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Posted on 05/21/2012 7:31:52 AM PDT by Altariel
At 5:30 a.m. on May 10, armed men broke into the bedroom of Kirk Kyle Farrar’s 12 year-old daughter and shook her awake. The men led her downstairs at gunpoint and forced her to lie on the floor next to her mother and father, with her hands behind her head. Another armed man took Farrar’s two-year-old son from his crib, and would not let his parents hold him. “My son screamed for his mother for what seemed like an eternity,” Farrar wrote in an email to friends, obtained by Reason. “I will never forget the hopeless feeling of not being able to comfort my son or daughter.”
The armed men who broke into Farrar’s home were officers with the Meridian, Idaho, Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration. They were executing a federal warrant for Farrar’s arrest for the crime of selling bongs.
Farrar’s wasn’t the only family traumatized that morning. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Idaho National Guard, and four Idaho police departments raided the homes of 13 other headshop owners and employees on May 10. All of the headshops had their inventory seized. One shop lost more than $80,000 worth of merchandise (bongs and pipes marketed as “tobacco water pipes”). Another headshop owner had his and and his employees' vehicles seized.
The investigation into these 13 shops and their employees (two of which are still at large) for selling drug paraphernalia was led by U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson, a Barack Obama appointee. Nine of the shops were also accused of selling "spice," a synthetic alternative to the prohibited and significantly safer drug marijuana.
In his email, Farrar denies selling spice. "Piece of Mind Boise has never carried these products EVER! We made a commitment from the start not to carry it because we believe it is dangerous and not being used in a legal fashion."
He also notes that his cousin, "[who] has never previously committed a crime and has absolutely no criminal record," has been charged with "with 4 Federal felony charges stemming from selling tobacco products."
“The open sale of drug paraphernalia promotes unlawful drug use and helps drug traffickers thrive,” Olson said at a press conference on May 10. “These indictments show federal, state and local law enforcement partners will attack drug trafficking on all fronts.”
During a speech at the Center for American Progress earlier this month, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said that the law enforcement-only approach to America's drug problem was not "humane, compassionate" or "realistic." He also said that the Obama administration does not believe it can "arrest its way out of the drug problem."
Reason spoke to one headshop owner. At his attorney’s behest, this owner declined to go on the record, but did say that local police had been aware of the store’s existence and sales of glass pipes for years, but had never threatened charges or discouraged the business from operating. The owner believes that the raids came at the behest of federal law enforcement officials.
According to the Idaho Statesman, “the DEA, Idaho National Guard, IRS and the U.S. Marshals and Attorney’s offices worked on the case,” which the agencies built over the course of an entire year.
As if more evidence were needed that President Obama's drug war looks a lot like George W. Bush's: The charges against Farrar and the other Idaho headshop owners are reminiscent of the federal prosecution of actor Tommy Chong under Bush's DOJ. Chong was convicted in 2003 for distributing paraphernalia through his company Nice Dreams Enterprises. Chong was fined $20,000, and made to forfeit his domain name, all of his inventory, and $103,514 in cash.
Sooooo... Being the 12 year old child of a water pipe seller serves as prima facie evidence for federal agents to uproot you from bed in the middle of the night and threaten you at gunpoint.
Yeah. That sounds totally legit to me.
There should be some sort of prize for that. Slow moving 3G connection tricks me again.
Che Guevara was a statist.
Che Guevara, were he a police officer, would have shot those children, just to enjoy watching them die.
And you would have praised him for keeping you safe.
It is you who is outraged when other Freepers dare condemn Agents of the State for threatening to murder children.
That is the attitude of someone who believes the State (and her agents) can do No Wrong.
It is not the attitude of a true conservative Freeper.
Remember: the actions you defend today will be repeated tomorrow.
If you “reward” the government for threatening to murder children today, you embolden it to kill them tomorrow.
Those who think the Police can do No Wrong enable a future Police State, the same way that parents who suppose little Johnny or Susie can do no wrong enable future delinquents and liberals.
Will your cheerleading of the State stop when children are raped to intimidate their parents?
How about murdered? How many little children will die before you refuse to defend the Agents of the State when they do wrong?
Your crime theory gets shot all to hell and that's the best you can do?
