Beware of ( Operation Constant Gardener ) Kansas & Missouri

Not much different than ( Operation Green Merchant ) , we faced this shit back in the day as well but look and read and you might think twice , Operation Green Merchant is still an operation at this time , was only a few years back here in Michigan when they struck and raided a reporter from the Grand Rapids Press . He went down hard due to the Operation

http://tokesignals.com/kansas-couple-sues-after-indoor-garden-raided-no-pot-found/


[h=1]Kansas Couple Sues After Indoor Garden Raided; No Pot Found[/h]By Steve Elliott On March 30, 2013 at 9:20 am · 22 Comments

Bob Harte demonstrates where police held him from their raid on his home last April in Leawood, Kan., Friday, March 29, 2013. Harte and his wife Adlynn, who are former CIA employees, sued this week to get more information about why sheriff’s deputies searched their home in the upscale Kansas City suburb last April 20 as part of Operation Constant Gardener — a sweep conducted by agencies in Kansas and Missouri that netted marijuana plants, processed marijuana, guns, growing paraphernalia and cash from several other locations.
[Orlin Wagner/Beaumont Enterprise]
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It’s business as usual in Police State America.A Kansas couple — both of whom are former employees of the Central Intelligence Agency — are suing after their home was raided for marijuana, possibly because they had bought indoor growing supplies to raise vegetables.
The raid came as part of a two-state drug sweep last April, and Robert and Adlynne Harte sued this week to get more information about why sheriff’s deputies raided their home in the affluent Kansas City suburb of Leawood last April 20, reports The Associated Press.

Bob Harte stands next to his now shut down indoor garden in the basement of his home in Leawood, Kansas
[Orlin Wagner/Beaumont Enterprise]
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The April 20, 2012 “drug sweep” was part of Operation Constant Gardener, and was conducted by agencies in Kansas and Missouri. Seized in the sweep were marijuana plants, dried cannabis, guns, growing equipment, and cash from several locations.The date of April 20 (4-20) is celebrated by the cannabis community, and more recently has become a favored date for law enforcement raids and crackdowns.
The Hartes’ 1,825-square-foot split level was targeted because they had bought hydroponic equipment to grow tomatoes and squash in their basement, suspects their attorney, Cheryl Pilate.
“With little or no evidence of any illegal activity, law enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings indoors,” the Hartes’ lawsuit states.

Addie and Bob Harte share photos from the day of a police raid on their home in Leawood, Kansas
[Orlin Wagner/Beaumont Enterprise]
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The suit was filed by the couple this week under the Kansas Open Records Act; it came after Johnson County and Leawood both denied their initial records requests, with Leawood claiming it had “no relevant records.”The public has an interest in knowing whether the sheriff’s department’s participation in the raids was “based on a well-founded belief of marijuana use and cultivation at the targeted address, or whether the raids primarily served a publicity purpose,” according to the lawsuit.
Addie and Robert Harte and their two children, a 7-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son, were “shocked and frightened” when deputies with assault rifles and bullet-proof vests raided their home at about 7:30 a.m., last April 20.

Addie and Bob Harte sit in the window and talk about the day, last April, when police raided their home
[Orlin Wagner/Beaumont Enterprise]
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The couple were told during the sweep that they had “been under surveillance” for months, but the couple “know of no basis for conducting such surveillance, nor do they beliee such surveillance would have produced any facts supporting the issuance of a search warrant.”Not content to terrorize the family which searching for non-existent marijuana, the deputies “made rude comments,” according to the suit, and implied the couple’s 13-year-old son was using cannabis.
They even brought in a drug-sniffing dog, but the clueless deputies finally left after providing a receipt simply stating, “No items taken.”
Attorney Pilate said no one in the Harte family uses illegal drugs, and no charges were filed. The lawsuit notes that Adlynn Harte, who now works for a financial planning firm, and Robert Harte, who cares for the children, were each required to pass rigorous background checks for their previous jobs at the CIA in Washington, D.C.
Any details obtained as a result of the open records suit might be used in a federal civil rights lawsuit, according to Pilate.
“You can’t go into people’s homes and conduct searches without probable cause,” Pilate said.

Ya I posted this story in the political section I think a few days ago or so. I still can't confirm exactly why the cops raided their home, if the grow shop they used was under surveillance or if someone called on them for suspicious activity or something else. Either way it's criminal and unconstitutional and hopefully this lawsuit, especially if they win it, will send a message to these law enforcement agencies to just leave us the hell alone.

I've said it more than once, if you want to sting the pigs grow some moss phlox and pump that unfiltered odor right into the streets! sting those pigs!

This is such bullshit - These types of raids, if conducted on the evidents that people bought from grow stores, have already been shut down by the federal court when the DEA's "Operation Green Merchant" netted hundreds of arrest (or thousands) back in the 90's. They (the thieves and whores of the DEA and DOJ) illeagally stole the records from mailorder gardening stores that advertised in High Times with the help of some corrupt judges (who I hope are dead and buried by now - natural causes, of course).
All of the convictions were eventually thrown out - but not until after people's lives had been ruined, assetts stolen, children taken, marriages destroyed, etc.
My hope is that these crooked thugs encounter some booby traps or something lethal in doing their un-American, unconstitutional search and siezure of peoples property.
This shit really irritates me and I only wish they (the DEA, sherriffs departments, judges and other thugs hiding under the guise of "protecting and serving the public") encounter someone who goes Pablo Escobar on them and starts targeting their families and maybe we can see how they like it! Like the dirty bastards who killed some family's dogs during a bogus raid a couple years back. At the very least we need to vote any judge who issues these illegal search warrants or sherriffs who conduct the raids out of office.
People should also be able to bring lawsuits against the individual cops who participate in these illegal raids for punative damages resulting from these raids -children are being tormented and terrorized by these thugs who come storming in homes with body armor and automatic weapons, innocent people are made to lay face down on the floor while criminals point machine guns at them and search their personal belongings. This was America!
Makes me want to listen to rap music.
DX