching staff, always short on money, and we're thinking, 'Gosh, all the money it takes to fly that helicopter and hire all those people, it would be great to have this for education.' "
Underlines mine. Your government at work, and as productive as usual.
Yep, the munchies can be play heck with your hunger sensibilities. I grab the salsa and chips right after I finish eating a bowl of radishes with ketchup on it...
(Just kidding...that was the old days. Older and wiser now.)
An RPG would be fun to have in those moments.
But, were they slicing or paste tomatoes??? ;)
Or cherry tomatoes??
Hell, what ain’t a federal crime???
Some of them have awesome firepower. Only a moron would shoot at one. Maybe would depend on how good a shot one was.
Different tax coffers, and besides, the "drug war" and public education both have the same goals: supplication to the State.
Two different questions altogether.
Of course not.
The entire operation was stupid. The teacher was correct when she said that all they would have to do was send one inspector to do a walk through.
The solution is not to shoot at helicopters.
The solution is to vote ONLY for those who promise to and who have by their past behavior or voting record demonstrated that they will support the Constitution as it was written.
None of our problems would exist if past politicians had done so.
I hate to break the news to you, but there are only two things that the federal government is Constitutionally authorized to proscribe as criminal, and shooting at an aircraft ain’t one of them.
For a little enlightenment, you might want to go through your copy of the U.S. Constitution and find out what those TWO crimes are.
[And yes, I fully understand that the federal behemoth has usurped almost all of daily life and made it a “crime” and that the results of objecting to their “ahthoritay” is draconian, but I would think that a Freeper would have a better working knowledge of our founding document and supreme law of the land.]
from another Old Curmudgeon, but one who has read the Constitution.
I think you missed my point. I did not say that I would shoot at the helicopter. I said that given the location and the behavior of the helicopter in the story, if someone was on trial for shooting at it, I would as a jury member, vote to acquit.
The Montessori schools are all private as far as I know. Their educational philosophy is not at all inconsistent with conservatism and there are plenty of homeschoolers using Montessori materials.
Back on topic, a great teachable moment was missed here. If only the teacher had asked in the presence of the kids to see a warrant, and not seeing one, had closed and locked the door, turned back to her class, and resumed the lesson.
Right now, breathing. But they are working on making that one.
I guess it’s too tough to get a cop out of Dunkin’ Donuts to just swing by and take a walk through the greenhouse to check it out.
Where did I say it is constitutional?
What I said was you will be prosecuted as a federal crime.
Now whether you will be prosecuted or whether such prosecution is constitutional are two totally different topics.
You will be prosecuted. You can then debate the constitutionality of your incarceration with your cell mate.
I don’t know how to make it more obvious that although both topics have roots in the Constitution, they are definitely two separate problems when you end up in court.
Actually if the Constitution were followed, it is doubtful that growing pot would even be a crime. It certainly would not be a federal crime with black helicopters and DEA thugs.
Don’t be so vain as to believe that you are the only one that can read the Constitution with comprehention.
By the way, you are not correct that only two crimes are mentioned in the Constitution as prosecutable by the federal government.
Actually the Constitution says that counterfeiting “coin” is a federal crime as well as treason, piracies and felonies on the high seas (two separate crimes).
It also gives the federal government to use the militia to put down insurrections, which means that one who participated in an insurrection would be guilty of a federal crime.
The Constitution also specifically grants to congress the power to tax and the direct result of that is that criminal violations of tax law must end up in federal court.
In essence, any law passed by congress becomes a federal law and criminal violation of that law means that you will be prosecuted in federal court as a criminal.
The problem therein is that the congress has passed laws that are prohibited by the Constitution. Nevertheless, once they become federal law, the Constitution allows prosecution in the federal court system.
You do have to think while you read.
If she would have done that, her family would probably be planning her funeral and the children’s families would have been planning theirs.
Don't do that. He will be a prosecution provided snitch.
As would those who ignored a knock on the door from the NKVD.
Different names,same tatics.
Good thing the school didn’t have a dog for a mascot.
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