It was a drug bust along with 13 other locations....look it up and learn.......sheesh! Let it rest because you’ll never get the point...though it’s been explained many times now.
Amsterdam never had a drug park. Educated observation indeed.
Some people just love the taste of boot polish.
Huh? I have to be the one to come up with the “master plan” to save America, otherwise there is no point to objecting to the objectionable? That doesn’t make sense.
We’ve still got freedom of speech in America, and I intend to use it to express my opinions, as long as I can. Maybe that will help shape a few other peoples’ opinions, maybe not. What I’m not going to do is just acqueiesce to thuggery because speaking out about it doesn’t immediately stop it.
As mentioned before...it was a drug bust...12 year old was told to lay down on the floor next to his parents...I see no problem with officers demanding that. None.
As also mentioned... you guys that think these parents weren’t aware of the risk to their children by riding the line with the drug paraphnalia they were selling, along with hanging with those distributing drugs have your heads in the sand..........It was a drug bust of 13 locations....any parent willingly involving themselves with that crowd automatically endanger their children to whatever consequences may or may not come.
“the DEA, Idaho National Guard, IRS and the U.S. Marshals and Attorney’s offices worked on the case,”... which the agencies ‘built over the course of an entire year’...repeat it was built for over a year....13 Locations were involved ....this was not a small operation by any means. ..nor spur of the moment. It was investigated and planned for.
So now you and others are trying to convince us that this was simply a matter of selling bongs??? I don’t think so. They aren’t going in with that kind of force, nor that length of investigative time, without having some hard evidence something more than selling bongs is going on..
Further the parents of these kids knew the risk....knew they were committing crimes and are thus the ones responsible for putting their kids in these situations from the get go.
It really isn’t that difficultt..... Abide by the law..Don’t sell dope.... Take care of your family. .... You go the other direction that makes the parents culpable?... ‘most defintely’.... Regardless of your personal feelings, the law is the law, breaking it has consequences.
So again, and yes, what's the plan that will change the situations and remove the powers that be from what's happening?
At best we blew it in the Primary this year..majorly...people fell left and right for the bait while the opposition not only laughed their butts off..but ‘called’ that this would be exactly what would happen....same o same o...all the Democrats and Gop had to do was play their hand....they knew what our hand was going to be long before we had any cards in our hands.And when we had Aces to play we thru them out...and now sit back and gripe yet again.
Thuggery? We as a people continue to allow it....America no longer has fight in them.....look at Romney already bowing down to be Mr. Nice-guy to Obama after he nailed our guys left and right....that speaks volumes....and people think Romney won't bear down as this drug bust occurred?...he will and moreso....you better believe he will!
So when it becomes against the law to vote for anyone but Dear Leader, have butter or bacon in one’s house, read Free Republic, homeschool children, ride a motorcycle, drive a truck, or any other activity of which The State could reasonably fail to approve, you plan on parroting “the law is the law, breaking it has consequences” as you are led into the cattle car.
If reading or posting to Free Republic is declared illegal by a bill signed into law by a president, will you defy the law, or roll over on your back?
Be responsible adults and these won’t happen.....the problem is far too many, and it’s increasing, are not. So expect the laws to become more and more rigid....the government to infringe more and more...it is how it’s going to be like it or not...and you can blame idiots like these parents who put their kids in danger for selling dope...and hanging with those who do.
If the thugs were responsible adults, they wouldn’t threaten to murder children.
“Be responsible, and the government won’t threaten to kill your children” is akin to saying
“Play nice with the bully and let him have his way, and he won’t beat you up.”
I take it that you will roll over should it become illegal to post on Free Republic.
Those kids weren't threatened to be murdered by any of those who took the parents into custody, my gosh what's the matter with you're thinking....sheesh your story grows as you tell it.
If you point a gun at someone’s head, you are threatening that person with death. When you point a gun at someone’s head who committed no crime and is not a threat to your safety, you are threatening to MURDER that individual.
We are no longer in the dark ages; we hold a person responsible for his own behavior—we do not threaten that person’s children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews because of anything their parents, grandparents, uncles or aunts because of any crime that person actually committed or is accused of committing.
Period.
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