Where/when did this happen in Vermont? I can’t find anything on it.
… shot down on the pavement or waiting on death row. (don’t have a cool graphic to continue the song.)
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This shit predates Trump by decades.
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Basically the same thing happened to my brother and sister in law - they happened to be avid chili growers and amateur photographers. A concerned neighbour assumed the chili plants were weed plants and the bright lights upstairs were a grow op, so they reported it. The police staked-out their house and even flew a helicopter with a thermal camera overhead one evening.
The police had the decency to bust in while they were away, but left a broken door and a note scribbled on the back of their bank statement. To add insult to this, my in-laws were burgled because the front door was left ajar. By which I mean off its hinges.
It took my them months to find out why they had been targeted, and nearly a year to get compensation (and they still weren’t compensated for the burgled items).
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As ChumbaWumba so nicely put it: “The Nazis changed but they never went away.”
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Time for ball bearings and bear spikes.
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and too many toys that are for kids who are a lot older.
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seem to remember lipton at some point in the sixties as one of the royal seal teas before commerce staged an advertising coo on major design
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Were they pigeons?
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It’s a small comfort that at least these goons weren’t also from the Baltimore school… “Look what we left cough found in the basement!!!”
FTFF
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Maryland - not Vermont, I had a flipped bit in my RAM. The Salon story is … enlightening? Enraging?
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But tea is a drug! Ask any Mormon!
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The note scribbled on the bank statement is the icing on the cake; don’t American cops carry notebooks?
Kansas Swat Team terrorizes drug-free family of tea-drinking tomato-growers
“I’ll keep doing that until I run out of batteries” Tennessee sheriff’s deputies torture teenager with stun gun
Ah, I see, it’s a contest.
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Why is that Clash quote shaped like Florida?
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I know I’m massively missing the point of this story but I just keep wondering - why are tomato-growers disposing of tea leaves in the trash?
That’s good compost/mulch going to waste!
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Quotas and a whole bunch of military surplus gear.
The whole thing just gets crazier the more I read about it:
The appeal judgment is here for anyone who appreciates judicial sarcasm:
Summary
We start with this exciting little titbit:
“On August 9, 2011, Robert Harte and his two children visited the Green Circle Garden Center, a garden store, where they purchased one small bag of supplies. Harte was a stay-at-home dad, attempting to grow tomatoes and other vegetables in his basement as an educational project with his 13-year-old son. Unbeknownst to Harte, Sergeant James Wingo of the Missouri State Highway Patrol was parked nearby in an unmarked car, watching the store as part of a ‘pet project.’ Wingo would often spend three or four hours per day surveilling the garden store, keeping meticulous notes on all of the customers: their sex, age, vehicle description, license plate number, and what they purchased. On this particular day, Wingo observed Harte’s visit and recorded the details in his spreadsheet.”
So we have a police officer spending three or four hours (presumably of his own time since it’s described as a pet project) sitting outside a garden centre jotting down who goes in and out and what they buy.
He apparently used his database to set up a previous massive raid on alleged drugs growers which did catch some criminals but also netted some blameless tomato growers - which not surprisingly led to some inter-agency japery.
Undeterred by this some eejit in the Johnson County sheriff’s office decides to have another go and asks Wingo if he’s got any info. He’s not keen to be involved himself but provides what he says himself is not “enough new contacts to justify a full throttle 420 operation.”
Harte’s details are on that list.
“Despite not yet having probable cause for search warrants, and with only four weeks to investigate, the JCSO began planning a press conference to celebrate the success of their operation.”
Well, that’s clearly sensible. Journalists are busy people. You’ve got to get in their diaries quick otherwise they’ll be busy covering the Johnson County Fair or a kitten stuck in a tree or something.
“Despite believing the Hartes had a marijuana grow operation somewhere in their home, the JCSO did not conduct surveillance, check utility records, look for fans or other alterations typically used to conceal grow operations, or notice the tomato garden readily visible through a front-facing basement window.”
Well, sure why would you? After all his name was on a list you got from another police officer, that’s probable cause right there isn’t it?
“There is also no evidence, aside from the apparent discovery of a traffic ticket, that anyone at the JCSO even conducted a background check on the Harte family. If they had, the record tells us that they would have learned that Robert and Adlynn Harte were both former CIA employees with the highest level of security clearance; Mrs. Harte worked as an attorney at Waddell and Reed Financial and was a graduate of the Leawood Citizens Police Academy; her brother was also an attorney, formerly for the Navy JAG Corps, and an ex-New York City police officer trainee; the Hartes had a son in seventh grade and a daughter in kindergarten; and they had no criminal record other than the aforementioned undesignated traffic ticket.”
You see - those are the sort of lengths drugs fiends will go to in order to provide cover for their criminal activities! Plus the CIA are all into drugs anyway - I saw Air America.
“Instead, the entirety of the JCSO’s investigation of the Hartes consisted of three “trash pulls.” On April 3, 2012, Deputies Mark Burns and Edward Blake found wet green vegetation mixed in with the Hartes’ kitchen trash. They determined it was not suspicious. Burns found the same wet green vegetation when he returned to the Hartes’ home with Deputy Nate Denton on April 10, 2012. This time, with only ten days before JCSO’s planned press conference on the success of its April 20 raid, the previously innocuous vegetation was considered to be wet marijuana plant material.”
The Hartes obviously have Jedi mind control powers. The first time they told the cops “These leaves are not suspicious”. The second time, they obviously slipped up.
“Burns asserts that he field tested the plant material found on April 10 using a Lynn Peavey KN reagent test kit, and that it was positive for marijuana.”
Ooh, ooh - a field test - Bingo!
“However, there is no record of that test because, although Burns thought it good practice to photograph the results of field tests and had done so in other situations in the past, he did not take pictures of the plant material or the KN reagent test results.”
Oh. Ok…?
“The deputies needed one more positive trash pull before they could seek a warrant. So, on April 17—with only three days before the preplanned raid—Burns and Blake conducted one final trash pull from which they found the same green vegetation. They claim that vegetation field tested positive for marijuana, but once again, the officers did not photograph this crucial evidence.”
See above.
“With nothing more than Harte’s one trip to the garden store over eight months earlier and two allegedly positive field tests, the JCSO went straight for a search warrant. The directions for use of the test clearly provide “that these tests are only presumptive in nature” and “will give you probable cause to take the sample in to a qualified crime laboratory for definitive analysis.” Officers opted against sending the vegetation to a lab for confirmation, despite having the ability to do so.”
Sure, seems legit…
From that point on it just gets hilarious - for anyone other than the Hartes of course.
Wall of text of some of the high(?)lights of this case hidden behind summary.
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Caffine is a hell of a drug of a drug.
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