The War on Tomato Plants
Take a deep breath and start counting up how much this cost the taxpayers of Texas.
There’s a little compound outside of Arlington (think Dallas) that grows its own food on a plot of land about the size of half a football field.
On August 2nd the police show up and say they have information that marijuana is being grown there. Their source was “a tip” and “aerial surveillance.” No kidding, they had pictures.
What the police thought was marijuana turned out to be tomato plants. However, they still felt compelled to uproot most of the crop – including okra and blueberries. Just to make things look better, the people on the compound were ticketed for being out of compliance with the city code.
Look, we’ve got Dr. Sanjay Gupta going on teevee saying marijuana ain’t all that bad for you and maybe this war on drug thing wasn’t all that smart.
Yes, that certainly look worthy of police intervention. I see collard greens!
Thanks to Bernard for the heads up.
I know all sorts of folks who grow their own food at home, both in front and back yards. What is their deal anyway? Sheer meanness? Puredee ignorance?
1Does this mean tomatoes & blueberries are narcotics?
2They have to do something to justify spending all that money on aerial recon, SWAT teams, etc. The reports I read indicated the cops greatly outnumbered the gardeners – it was a Massive raid. Of course, after not finding any pot, they had to find some excuse to issue citations. My hope is they get their butt sued seriously – and all the cops & their bosses have to replant, weed, water and grow a new crop – every year from now on – so they learn the difference between marijuana and tomatoes.
3And was the DPS out there too, looking for jars of excrement? Amazing people, these imaginative law enforcement professionals.
4When times are so tough and people are trying to put decent food on their tables to feed themselves and their children, these poor excuse for law enforcement are ripping up a community garden because they had a “tip”. So next question…who ratted the garden people out?
ps Hi Marge…thanx for the welcome several threads ago….:)
5Murica’s war on….vegetables?!
6Any Texas cop who can’t tell the difference between a blueberry plant and pot needs to pee in a cup and be relieved of duty until it’s established that he/she was not PUI.
7ATTENTION ARLINGTON POLICE DEPT:
8I’ve seen much more of this “marijuana” down at your local Kroger Supermarket. Just to be safe, I’d tear up the pill shaped stuff in the store they call fruit too.
So I go to the GOE’s site and read their info…Wow. Law enforcement shows up no warrant in hand, just photos, two hours later, they have a couple of warrants–after they haven’t found anything. The city code people are out there doing their thing, all the while the land owner is telling them the city had already worked out an agreement with them…And then the police and city officials start uprooting plants and destroying the plant shelters that protected the plants from the hot sun. Now the rest of their crops are dying in the sun. And then the city hauled off a bunch of “debris”–including wood, pallets, tires, 55 gallon drums…Items the community used to build their farming structures. That stuff is going to cost Arlington a ton of money…I hope the GOE group sues the socks off the city of Arlington.
I can’t help but ponder upon who it is that wants that land…And why.
9Okay, now imagine these guys operating armed drones! Pretty scary, huh? Yes, Texas, let’s “save money” by not training people properly. Good idea!
10This reminds me of an interesting situation we recently had here in the Old Dominion.
Seems some University of Virginia coeds stopped at a Harris Teeter one evening to purchase a case of what looked like alky-holic beverages. As the girls entered their vehicle, they were surprised by a couple of undercover ABC officers who jumped out at them, guns drawn. The officers flashed what looked like badges; however, the girls had *just* left a seminar on women’s safety. The girls freaked out, the driver sped out of the parking lot, grazing one of the officers.
The girls were later busted, and were found in possession of–wait for it, sparkling water. To say the judge was livid would be an understatement. All charges against the girls were dropped, and the ABC looked even stupider than usual and now have to attend remedial law enforcement classes. Dumb happens everywhere.
11“Aerial surveillance?” Could they not have tried just a small old-fashioned on-the-ground surveillance? Or a farmers’ market sting operation? Or just stealing some in the middle of the night–you know, like for a taste, or something?
Sheesh….
12Since the inhabitants were all handcuffed, it made it hard to document what was happening. A good video to shine light on the matter would have been wonderful. Making the police give a detailed receipt of everything taken would have been, too. Since “trailer loads” were taken, it might have been a bit difficult.
Their website is an interesting read.
