MyWay/AP - "The members of a southern Michigan group called Hutaree have been in custody for a month. An indictment accuses them of weapons violations and a rare crime: conspiring to commit sedition, or rebellion, against the government by first killing police officers.This disturbing pattern of the Manna Storehouse, Rainbow Acres Farm and YFZ continues to show up. Crimes (if there are any) are exaggerated before during and after the event, more so if the the raids are high profile, and impressions are created in the public mind about who these people are.
Prosecutors say the public would be at risk if the nine are released. But defense lawyers claim the government has overreached with a criminal case based mostly on hateful speech.
An undercover agent infiltrated the group and secretly made recordings that have been played in court. While there is talk about killing police, it's not specific. In one conversation, there are many people talking over each other and laughing.
Roberts pressed that point more than once as Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Waterstreet argued in favor of keeping the nine in jail. The judge suggested she didn't hear or read in the transcripts any indication that violence was imminent.
'Mere presence where a crime may be planned is not a crime. ... How does this add up to seditious conspiracy?' (US District Judge Victoria) Roberts said."
"Waterstreet said the government is not required to show all its evidence at this early stage of the case. He referred to the words of militia leader David Stone, 44, of Clayton, Mich., who was recorded by the undercover agent while they drove to Kentucky earlier this year."You decide. For me, it's too uncomfortably like YFZ and Ruby Ridge. Raid, gather up everything, create a narrative later. Use overwhelming force.
The Daily Caller - " 'They came in the dark, shining bright flashlights while my family was asleep, keeping me from milking my cows, from my family, from breakfast with my family and from our morning devotions, and alarming my children enough so that the first question they asked my wife was, "Is Daddy going to jail?" 'And so the strange parallels between multiple wives, pedophilia, raw milk and Natural Foods continue. We are "Modern" now, and being "Modern" means we don't do that dumb stuff anymore.
That’s how Amish farmer Dan Allgyer described an early morning visit last week from two FDA agents, two U.S. Marshals, and a Pennsylvania state trooper. Apparently, investigating a single farmer for possibly trafficking raw milk across state lines requires a show of force.
'I became aware of the cars as soon as I walked out on the sidewalk as part of my morning routine around 4:30 a.m. and immediately said to myself something is going on,' Allgyer wrote in a statement for the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association. 'I was watching and noticed three cars were cruising down right behind each other, and immediately thought, hey, that looks like trouble. I watched and pretty soon one car came back and parked on my neighbor’s farm, on private property.'
After tooling around, the cars showed up Allgyer’s property. 'They all got out of their vehicles – five men all together–with big bright flashlights they were shining all around. My wife and family were still asleep. When they couldn’t find anybody, they prepared to knock on the door of my darkened house. Just before they got to the house I stepped out of the barn and hollered at them, then they came up to me and introduced themselves.'
Without telling him what is was, one of the agents handed Allgyer an FDA warrant that allowed the agents to inspect Allgyer’s farm. The warrant read: 'You are authorized to take all necessary actions, including, but not limited to, the use of reasonable force, to effectuate entry to the above-named premises, the land and buildings located there, at reasonable times during ordinary business hours and to remain thereon to inspect within reasonable limits and in a reasonable manner all portions' of Allgyer’s farm."
"Raymond Jessop is facing 20 years in jail as a result of being convicted yesterday in Texas for sex with a teenage girl. The conviction was a result of a raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch last year, in which over 400 children were put into foster care."There are probably less than 2000 people outside the FLDS and Texas Law Enforcement that know what really happened and this is how public opinion is shaped. The story didn't include the fact that the children were all returned. Most people don't know the big issues that were in play at YFZ for all of us, and are still fuzzy on what happened afterward. I think Brooke Adams spoke for herself as well as others about the result of the trial when she had an anonymous man who accosted her outside the courtroom respond to the verdict with one word.
The Washington Times - "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.Everything is criminalized now. From food, to sex to drugs to marriage, it's all regulated overmuch by the Government and you're doing something wrong, I promise you. Have we forgotten the Manna Storehouse? In a completely criminalized society, where you cannot hope to stay violation free, you're only hope is a valid search warrant standing in between you, and imprisonment. Anyone who has bothered to follow the few facts accumulated about Rozita Swinton's call to the Newbridge shelter knows that she guessed at a lot of details and out of several jurisdictions she called, only Texas eventually chose to believe her tall tales. We all laugh in theaters and watching TV at the pretense used by police to gain entry to places they cannot go. We cheer them on because they are the monolithic "Good Guys" and the script demonized "Bad Guys" have been getting away with too much anyway. Time to win one for the team.
That's right. Orchids."
