SANTA ROSA, CA, Sep 27th: Eyewitnesses to Wednesday’s federal-led raid on marijuana growers in Santa Rosa describe a chilling, full-scale paramilitary assault on a Latino residential neighborhood.
Local residents were terrified by the military-style invasion, led by 150 agents from US Homeland Security (!), FBI, DEA, CHP and Sonoma sheriff’s deputies. Invaders wore military garb and were accompanied by an armored military vehicle.
See this photo for an outrageous example of your federal Tax $$ at work making war on pot. See too the Press Democrat photo.
Agents stormed from house to house, pulling up backyard gardens, most of them small. Prop 215 claims were disregarded. The invaders seized just 1150 plants on 33 search warrants, a trivial take for such a huge operation. (US attorneys in CA typically regard 2,000 plants as the threshold for federal prosecution).
The Santa Rosa raids are a shameful example of all that is wrong with US marijuana policy. A military invasion of this kind would be totally unacceptable in any white, middle-class suburb, but was deemed perfectly fine in this poor, Latino neighborhood alleged to be infested by marijuana growers. This operation is a disgrace to the federal drug warriors in Obama’s administration, as well as their collaborators in the Sonoma Sheriff’s Dept and DA’s office.
– Release by D. Gieringer, Cal NORML
Read more: Authorities: 1,150 marijuana plants, weapons, cash seized in Santa Rosa raid
By MARY CALLAHAN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 10:54 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 3:26 p.m