Via Grits for Breakfast, there was an excellent piece at NPR last week about the Richardson family in Clarksville, Texas and their run-in with the drug war: Civil Rights, Judicial Bias Surround Texas Drug Case by Wade Goodwyn.
It’s a bizarre (yet too true) story, including a warrant signed after the house was forcibly entered, the District Attorney (complete with flak jacket) participating in the raid, an entire family being charged for conspiracy even though it was clear that drug sales were limited to one step-son, and a judge refusing to drop charges even after the Attorney General’s office said there was no case.
Lawsuit pending.
I hope they break the axe handle off in Texas’s ass. I hope it costs the state,city and tax payers so much money it jars Texans awake.
Feds illegally raid New Mexico farm school without warrant and find nothing but fresh produce
Published on 11-30-2010
Source: Natural News – Ethan A. Huff
The government terror campaign against innocent civilians continues with a recent report in the Santa Fe New Mexican about a September raid on a small farming school that left children and administrators in shock. According to the report, officials paid a surprise and unwarranted visit to the Camino de Paz Montessori School and Farm in Cuarteles, New Mexico, on September 21 to search for marijuana — but they ended up needlessly terrorizing small children and finding only tomato plants in the process.
“We were all as a group eating outside as we usually do, and this unmarked drab-green helicopter kept flying over and dropping lower,†explained Patricia Pantano, education director of the school, to the Santa Fe New Mexican about the incident. “Of course, the kids got all excited. They were telling me that they could see gun barrels outside the helicopter.â€
Fifteen minutes after the helicopter left, unidentified agents showed up at the school in person and demanded to inspect the facilities. Although the agents had no legal warrant to make such demands, Greg Nussbaum, the farm director, permitted them to tour the farm anyway and see for themselves that it is nothing more than an education facility for small children that combines gardening and farming with traditional education.
According to the report, agents have been pulling the helicopter stunt all over southern Santa Fe County in recent months, hovering over properties and intimidating owners who they say are “suspectâ€. Agents have also conducted several other raids nearby the school, even though they have not had probable cause to do so.
“I think it would be found illegal to use aerial surveillance from 60 feet when there’s no probable clause,†Marianna Hatten, owner of a bed and breakfast operation near the school, is quoted as saying. Hatten’s bed and breakfast is also located on the same road as another property that was surveyed by helicopters and subsequently raided by agents.
Yepper, all that taxpayer’s money, wasted. Oodles and oodles of it, in JP fuel, chopper maintenance…and of course, overtime for the brave, fearless veggie-haters.
Haven’t they figured out yet we’re in the middle of a de facto Depression? They need to be reminded of that by the local taxpayers…
Kerli is pushing for per se state laws on drugged driving,,,,again.
Gov’t: Drugs were in 1 in 5 drivers killed in 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/30/AR2010113002884_2.html
“”
Researchers are just beginning to understand the problem. Strickland said the data did not allow them to know whether the influence of drugs caused the fatal crashes. He said testing procedures were evolving and many states and communities test for different drugs or use different types of tests. “”
Now comes the push for tax payers to spend millions buying Karen Tandy’s present employers recent use detector,,,,for millions of dollars apiece.
Looks like more Cardasian Justice. Guilty till proven innocent. Maybe the Fed D.E.A.dheads can dole out the sentences beforehand and give us a coupon stating time served and then let us toke in peace, since we already did the time? At least it would eliminate the chaos and danger of one of the porkers tripping and shooting his foot and any dogs on the premises might live through the night. We could plan a Ganja vacation, just redeem the coupon at the local copshop. For the wealthy, indentured prisoners like hiring someone to take your place in Bootcamp. If you can’t do the time cause your spoiled and rich, just buy someone’s coupon who already served or rent a prisoner to take your place. Not much different than the same Fed D.E.A.dheads rolling 1200 doobies every 25 days and UPSing them to 4 remaining patients legally toking, while millions of other Americans become bona fide criminals… We have the D.E.A.th Merchants of the USAl Qaeda, who needs foreign terrorists!
Florida-Based Advocate Presses Case Across U.S. By Barbara Peters Smith
CN Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune November 30, 2010 Florida
Irvin R Rosenfeld is not anyone’s idea of mellow and laid-back. Apart from his day job, he has just written a book, “My Medicine.” It is the story of his lifelong endurance of a rare bone condition, his battle for the legal right to control it with marijuana, and his membership in an exclusive club — with 13 people at its largest, and now four still alive — of patients who receive regular monthly cannisters of relatively mild weed, grown, rolled and shipped courtesy of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
This type of judicial fraud has been ubiquitous throughout the history of the drug war. Except now we have the Internet and its ability to bring twits like Texas Judge John Miller to the attention of the entire world, NPR notwithstanding.