Police raid commune looking for weed, find weeds

So many issues on this one. In a nutshell - cops raided a "sustainable living" property (aka Hippies) looking for drugs and found none. The reasoning for the raid seems to stem from either complaints about the property from local HOA's to "reasonable suspicion" that drugs were being grown.

Personally - I think they (cops) wanted to test out some new toys and have some sick fun.

ARLINGTON — Arlington’s SWAT team recently raided a “sustainable lifestyle” area in southwest Arlington known as Garden of Eden, looking for drugs on land where residents say their goal is to use as few modern amenities as possible in their daily lives. But instead of finding weed, the authorities during their Aug. 2 raid mostly just found weeds on the property, which is located in the 7300 block of Mansfield Cardinal Road. “They held us at gunpoint for multiple hours without giving us access to our cameras,” said Quinn Eaker, one of eight adults detained. They live at the residence with several children.

Weeds but no weed; Arlingotn police raid on 'sustainable living' home nets no drugs

What ever happened to police simply walking up and knocking on the door? Now it's beat the door down, send in 12 SWAT officers in combat gear, point guns in people's faces while screaming obscenities, shoot the family dog, terrorize and apologize later - all because someone isn't mowing the yard regularly?

This country is too far gone to save it! I kid you not when I tell you my wife and I are investigating the renunciation of our citizenship and moving to Latin America. We've had enough!

reply to post by kozmo


Self perpetuating cycle of abuse.

A municipality justifies building a paramilitary team then they have to justify its continued existence and expense so they need to use it regularly even when it's not needed so people dont ask "what the hell do we need this for?"

This pretty much sums it up. Sums up just about every organization, activist, bureaucracy and government office on the planet:

reply to post by TXRabbit


To quote a post of mine in another thread about the guy arrested for filming the incident (without rehashing identical sentiments):

SWAT Team Raid Sustainable Organic Co-Op For Drugs, Find None, Force Them To Mow Their Lawn

Wow, this is extremely important:

Here we have Big Brother using drones to surveil a property they suspect has marijuana, and SWAT to force private citizens to bring their property up to code by DESTROYING their FRUIT (blackberries) and mowing their grass. This is, once, another frightening example of the encroaching police state.

including the mother of a 22 month old and a two week old baby who was separated from her children during the raid. The police enforced activity on the day of the raid included mowing the grass, the forcible destruction of both wild and cultivated plants like blackberries, lamb’s quarters and okra, and the removal of other varied materials from around the premises such as pallets, tires and cardboard

Now I can understand the issue with having pallets, tires, and other things just laying around and being unsightly, but it's a private citizen's property that is not harming anything (except perhaps property value, or aesthetics) and I would like to know HOW a warrant was obtained for suspected marijuana growth, when NOTHING drug related was found. This is fishy as hell, but sounds like the government using the issue to "drugs" to force property owners into code compliance.

What evidence was presented to award this drug warrant? What was the judge shown or told and by whom? Why did the judge sign it when NOTHING was found?

Intimidation by SWAT and police, the new norm for nonconformity and noncompliance.

Welcome to the Police State.

Original Post
Original Thread

"Weed" still seems to be regarded by law enforcement as Public Enemy #1 and the target of the most raids yet is among the most benign substances in popular use, legal or illicit. It is an economic and competitive threat to the liquor industry profits, to the pharmaceutical industry profits, and to a vast number of industrial products that are now being produced with synthetics. It is also among the most popular substance in general use and for a law enforcement raid to be conducted without proof, cause, or provocation it is considered nearly a "sure thing" some will be found somewhere which will be used to justify the raid.

It is nice to see bullying law enforcement come up empty-handed when they set out to violate peoples' privacy without cause or justification and acting on statistical probability alone. Now let's see them pay out to these good people they harassed for the inconvenience caused, the degradation, and the trauma they inflicted. Let's see them just back-off, keep out of people's personal spaces, and take care of business if and only when it enters public spaces or is dangerous enough a violation to warrant intrusion.

There comes a point when the law and law enforcement quits being a service to society and becomes only self-serving or a service to powerful and meddlesome masters. We have gone way past that point long ago, the point when it is no longer keeping order but meting out tyranny.

During the raid, the city’s code compliance office executed a warrant of its own — separate from the police warrant — and “removed 20,420 pounds of nuisance materials and 24 tires holding stagnant water,” city spokeswoman Sana Syed said. Read more here: www.star-telegram.com...=cpy

So, basically the city doesn't like the way they were living, used a drone to spot "something" suspicious on the property, to get a warrant and try to fix what they didn't like.

God, we are in trouble.

reply to post by TXRabbit


THEIR has to be a case for court here sue them for pain and suffering / false arrest etc where did they get the info the hippies were stoners .

i would follow the cops home after their shifts and show them and their familys some fear but thats just me

reply to post by TXRabbit

There are noxious weeds that property owners are held accountable for if they grow on their property and are allowed to spread to other properties.......

I wonder if not having found marijuana, they went on to cite the commune for allowing the propagation of noxious weeds as those in the commune were trying to halt / escape the threat of noxious thoughts and mental processes as were displayed by the S.W.A.T. dudes.

This country has a bad disease.

reply to post by Erongaricuaro


Well written as usual from you.

