Posted on 10/05/2009 6:26:18 PM PDT by ellery
So as it turns out, even the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has its own SWAT team.
You dont need to know. You cant know. Thats what Kathy Norris, a 60-year-old grandmother of eight, was told when she tried to ask court officials why, the day before, federal agents had subjected her home to a furious search.
The agents who spent half a day ransacking Mrs. Norris longtime home in Spring, Texas, answered no questions while they emptied file cabinets, pulled books off shelves, rifled through drawers and closets, and threw the contents on the floor.
The six agents, wearing SWAT gear and carrying weapons, were with get this- the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Kathy and George Norris lived under the specter of a covert government investigation for almost six months before the government unsealed a secret indictment and revealed why the Fish and Wildlife Service had treated their family home as if it were a training base for suspected terrorists. Orchids.
Thats right. Orchids.
By March 2004, federal prosecutors were well on their way to turning 66-year-old retiree George Norris into an inmate in a federal penitentiary based on his home-based business of cultivating, importing and selling orchids..
Mr. Norris ended up spending almost two years in prison because he didnt have the proper paperwork for some of the many orchids he imported. The orchids were all legal but Mr. Norris and the overseas shippers who had packaged the flowers had failed to properly navigate the many, often irrational, paperwork requirements the U.S. imposed when it implemented an arcane international treatys new restrictions on trade in flowers and other flora.
The judge who sentenced Mr. Norris had some advice for him and his wife: Life sometimes presents us with lemons. Their job was, yes, to turn lemons into lemonade.
Or just wait for the inevitable SWAT team to come and smash them for you.
IMO, the Agitator has been one of the best lately at reporting on federal government overreach and SWAT team abuse. I believe it’s run by one of the guys at Reason.
I absolutely agree. I never get called, though.
I worked with a complete slacker who used to get called for jury duty all the time—she told me that she had a friend in whatever office it was that oversees jury selection, and that all she had to do was call and she could get on the list. I have no idea whether that’s true, of course...
To prevent the serfs from poaching the king’s deer.
The Overcriminalization of Conduct: Consequences for One American Family
I didn’t say that the homeowners could or would interfere. That kind of unprofessional behavior should NOT be tolerated. And, yes, I know that none of them will pay for
their misconduct.
Because they are evil. Most law enforcement officers see themselves as a separate ruling class, and they see the non-cops as being there for sport.
All it takes is for the exporter to make one mistake on his export paperwork and then you the importer are liable. No mistake of your own. Still liable for thousands and jail time. That is why I do not import or export. Letting a bunch of government knuckle draggers getting involved with business can only lead to trouble.
Thank goodness that this was just a story.
There are similar speculations on how a small amount of plutonium, a few pounds, dispersed appropriately (not involved in any nuclear reaction) would suffice to kill all humans on earth from radiation induced cancer. The devil, as always, is in the details. The dispersion would have to be uniform and micro-fine into every person’s lungs, not affected by weather, not wasted or diluted in any manner. Any plutonium that escapes into the environment from things like nuclear reactors or bombs would not come anywhere close to fulfilling those conditions.
You should see the recent National Geographic article on ‘sexy’ deceptive orchids. Or your husband should. There are orchids out there that mimic female bees, others that mimic rotting flesh, some that just plant a big pollen sac on ya and send ya on yer way. Sneaky things, orchids.
Haste might be one reason. They can’t miss their next scheduled raid ya know.
My own experience with looking through stuff is that if you keep it orderly instead of tossing you are much less likely to miss something you wanted to find.
Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America
by Radley Balko
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476
This is one of the hassles I discovered in miniature when I wanted to order a microphone part from a British dealer. The dealer was adamant that he would not fill out any customs form on his end. I knew of no way I could file the paperwork on the order’s behalf from my end. They said that items sent this way “usually” reach their destination (gee, thanks).
Sometimes what happens in such a situation is that customs will catch it and will contact the recipient to file papers along with the appropriate duty to be paid, then the item can be claimed. But there is no guarantee that the Fedguv will play this nice.
I should know better than to pose rhetorical questions around here. You’re right, of course.
When these fish & wildlife agents go home after a long day of ransacking a house looking for illegal orchids how do they answer their spouse when asked, “what did you do today?” Or maybe they just grunt and say, “I love the smell of orchids in the morning.”
Texas of all places?
And Spring no less too. Wife had family there years ago.
This just ain’t right.
Maybe bureaucrats don’t give correct information.
Yes, that’s whom I was thinking of!
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