Swat Team conducts food raid in rural Ohio

Swat Team conducts food raid in rural Ohio

www.crossroad.to

On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family.They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Where is the rational of a "Swat" team going in and terrorizing a family over food?

The story basically says - due to this family - who had begun a food coop for local folks and they sold local food - rubbed people in higher places the wrong way.

Another excert:

Presumably Manna Storehouse might eventually be charged with running a retail establishment without a license. Why then the Gestapo-type interrogation for a 3rd degree misdemeanor charge? This incident has raised the ominous specter of a restrictive new era in State regulation and enforcement over the nation’s private food supply.

There is much more to the story in the link - including the Agricultural Department - trying to entrap and stop the Amish from milk and food sales.

It seems Ohio has been cracking down hard on those people who buy and sell locally.

A blogger from Ohio - (states in the article) that these "food raids" are becoming common place.

Why does the government feel the need to shut down local food coops and even the Amish from selling food to others?

BTW: I had read that the banks were not giving loans to farmers, I thought that was a little "out there" kind of statement....... So I decided to check it out myself.

I went to Nashville and visited a 1000 acre farm, I asked the farmer the question saying : "I heard that farmers weren't able to get credit from banks anymore to plant their food, is that actually true?"

Guess what the answer was.......... Give up?

"YES - he said it IS TRUE" "Banks are not extending credit to farmers anymore".

Now, one of my many many thoughts about this..... including some I can't say here, is.............
Imagine lots of symbol keys at the end of "WHAT THE"

Besides that thought - is the large companies - that have been going around and trying to buy farmland throughout the country and have not been able to get all the land they want.
Are they now - with the help of their "friends" in the government and bankers - strong arming - by causing farmers to go bankrupt and then they take the land? Even now going after the little guys who buy and sell locally?

Gosh - the state of our union - is not where I would have ever concieved in my wildest nightmares to be at this time! I never thought or imagined we would be going down the road we are going....That corporate America was considered much more important than all of us "regular" citizens. I used to be naive and I guess looked at our government and the people running it with rose colored glasses.

I have to say though ......was I happier with rose colored glasses (and an idiot) to what is going on? Or am I better off now knowing the truths of what is taking place in the U.S?

Sorry, to be so reflective, but ...reading all the different things happening - makes me also wonder, were things always like this and I just didn't realize it? Or have we entered a nightmare world in the last few years, where we are having to be controlled - even in what we eat and where we buy what we eat?





www.crossroad.to
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 5-12-2008 by questioningall]

Fantastic find, wonder if any MSM papers or radio are going to run with this.

Rumors abound awhile back about the governments trying to tag home raised livestock on fear of SARS, eventually, if they want to control us, the food source is a good way to go. If we arent healthy, hard to fight back from whatever it is they need done.

Question, Its quite simple, control the food supply and you control the people. All of these actions that you hear about in the US who would have thought it possible pre 9/11. Each day they ratchet up the controls and its obvious to me that what they are trying to achieve is for the people to revolt.

So many have been expecting another false flag attack by terrorists when all the time the perps themselves have been plotting against the people. I mean come on how difficult is it to do, you have a large well armmed populace and you slowly but surely take a way their rights, freedoms and liberites, their homes, their jobs, their health their education.

What happens next, well the people do what the people do they revolt, that then gives the perps all the excuse to invoke martial law and then you really are up poop creek. And that is the plan, push the people till they can take not more and then you have the perfect excuse to do what you like.

you also have to remember that if the farmers arn't getting credit to buy seeds, they arn't planting, and if they arn't planting, what will be harvested and sold in the stores this season?

the only food produce coming in will probably be from corporation farms with nothing else but GMO crops, and a very hungry person will eat the bark of a tree, so people may object to the GMO crops, but they will also eat it.

Here is the origonal source took some time but seems it was a christian network article.....

Brannon Howse interviewed John Loeffler about his article on ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com on why SWAT police, armed for riot control weapons, packing automatic rifles and armored for a terrorist response stormed a family food cooperative in Ohio.

www.digitaljournal.com...=article&sc=0&events=&newsindex=

sorry forgot link

[edit on 5-12-2008 by xoxo stacie]

I live in the hope that one day when the next raid comes the perps get shot to pieces, that will send a clear message to the controllers that we the people will not be pooped on.

This story is shocking, to say the least. I bet if we had a free press they'd be all over it. Too bad. This goes up there with the communities who have begun to issue their own hard currency. The people are discovering that the need for the ruler-ship of the banks is an illusion. That working together, average American communities can circumvent the trap embedded in our economy. Eventually, the matter will be decided one way or other; we can't afford to remain debt-slaves forever. Unless we are willing to redefine what it means to be human, or at least American.