I am waiting for the day when us Americans say enough is enough and try to take back our government and end the tyranny. Maybe it is the fluorine in the water, or a side effect from the GMO/pesticide ridden food, or we are just too brainwashed by the media to see what it really going wrong and take a stand to do something about it.

Too many of us turn a blind eye are make an excuse when their neighbors are taken down. We have too many people who live in fear and believe the militarized police force there to keep them safe.

I do not see how a person with a free mind can be okay with SWAT team raids over a non-toxic plant.

Weeds are drugs. Many of the pharmaceuticals are designed after them. That is why they don't want people letting weeds grow in their yard. It took a lot of bribing to get the laws and rules controlling weeds in the yards, they are a threat to the medical and pharma industries. We aren't allowed to grow our own drugs(medicines) and soon they will making it so we cannot grow our own food by causing a poisoning of the soils to occur...amendments we are paying for which are said to be good for controlling weeds.

It's too late, too many people already know that these weeds are medicines, our faith in the drug companies is faltering. Maybe if they used the right staph in the medical industry instead of the staph of commerce and deceit our medical system would be better. If they used the staff of Apollo (true healers staff] and did what they are doing, Zeus would destroy them. The right staff for the right practice I guess. If we are dumb enough to believe the trickster, we deserve to lose our money.

Well, there is nothing like a 100% swing and MISS to show beyond doubt, how little is apparently required for a search warrant these days. When there is nothing there...and was nothing there...there is, by definition, NOTHING to base a warrant ON in the real world.

So...this tells me the creative report writing to support dumb hunches goes on about as much as the critics claim, if not more ...and who knows how many busts they make where finding something was as much by luck and Captain Obvious for circumstances as any 'evidence' of wrong doing actually seen or recorded?

reply to post by TXRabbit


This has gone too far.

In Israel a few weeks ago the parliament passed a new law that allows cops to enter any house WITHOUT WARRANTY if there's any loud noise or music after 11pm. That means they can also just break in anywhere and then justify it because it was "noisy", searching for whatever or incriminate anyone for anything. And who can say anything against a police officer's testimony.

Man this NWO sucks.

Originally posted by MyHappyDogShiner
reply to post by TXRabbit

 

There are noxious weeds that property owners are held accountable for if they grow on their property and are allowed to spread to other properties.......

I wonder if not having found marijuana, they went on to cite the commune for allowing the propagation of noxious weeds as those in the commune were trying to halt / escape the threat of noxious thoughts and mental processes as were displayed by the S.W.A.T. dudes.

This country has a bad disease.

It would be cheaper to send in a gardening crew, clean up the yard and send the bill to the householder. If they don't pay up, have it deducted from their benefits or send it to their bank.

reply to post by Erongaricuaro


Doesn't it sounds a bit odd that in one part of the country people can openly smoke and grow weed as it's legal, and on the other side people have to live in fear of getting their homes raided?

What evidence was presented to award this drug warrant? What was the judge shown or told and by whom?

This group should contact the ACLU for wrongful search and seizure. This had nothing to do with weed, and everything to do with a neighbor who has a connection or two...no doubt...who didn't want their property value affected.

They should just put up a big wooden fence. It would likely keep the other homeowners quiet.

Originally posted by Shuye
reply to post by Erongaricuaro

 

Doesn't it sounds a bit odd that in one part of the country people can openly smoke and grow weed as it's legal, and on the other side people have to live in fear of getting their homes raided?

It sounds perfectly odd to me that such a travesty could have been perpetrated on the people of this world to deny them the use of this plant. I have a theory on that though - There are factions who do not wish us to survive or re-initiate civilization after any possible coming catastrophe. They would wish to deny us the benefits of the singular most useful and beneficial plant that could aid in permitting survivors sustain themselves and rebuild society following a global disaster.

Controlling elements wish to eradicate this resource that would serve us as a food; a fuel oil; a durable fiber readily usable for rope, lashings, cloth and clothing; a variety of medicinal applications; a building material; cellulose and plastic; and the list goes on. During this period of nearly singular prohibition, when other illicit substances are literally being dumped on our streets, casual suspicions that this plant may be in use in a home is cause to break past physical and legal barriers to deprive people of liberty and basic privacy.

America is no longer the Land of the Free but the Brave among us continue to resist the injustices perpetrated against their society and strive ahead struggling to recapture their basic freedoms by flouting this unjust law and tyranny. I find it a bit more than odd but downright criminal that anyone anywhere must live in fear of invasion, capture, and loss of freedom over this morally reprehensible miscarriage of justice. Just my opinion.

Here is a screen shot of the warrant
from a local news report about the incident.


Mike

"There were 15 to 20 blackberry bushes. There were sunflowers for our bees and gifting. Lots of okra, and we had a sweet potato patch that they whacked down with a Weed-Eater," Smith said. "The weeds that we used to shade our crops are also gone."

- Shellie Smith

Here is a quote from the Owner of the Property.


Mike

Here is what was hauled away,
even after the warrant turned out to be baseless.

So did the raid bring a truck and trailer with them?
Or did they call for one after the raid progressed.


Mike

Good thing they let the cops in... this could have easily turned into Waco 2.0