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Hellbent

Yay, we live in a police state!

Do we live in a police state?  

21 members have voted

  1. 1. Do we live in a police state?

    • Yes, clearly we do.
      5
    • Whoah, f'd up article, sure looks like we might be headed that way
      4
    • I need more facts before I make a decision
      6
    • I don't see a problem here.
      2
    • [i]other[/i]
      4


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http://www.salon.com/2013/08/20/massive_swat_team_raid_destroys_organic_farm_partner/



Owners of the property called “Garden of Eden” are now demanding an apology from police and compensation for what was taken from them including 17 blackberry bushes, 15 okra plants, 14 tomatillo plants, native grasses and sunflowers, after police were granted a search warrant for marijuana plants. Ironically, no evidence of marijuana was found on the property.

The raid resulted in all adults being handcuffed and the residents held inside at gunpoint for at least half an hour, according to owner Shellie Smith:

“They came here under the guise that we were doing a drug trafficking, marijuana-growing operation … They destroyed everything,” she told WFAA.

“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 … The weeds that we used to shade our crops are also gone,” she said.

Moreover, Smith claims that police failed to show a warrant until two hours after the raid began and hid their name tags to avoid identification.

City of Arlington spokeswoman Sana Syden said the Garden of Eden had been cited for numerous violations and a number of complaints by neighbors that marijuana was being grown on the property. However, no such plants were found.

The case illustrates another example of the increasing use of paramilitary police raids using SWAT teams as routine police work – in many cases where there is no justifiable threat to officer safety.

Only last week a SWAT team was brought in to serve an administrative warrant. Moreover, in recent times the use of SWAT teams has proliferated with their use in a string of cases from performing regulatory alcohol inspections, raiding bars for underage drinking and performing licensing inspections at barbershops.
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God forbid we have barbers wielding scissors without proper licensing! Thank God for these swat raids! Where would society be without them? I feel so much safer!

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Just practicing for when the order comes down to do this door-to-door, to collect the undesirables, intellectuals, self-defense advocates, and self-sufficiency practitioners.

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Hey, they still are better than the Tonton Macoute, ain't they? So you have a loooong way to go before you can call yourself "oppressed" ;-)

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I think this was perfectly reasonable. What if one of those crops was discovered to be a terrorist?

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Maes said:

Hey, they still are better than the Tonton Macoute, ain't they? So you have a loooong way to go before you can call yourself "oppressed" ;-)

True... nevertheless:

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After that family was raided for typing "backback" and "pressure cooker" in two separate searches, I looked up specific instructions on how to make a real pressure cooker bomb (not that they'll be used). I'm still here, so I don't think I'm included within your "we". Regardless, that was the day I switched to DuckDuckGo.

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The police have been more or less militarized at this point.

It's scary that the police can now effectively shut down a city and search door to door with military-styled gear, vehicles, and weaponry.


Enjoy America!

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The real problem is that it's far too easy for police to get search warrants, either from a sincere but mistaken citizen, or someone being an asshole, or more often from "undercover" agents that may or may not actually exist depending on how bad a particular agency wants to search a locale. These phantom witnesses in fact are not required to testify in court either, in order to protect their identity as undercover police agents or actual ghosts.

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Quast said:

These phantom witnesses in fact are not required to testify in court either, in order to protect their identity as undercover police agents or actual ghosts.

How convenient.

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Coopersville said:

After that family was raided for typing "backback" and "pressure cooker" in two separate searches, I looked up specific instructions on how to make a real pressure cooker bomb (not that they'll be used). I'm still here, so I don't think I'm included within your "we". Regardless, that was the day I switched to DuckDuckGo.

Did anyone tell the cops about your searches?

Suffolk County Criminal Intelligence Detectives received a tip from a Bay Shore based computer company regarding suspicious computer searches conducted by a recently released employee. The former employee’s computer searches took place on this employee’s workplace computer. On that computer, the employee searched the terms “pressure cooker bombs” and “backpacks.”

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Coopersville said:

After that family was raided for typing "backback" and "pressure cooker" in two separate searches, I looked up specific instructions on how to make a real pressure cooker bomb (not that they'll be used). I'm still here, so I don't think I'm included within your "we". Regardless, that was the day I switched to DuckDuckGo.

By the way, have you felt someone's been watching you? Y'know, they might be collecting even more evidence by now... :P

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even Burning Man is being policed, which raises the question, who is it being policed from? Burning Man is an isolated city to itself. People who go to Burning Man know what they are getting into. I don't think anyone wants police there. I don't think anyone is going to be deeply offended because someone publicly urinated.

http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2013/08/22/police-cracking-down-on-burning-man-this-year/

“The pigs are here,” Muzslaski wrote. “And uncommonly badge heavy.”

They nabbed a Burner for a car registration violation, he says. Another got a $275 ticket and threat of getting registered as a sex offender for peeing in public.

“In 18 years on the playa, I’ve never seen a more aggressive police presence that what’s been going down today. Deeply upsetting, outrageous stuff.”

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It sounds like Burning Man got in trouble with the BLM some time ago. The link about the lawsuit in that article doesn't work for me (just brings up blank page) but I'm thinking the fedz are now looking for any excuse to fuck with Burning Man. BTW, even though it's legal to camp out in BLM areas, you technically are supposed to move your camp every two weeks, by at least 20 miles. In practice nobody is going to police you if you're out there by yourself in the middle of nowhere (far away from roads/trails), but it becomes more visible in large gatherings like this. And yeah, some fulltime RV'ers spend all their winters in the southern desert, then drive their rigs up north and/or into the mountains for the summer.

Oh yeah, and obviously that SWAT team was for the bees... duh! (something like that should only happen on "Police Academy").

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About time more people realized they're not living in a free country. They've only been warned of what was coming for decades now.

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Quasar said:

About time more people realized they're not living in a free country. They've only been warned of what was coming for decades now.

But, but, FREEDOM! :(

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Heh.
In France, a couple of anarchists (or so) are sued because they are accused of terrorism. They can not defend themselves correctly because of secret défense. It’s magic.

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Maybe we should arm up with our American guns and fight to reorganize the -- Wait, hold on, I'll finish the thought later. Someone's knocking.

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