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Title: SWAT Team Raided Off-Grid Garden And Destroyed Legal Crops, Suit Says
Source:
From The Trenches
URL Source: http://www.fromthetrenchesworldrepo ... s-suit-says/137512#more-137512
Published: Jul 14, 2015
Author: Off the Grid News/Daniel Jennings
Post Date: 2015-07-14 11:18:30 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 1004
Comments: 10
A SWAT team kept members of an off-grid community in handcuffs for several hours while code enforcement officers confiscated and destroyed their organic crops, a new lawsuit alleges. The suit arises from an incident in which police with automatic weapons and armor raided the Garden of Eden, a commune and organic farm in Arlington, Texas (a Dallas suburb) on August 2, 2013, but never showed residents a warrant,Off The Grid News reported two years ago. The cops were looking for marijuana which they never found, and which residents said never existed. Residents filed suit this month in federal court, alleging their constitutional rights were violated. After the raid, police called in city code enforcement officers, who confiscated sunflowers and blackberry bushes. City employees also used a string trimmer to destroy okra and sweet potato plants while the commune’s members were held in custody. Police kept Garden of Eden residents in custody from 7:40 a.m. to 5 p.m. while code enforcement confiscated and destroyed their property, the suit filed in Tarrant Court alleges, according to The Dallas Morning News. The raid involved 40 police cars and the SWAT team. Police Mistook Tomato Plants for Marijuana The raid stemmed from an investigation by an undercover narcotics officer who received multiple reports that one of the residents was growing marijuana. As part of the investigation, police had a Texas Department of Public Safety agent fly over the property and take pictures. The agent spotted tomato, pepper, okra and basil plants that were mistaken for marijuana and used to justify the search warrant. The narcotics officer did not produce enough evidence to justify the search warrant or the no-knock raid the SWAT team conducted, Garden of Eden attorney Wes Dauphinot alleged. The raid violated the group’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, he said. The narcotics officer was apparently acting on tips supplied by an anonymous informant who claimed that a resident of the Garden, Quinn Eaker, was growing marijuana and covering it with bamboo, and was in possession of two rifles and a pistol, The Morning News reported. The SWAT team did not find any marijuana or guns. Landowner Shellie Smith and her friends were practicing permaculture and trying to raise their own food,The Dallas Observer reported. They also used outhouses instead of regular plumbing in their attempt to practice an eco-friendly lifestyle. City officials objected to the lifestyle and started citing the Garden for code violations because it might lower property values. The raid attracted national and international attention from media outlets ranging from the Huffington Postto the New York Daily News. The suit requests punitive damages.
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#2. To: Deckard (#0)
They were having trouble there with weed....actually, weeds and tall grass.
If they aren't violating state laws (like growing marihuana) they should be left alone. I'm sure this shared land community is away from other, more normal citizens that don't live like scumbag hippies... so it's kinda hard to complain about the slimy, smelly fucks, are dragging property values down... because they probably aren't. This is a free country... leave them alone. They want off grid, let them live that way. No police response, no EMS, fire or any response. Let them cart their own medical victims to the hospital in the backseat of a bright yellow VW bug with flowers painted on it. Honestly, Gatlin, it's a libtard slippery slope to be so self important that law makers need to tell people how to live. They should be left alone.
#8. To: GrandIsland (#7)
Yea, I guess you are right. So is Shellie Smith, land owner of the Garden of Eden plot, when she is quoted as saying: “The City codes are in violation of our natural and Constitutional rights…” So, we should just let them disobey any city codes they want to. I am sure Deckard will be along shortly to agree….screw the city codes. BTW: They have neighbors on the SE side of their property and also across the street from their property. One home on the SE corner across the street from their property fence looks to be in value of somewhere between $300K to $400k. The Garden of Eden plot also borders the Terra Verde Golf Course on the East.
There are areas in Texas were you can drive 20, 30 and maybe up to 40 miles without seeing people inhabiting the spaces. If they had picked one of those areas for their commune, then I could easily agree. But they did not. They chose to establish inside the city limits of Arlington. Satellite pictures before they moved in shows a pristine landscape and after they moved in, the plot looked worse than the city dump. The city responded to complaints about unsanitary conditions. The complainants were not identified, but who else could it have been other than their neighbors. At the time one article was written, there were 120 people on the 3.5 acre plot, all using outhouses within the city and in close proximity to neighbors. Arlington code officers, dealing with a community that considers itself a sovereign nation, executed a search warrant and removed 20,420 pounds of materials, included compost, carpeting, tree limbs and cardboard, as well as two dozen tires holding stagnant water. The reason for SWAT was that “sovereign citizens are America’s top cop-killers.” Smith, the owner of the property, requested a jury trial to dispute the Class C misdemeanor citations for weeds and grass, unclean premises, nuisance outdoor storage and hazardous wiring. She probably requested the jury trial is hopes of jury nullification. However, She was found guilty of a dozen code violations by the jury. According to the search warrant affidavit, Eaker, apparently the group leader, had previously been caught with a small amount of marijuana in July, and the police had “good reason to believe” that a raid on the property would uncover “live marijuana plants.” I imagine their neighbors have the same feeling for freedom, freedom to enjoy their property in a clean community….thus the reason for probably the filing of complaints. Freedom is a wonderful thing, but freedom is always constrained by laws or rules that apply equally to all members of a society. These laws have a negative quality in that they prohibit certain acts which are damaging to the community or which interfere with another person's freedom.
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GoE's Quinn Eaker
#7. To: Gatlin (#2)
(Edited)
Replies to Comment # 7.
#9. To: GrandIsland (#7)
(Edited)
They should be left alone.
This is a free country...
End Trace Mode for Comment # 7.
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