What did they do that was 'illegal'???

This is a scary story... very very very very scary... It seems to me like the NWO are advancing their plans further, more bold in stamping out the resistance.

What goes through the mind of a SWAT member, when he's raiding a house for food? Does he think that he's saving the world from criminals, when in fact he's doing the dirty work FOR the criminals? How do they go home to their own families and sleep at night, knowing that they just terrorised someone else's family over food?

Very scary... it forebodes future bloodshed. A war on people's basic rights and freedoms will need to be fought. Lock and load, people...

On the surface this just seems so wrong.

I'd really like to see Newsweek do an expose on this.

Why spend so much time and money to shut down a food coop?

Why did the family have to endure this experience?

I hope that this is followed up.

This is absolutely sickening. When should I prepare to be raided because I'm growing peppers in my own kitchen? Every day I become angrier and angrier that "The Land of the Free" is more like the "Land of the Slaves"

I'm going to write to my local newspaper demanding to see coverage of this in next weeks paper. I don't have any faith that it will make a difference, but maybe just maybe....

There is so much evil and corruption in this world that I almost long for the day when I no longer exist in it.

One day fully socialized democracy will dominate the world, all family owned businesses of all types will be shut down, by force if necessary.

Walmart will rule the world, in fact Walmart may be nationalized, and could be the only place anyone will be able to buy anything. Control supplies and distribution control banks and lending, remove consumer choice, ban firearms, do away with currency in favor of a new number identification system which will be based on earned credits control the automobile industry, the oil industry, all industries and bussiness... Of course to make this all begin to happen first their must be a total economic collapse and a world war.


Nah, it will never happen.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture has apparently been chastised by the courts in previous cases for over-reach, including entrapment of an Amish man to sell raw milk, which backfired, when it became known that the man gave milk instead of selling it to a state undercover agent, refusing to take money for what he believed to be a charitable act. The Amish literally interpret the Gospel of Matthew (5:42) to “give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”

Source

How about we try not to make fools of ourselves again huh? Pathetic that the Department of Agriculture doesn't learn from past mistakes.

-Ign0RanT

Its one thing if the family was storing this food for their own use. But doesnt the report say that they were running some kind of food retail establishment without the proper licensing?

If so, and lets say they sold you a bad batch of outdated food and you ate it and became sick from it, possibly hospitalized, and perhaps even near fatal conditions....what would you want done with that operation?

Now I agree that perhaps holding the entire family at gunpoint, especially the kids and toddlers so long like that is a bit over the edge..considering it wasnt a meth or coc aine bust.

It could have been handled better IMO. But I dont condone the actions of the adults in that family operating a food retail operation when they could have very well been selling contaminated or outdated food stuffs to unsuspecting buyers.

Even hot dog stand operators have to have a health permit to sell hot dogs on the corner of the street. Just because this was a family and in a house, doesnt set aside the health safety protocols for operating a food retail operation.



Cheers!!!!

Although this is in Ohio, America , this has far reaching ramifications for people everywhere in the world, if this type of enforcement takes off.

I've just joined a group (wouldn't call it a co-op myself, although maybe legally that's what it is) who pitch in and buy fresh fruit and veges from a Sydney Market for about 14 families.

We take it in turn going to the market for the huge shopping task and buy in bulk for a discount. (It's my turn to do the big shop once every 14 weeks)

Now, it has been agreed that costs will be covered like petrol, a percentage paid to cover the day off work if one has to take it on their alotted day but that's about all the financial compensation we get.

Now , if I was to get "raided" at home after having done my allotted shop at the Markets, I would be in possession of a LOT of fresh produce.
It would be very hard to prove that I wasn't just buying this and selling it on for profit.

I can see this scaring a lot of people off of even combining with other families for bulk buying.
I can also see this becoming illegal without a license that will ultimately cost so much that any benefit of bulk buying in groups will be lost.
But maybe that's the ultimate plan.

WOW,WOW,WOW Its coming people prepair your selfs. Right here in the U.S.A we have our own people, raiding the homes of our fellow brothers and sisters over THIS ! ! ! FOOD? I would say what is going on, but i already know the answer to that. We need some major change around here. This is so disturbing and sickining. They are just testing the water to see how far they can go at this point and this sort of thing will keep going tell there is a revalution. stock up on all you can if you can.

Originally posted by RFBurns
Its one thing if the family was storing this food for their own use. But doesnt the report say that they were running some kind of food retail establishment without the proper licensing?