13I have to admit that I do get a little high when I taste that first sweet red ripe tomato from my garden.
14I seem to recall a Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers cartoon where they hung plastic tomatoes from their illicit herb garden as a disguise.
Seriously, though, this sounds worthy of updating Alice’s Restaurant (with full orchestration and five-part harmony) to include Part 2: The Traumatic Tomato / Baleful Blueberry Raid. The police probably have twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence.
15LOLS!!! What did those assinine cops think were hanging off that plant? Red and blue buds? Perhaps they need a master gardener on the force…
16Food is one of the most addictive substances on the planet. Withdrawal can and is usually is fatal. Try it just once and you will be hooked for life.
17The Police are just trying to save these people from their own folly.
I don’t recognize the crop on the left but the one on the right looks more like Swiss chard than collards (I’ve got both growing in my garden.)
18Is there an intelligence test to be a cop in Arlington, or do they just test for testosterone?
19Do you know how hard it is to snort blueberries? Or mainline okra?
I agree with Suzi – who wants their land? How can we help the current owners?
“They still uprooted most of the crop”. What? Why? It’s court time. I will be glad to contribute to the cause. This crap has got to stop.
20I’ve been fighting off rabbits, squirrels, possums for years to get a taste of good tomatoes, lettuce, okra and eggplant. The rabbits get the lettuce, okra (the whole plants) and the eggplant (the whole plants), the possums and squirrels get the tomatoes.
21And I thought I had it bad. But I’ve never been invaded by a swat team. A community garden! There goes the neighborhood.
In the meantime, a factory in West, Texas blows sky-high and people died. Glad we have our priorities right.
22I hope they will conduct their next raid against suppliers of Dihydrogen Monoxide. That stuff is deadly: http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html
23@ LynnN – Indeed, dihydrogen monoxide (aka hydrogen hydroxide) is a dangerous gateway chemical, easily abused. For example, 100% of all heroin addicts consumed dihydrogen monoxide in some form or another before proceeding to heroin! All serial killers are known to have consumed dihydrogen monoxide as well prior to beginning their evil deeds.
Coincidence? I Think Not.
24LOL!!! All of you people make me jolly!
Here in Washington State pot was just legalized, but they still have no idea whatsoever how to actually implement that law. The legislature will freak out entirely if someone starts a petition to legalize vegetable gardening.
25Sheeeesh!!! Stuff like this used to happen when the Fire Department showed up and the fire was so minimal that it was already snuffed out before they got there. Just to show they did arrive and did “stuff”, they shopped holes in walls with axes,etc. That got stopped in a hurry. Around here there are more lawyers than dogs!! The fire department is now very well behaved. Arlington Gardeners, get you some lawyers. Some developer is really and truly after your patch of dirt.
26Land of the free, huh? What the freakin h-ll is going on when you can’t even have a garden? Where was the ATF??
Holy smokes, don’t tell them the First Lady has one at the White House! She’ll be guilty of Gardening while Black, at least! I’m sure sharecropping is against the DC codes too!
27I am addicted to tomatoes fresh off the vine. Also, the volunteer apricots. Lord help anyone that touches my tomato plants.
28http://www.tomatogardeningguru.com/history.html
According to this site,all parts of the tomato plant,except the fruit,are poisonous. Colonists would not eat them,they were grown for decorations. They are placed in the same family as nightshade which is poisonous or hallucinogenic. Cops in Seattle are handing out Doritos to stoners. Some people can’t eat tomatoes-they are toxic for some reason. Authorities in Texas are bat-stuff crazy,starting with Gov. Greaseball.
29Had they been manufacturing fertilizer, the SWAT team would have left them alone. There’s a lesson here. Somewhere.
30THINK DALLAS?!.!!?
Now you done pissed off a passel of us often neglected Jerryville homies!
31Any “law enforcement” officer who cannot tell the difference between okra, and marijuana, should be in another line of work. Story I read says they held these folks at gunpoint for almost ten hours while they did their damage. Not to mention they all had tape on their badges to hide their names.
Normally I don’t advocate people filing lawsuits, but in this case I’m saying Sue the heck out of the City of Arlington, and their faux police.
32Homegrown tomatoes are worth their weight in gold. Although no amount of money can ever compensate the gardeners, those imbeciles should be made to feel the consequences.
33