"Jerry Lee Lewis had already gone through two marriages by 1957; he'd married Jane Mitcham, his second, 23 days before his divorce from his first wife, Dorothy Barton, was final. On December 12, 1957, Jerry married his third cousin, Myra Gale Brown. A lot of ink has been spilled about his close blood relationship with Myra, and the fact that she was only thirteen and still believed in Santa Claus when the pair were married. For a man from his time and place, however, marrying at thirteen and marrying one's third cousin (twice removed) were both fairly commonplace occurrences, although Lewis further complicated matters by again marrying before the divorce from his second wife was final.1957. It wasn't that long ago, I was three years old. Jerry Lee Lewis is now considered to be a bit of a rascal, a country singer, and his daughter by his union with Myra, manages his career. Now there's a pedophile for you. We too quickly forget. What is now a 20 year jail term was once commonplace and I promise you that a look back at your recent ancestry is liable to produce a similar union. Without them, we would not be here.
Lewis didn't seem to realize that this was offensive to most urban markets (and to other countries): in fact, Sun Records' Jud Phillips (brother of producer Sam) had warned him against taking Myra with him to England on his first European tour. Jerry Lee, never one to change his mind, took her anyway. When they stepped off the plane on May 22, 1958, Lewis obligingly told the British press that Myra was his wife (although he gave her age as 15 and moved up the date of their actual wedding). His bride, for her part, told the gathering that fifteen wasn't too young to marry back home: 'You can marry at 10 if you can find a husband.' "
"About four months ago, the defendants, the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Lorain County Sheriff, filed a motion to take the case to the U.S. District Court of Appeals. The purpose of making it a Federal case is that Article I of the Ohio Constitution contains more stringent guarantees of personal liberties than does the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Thompson anticipates that the Federal Court will return the issue to the State courts, but the Federal courts work slowly, and it may be two or three months before it is returned to an Ohio court."Is Law Enforcement interested in protecting your rights? Clearly not. They are told to. When it's left up to Law Enforcement, they take a state defendant, a state plaintiff, and entirely state actors, and try them on a federal stage. Why? Because in this case, the defendant has less rights there. I deeply respect Law Enforcement, something I may not communicate here adequately, but they are human beings. Remember, even Jefferson acted like a Federalist, when he became President. It's not terribly surprising then, to find Ohio Law choosing Federal Law, because the defendants in an all Ohio scrap, have more rights in an Ohio Court.
"The complaint names the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the Lorain County General Health District and the state's attorney general. A spokeswoman at the Department of Agriculture said its officers were at the scene in an advisory role. A spokeswoman at the county health agency refused to comment except to explain it was a 'licensing' issue regarding the family's Manna Storehouse. A prosecutor assigned to the case declined to respond to WND's request for a comment.
(Pete) Kennedy said his organization works in support of allowing farmers and consumers to have 'direct commerce with each other free from government interference and harassment.'
'This is an example where, once again, the government is trying to deny people their inalienable, fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice,' said Gary Cox, general counsel for the FTCLDF. 'The purpose of our complaint is to correct that wrong.'
The organizations have reported the raid came at Manna Storehouse, a private food cooperative run by John and Jacqueline Stowers. In a video posted both on YouTube and on the Buckeye Institute's website, the couple explained how they just wanted to provide a resource for both farmers and consumers."
This is one of the reasons I frequently point out to people that it's "Better to shoot 'them' over there, than to be strip searched over here," or that the choices are "shooting them over there, or being strip searched over here." We've created armed near military and paramilitary organizations within our own country and are becoming increasingly used to overregulation. Something as simple as eating your own food and dealing directly with farmers becomes the busybody province of ag agents who now show up armed to the party and act like they're on "24." Jack Bauer for a day? I'd rather go to war and grind my enemies to dust so that I can live free in my own home. Yes, I'd rather offer you more attractive choices, but those are the real ones. Live free, or die. It turns out that's really the equation.
Pittsfield Township - "Manna Storehouse is under investigation to determine whether it is a retail food business without a license. The seizure of Manna's records and computers all but disabled the operation.
'The problem is these people on the Internet, from who knows where, were not there,' said sheriff's Capt. Richard Resendez. 'They make up all these innuendoes and create all these issues that are basically not true.' "
"Resendez said four deputies conducted the search over three or four hours - not the nine claimed on some sites. There was no SWAT team and no semiautomatic weapons.
'We don't even have semiautomatic weapons,' he said.
One officer carried a shotgun, Resendez said, and the family was kept in one place to control the area, as is standard for any search warrant."
"The Lorain County Health Department tried to inspect the Storehouse in November 2007 but the family told inspectors to leave the property. Jacqueline Stowers wrote the department the next month that Manna does not need a license and that the inspection was an attempt to 'cunningly coerce unlawful entry into our house and private property.'
In September, the county asked the Ohio Department of Agriculture for assistance, and an agent purchased eggs at the store. When agents learned of a possible delivery of meat, they obtained a warrant to search for evidence of the business's activities."
Steve and Paula Runyon's Blogspot - “On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the 'bad cop' SWAT team was relieved by another team, a 'good cop' team that tried to befriend the family.
The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly supicious-looking (sic). Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.
Presumably Manna Storehouse might eventually be charged with running a retail establishment without a license. Why then the Gestapo-type interrogation for a 3rd degree misdemeanor charge? This incident has raised the ominous specter of a restrictive new era in State regulation and enforcement over the nation’s private food supply."
