Government officials do some really crazy things in the name of law enforcement.
I recently wrote about an armed raid on an animal shelter in order to execute a baby deer.
That was paramilitary overkill (pun intended), though it probably didn’t waste as many tax dollars as the regulatory overkill of the year-long sting operation by the Food and Drug Administration against an Amish farm for the horrible crime of selling unpasteurized milk to consenting adults who prefer unpasteurized milk.
And let’s not forget Robert Norlander, the thuggish, dumpster-diving IRS agent, who sought to ruin the life of an innocent man because…well, for no reason.
Well, we now have something that may be even more absurd.
Radley Balko reports in the Huffington Post about “a massive police action last week that included aerial surveillance, a SWAT raid and a 10-hour search.”
Sounds like the cops must have been up against the mafia. Or a bunch of bank robbers, right?
Not exactly. They raided an organic farm.
…the real reason for the law enforcement exercise appears to have been code enforcement. The police seized “17 blackberry bushes, 15 okra plants, 14 tomatillo plants … native grasses and sunflowers,” after holding residents inside at gunpoint for at least a half-hour, property owner Shellie Smith said in a statement.
The cops claimed that they were looking for marijuana. Even if that was the actual goal, why not just send a couple of cops to the door? We’re talking about an organic farm, after all, not a crack house run by the Hell’s Angels.
But let’s at least be thankful the cops seized okra plants. The people of Arlington, Texas, can now walk the streets safely, freed from the danger of vegetables running amok.
So what triggered this raid?
…authorities had cited the Garden of Eden in recent weeks for code violations, including “grass that was too tall, bushes growing too close to the street, a couch and piano in the yard, chopped wood that was not properly stacked, a piece of siding that was missing from the side of the house, and generally unclean premises,” Smith’s statement said. She said the police didn’t produce a warrant until two hours after the raid began, and officers shielded their name tags so they couldn’t be identified.
Oh. My. God. These criminals had improperly stacked wood? And insufficiently mowed grass? No wonder they needed a SWAT team!
If you read Radley’s entire story, it seems clear that the real issue is that neighbors didn’t like the messy conditions of the farm and they pressured the local government to do something about it.
I probably wouldn’t like living next door to somebody who kept a piano in their yard, so I’m sympathetic to their concerns.
Stories like this are why I picked my license plate
And even though I’m libertarian and much prefer that neighborhood standards be determined by private agreements, even I’m not going to get overly agitated by zoning rules about couches in the front yard.
But why deal with this trivial conflict by ordering “aerial surveillance, a SWAT raid and a 10-hour search”?
Sounds like the local police force has a bloated budget and tries to justify its wasteful practices by concocting needlessly risky operations.
P.S. The government’s harassment of another organic farm was the runaway winner of my contest for the worst example of government thuggery.
P.P.S. As I already mentioned, I don’t think this raid was about marijuana, but I don’t want to miss an opportunity to say that it’s time to end the foolish Drug War. People who abuse drugs may be stupid, but they’re not infringing on my rights. But the War on Drugs had led to all sorts of policies that do infringe on our rights, from disgusting asset forfeiture policies to pointless snooping on our bank accounts.
P.P.S. To close with some humor, check out what Dave Barry had to say about great moments in government.
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