If so, and lets say they sold you a bad batch of outdated food and you ate it and became sick from it, possibly hospitalized, and perhaps even near fatal conditions....what would you want done with that operation?

Now I agree that perhaps holding the entire family at gunpoint, especially the kids and toddlers so long like that is a bit over the edge..considering it wasnt a meth or coc aine bust.

It could have been handled better IMO. But I dont condone the actions of the adults in that family operating a food retail operation when they could have very well been selling contaminated or outdated food stuffs to unsuspecting buyers.

Even hot dog stand operators have to have a health permit to sell hot dogs on the corner of the street. Just because this was a family and in a house, doesnt set aside the health safety protocols for operating a food retail operation.



Cheers!!!!

yeah I'm sure that was it....selling without a retail license.....coulda put us all in GREAT danger....pulease....are you serious??? ....holding an entire family at gunpoint for nine hours "a bit over the edge"????....my fellow countrymen have lost their damn minds....God help us all...

Buying in blulk does not require a permit. Storing food also does not require a permit. Inviting friends over for a BBQ and you provide the food also does not require a permit.

But when you start selling this food as a retail operation intended for public consumption, then that is a whole different ball game and DOES require a permit.

All retail food stores, even corner convienience stores have them. Resturants, fast food places, and yes..the corner hot dog vendor.

Even food banks have to have health permits even tho they are not selling or operating as a retail food outlet. They provide to the public. And the licensing is to make sure they are operating within public health guidelines so that they dont just throw around outdated or contaminated food and make an entire community sick.

Again, if this family were storing this food for their own use, that is one thing. But if they were selling this food to any joe public person off the street, then its illegal without being properly licensed to do so.

I buy in bulk all the time. And I certianly do not have swat teams storming down my door or chasing me from the Sam's club. I also do not go around selling my food stock either..probably the most reason why I dont get chased down by swat or have my door bashed in and me and my family held at gunpoint..because I am not violating any public health laws.

Pretty simple concept people. If they were selling to the public with no permit to do so..illegal. Could have been handled better with the kids and toddlers, but none the less, if selling like a retail food store and no permit...still..illegal.



Cheers!!!!!

reply to post by realshanti


Didnt you read my post. I did say that holding the kids and toddlers at gun point for so long was a bit over the edge. Or did you overlook that part?


Still if the adults were selling that food out of their house like a retail operation without the proper health permits to do so, its illegal..dont you get that?

Lets just all go out and drive around without a license and insurance, lets all just go out and rob banks and kidnap people and anything else illegal.

Cmon it isnt that difficult to understand whats right and what isnt.

Again as I said, they didnt have to hold the kids and toddlers at gun point like that. But that does not mean that the illegal operation of selling food to the public without proper permits is excusable just because there are kids and toddlers in the house when illegal activity is going on in said house.

I am willing to bet that anyone here who would have bought something from this illegal operation and had gotten sick from that food and ended up in the hospital with serious if not fatal food poisoning, would all be singing a different tune dispite there were kids in the house.

Gimme a break!!! What if they were selling meth and coc aine...and there were kids in the house....would the tune be different then?


Cheers!!!!

[edit on 5-12-2008 by RFBurns]

reply to post by RFBurns


This is taken directly from their website (google "manna storehouse"):
"a. Manna Storehouse is a private business and does not sell to the public."

I'm going to admit right away that I am clearly out of my expertise commenting on this subject, but I did spend about 15 minutes searching for licensing or regulatory requirements for running a food co-op or buyers club, which this appears to be. I could not find any. My understanding is that a co-op can exist in several different forms, one of the most common being a "buyers club" which basically means private members pool together to buy direct from producers. Sort of like the "group buys" that exist in many internet forums for products. It would seem most of the big regulation such as FDA would rest on the producers, not on the buyers. I would assume entities such as supermarkets are regulated by local city/state health boards. But if 50 of us decide to get together privately and buy a half truck of apples for our own personal consumption are we a supermarket? I wouldn't think so. But common sense seems to be a dangerous thought these days.

So while there may be some technicalities that these people were in violation of, there surely could have been better ways to address them. I wonder if there was any legal trail or notice of non-compliance or violations served prior to this. This seems to be an mis-use of police authority at the very least and I personally find it disturbing. I guess we'll have to wait and see if anything else develops. The storehouse has a contact page, and there is also a group called "farm to consumer legal defense fund" that may know something about the regulatory/legal area involved.

I read on another blog that the family involved has stated they have been contacted by the media but do not intend to make any statements until they know some facts (they have not been charged with anything yet). Interesting story, thanks to the OP.