Posted on 08/14/2013 11:23:23 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
Several residents at the “Garden of Eden” sustainability garden in Arlington, Texas, claim that local police raided their farm because they thought tomato plants were marijuana plants.
The police reportedly damaged the garden's property and the crops during the Aug. 2 raid, which included a SWAT team (video below).
“They came here under the guise that we were doing a drug trafficking, marijuana-growing operation. They destroyed everything,” said garden owner Shellie Smith to WFAA-TV.
Apparently, an undercover officer and a helicopter surveillance crew believed there was probable cause that the wrong kind of plant was being grown in the garden and an armed raid was planned.
“They can’t even tell the difference between tomato plants and a marijuana drug cartel," said farm resident Quinn Eaker to NBC Dallas-Fort Worth. "That’s just really bad intel.”
According to the Garden of Eden's website, the raid lasted for an estimated 10 hours.
However, the City of Arlington stated: “No cultivated marijuana plants were located on the premises. Narcotics detectives and members of the tactical unit cleared the scene within 45 minutes.”
According to reports, police officers removed legally cultivated plants such as blackberries and okra. Police also removed pallets, tires and cardboard that were used for sustainability projects.
Instead of the damage done to the farm, police spokesman Christopher Cook seemed more concerned about the reaction on Facebook against the police.
“That’s what concerns me about their social media allegations," Cook told the Dallas Morning News. "Yes, they were initially handcuffed, however once it was determined it was secure they were taken out of handcuffs. Typically we wouldn’t do that, but they were compliant."
Sources: Dallas Morning News, WFAA-TV, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth, IntoTheGardenofEden.com
No idea of what hustle and bustle you are speaking, as my nearest neighbors are 175,000 broiler/fryer chickens.
Oh, and next month we will be digging another well because I'm tired of hauling water...........
Love your post.
Couldn’t agree more.
“humped to completion”
classic.
I have about 50 wild turkeys come though my meadow each day. I am waiting on a well also but I hope I don't have to go over 600 feet and get plenty of water. There are also deer, elk, bear, mountinlion...and lots of trees.
I prefer the term LEOtards.
So right. I had only seconds, so I just hit send.
The point I wanted to make was that the police seemed to think they were doing them a favor by uncuffing them so quickly.
Because 'they were being compliant'. Sheesh, this is going to take a lot of doing to undo the damage we've allowed to occur.
No elk or bear here, but have all the rest, including 2 bald eagle nests I can see from my front yard.
The tomatoes were all sauced!
If only.
You might say they were “stewed” over the whole episode...
baddaBING!
Try the Veal! Here till Tuesday!
Give the coppers some credit, it’s an easy mistake to make the the Ganja tomato variety.
I remember the nicotine-crazed cow talking.... saying “Tomaaaaacco!”. That was the episode where Homer found out what the “J” in Homer J. Simpson was short for...
It began when every little town's police dept. decided it was cool to dress up like ninjas and put their stupid pictures up around town and in the newspaper.
Apparently they sent out several officals over a period of time and not one used a brain cell to put a stop to it. Other articles state the police harassment has been going on for months and street view maps of their place show their nice white fence is plastered with what appears to be notices and citations.
In case you haven’t seen this:
“The city police failed to produce a search warrant until more than 2 hours after forcibly entering the premises and the house, while detaining everyone at gunpoint for hours. Technically this is kidnapping.”
http://intothegardenofeden.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=141&Itemid=381
A second FR thread on same tomato SWAT raid - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3054589/posts?q=1&;page=51
This is a rural area and the home owner was in contact with the sheriff’s dept. but guess the city police got involved because they had a big bad SWAT team. LE is out of control and these terror strikes on innocent citizens are quickly becoming the norm.
The last time I was called in for jury duty, we were asked what we thought about cops. I was shocked that so many, including little blue haired ladies, had little to no respect for LE these days. I should say I’m shocked that so many have become to angry that they expressed their true feelings outloud. This is a very conservative area. It’s no wonder what with the way they run rough shod over the very people they are supposed to protect and serve.
Back in the early 80’s my parents lived in a townhouse apartment north of Baltimore, their patio faced the main road. My dad built a garden box and planted tomatoes. When they grew large and leafy but before the plants started producing fruit, the cops would slow down, sometimes stop and gawk, a few even got out of their cars and walked up as we could only presume, they thought my folks were growing pot.
I suspect that if that happened today, they’d get a visit from the “friendly” local SWAT team and if they had a dog, it would be shot.
Agenda 21 is to sustainability, as UN human traffickers in Slovenia were to human rights.
Just because the UN turns a term into a cashcow doesn’t negate term’s common sense value.
” Seriously, that’s what they do. Fly around
and shoot the ground with an infrared
camera. Some particular signature
supposedly tells them it’s marijuana.”
Apparently it isn’t relyable.
Not that lack of reliability matters to cops. Many drug dogs have been shown to have horrible success rates. But as long as it gets them past that pesky 4th, who cares?
[My gripe is that the normal decent folk in that group don’t/won’t/can’t remove the buttheads from amongst them.]
I grew up in a family of LEOs and Firemen.
Starting back in the 70’s Affirmative Action forever altered those professions such that none of my siblings or cousins had any inclination to follow in their American parent’s footsteps.
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