A small organic farm in Arlington, Texas, was the target of a massive police action last week that included aerial surveillance, a SWAT raid and a 10-hour search. Members of the local police raiding party had a search warrant for marijuana plants, which they failed to find at the Garden of Eden farm. But farm owners and residents who live on the property told a Dallas-Ft. Worth NBC station that 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 raid lasted about 10 hours, she said.
Today’s example of government overreach comes to us from Texas, not exactly the sort of thing you’d expect from a state that classifies everyone not fortunate enough to be a Conservative Christian White male as a second class citizen. In the latest “small government” effort to protect Texans from themselves, Texas police unleashed the full force of Lone Star State justice on…an okra farm? Yep, you read that correctly…but the good news is that north Texas is now safe from the threat posed by organic okra, which as any re-blooded American carnivore knows is a gateway to veganism and, even worse, Liberalism.
As silly as the whole thing truly was, after 10 hours, the SWAT team succeeded in seizing a few legal, non-habit forming plants…oh, and they did arrest one person- for outstanding traffic violations. Seems like a lot of taxpayer money expended to enforce a traffic ticket, no?
Hey, Texas Conservatives…how’s that “small government” thing working out for you?
