SWAT Team Raids Ohio Co-op
Submitted by savingmykidsfuture on Fri, 12/05/2008 - 09:58
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/swat-team.htm
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. 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.
This same type of abusive search and seizure was reported by those innocents who fell victim to oppressive federal drug laws passed in the 1990s. The present circumstance raises the obvious question: is there some rabid new interpretation of an existing drug law that considers food a controlled substance worthy of a nasty SWAT operation? Or worse, is there a previously unrecognized provision(s) pertaining to food in the Homeland Security measures? Some have suggested that it was merely an out-of-control, hot-to-trot ODA agent, and, if so, this would be a best-case scenario. Anything else might spell the beginning of the end for the freedom to eat unregulated and unmonitored food.
One blogger familiar with the Ohio situation has reported that:
“Interestingly, I believe they [Manna Storehouse] said a month or so ago, an undercover ODA official came to their little store and claimed to have a sick father wanting to join the co-op. Both the owner and her daughter-in-law had a horrible feeling about the man, and decided not to allow him into the co-op and notified him by certified mail. He came back to the co-op demanding to be part of it. They refused and gave him names of other businesses and health food stores closer to his home. Not coincidentally, this man was there yesterday as part of the raid.”
The same blog also noted that the Ohio Department of Agriculture has been chastised by the courts in several previous instances for its aggression, including trying to entrap an Amish man in a raw milk “sale,” which backfired when it became known that the Amish believe in a literal interpretation of “give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away” (Matthew 5:42)
The issue appears to be the discovery of a bit of non-institutional beef in an Oberlin College food service freezer a year ago that was tracked down by a county sanitation official to Manna Storehouse. Oberlin College’s student food coop is widely known for its strident ideological stance about eating organic foods. It seems that the Oberlin student food cooperative had joined the Manna Storehouse food cooperative in order to buy organic foods in bulk from the national organic food distributor United, which services buying clubs across the nation. The sanitation official, James Boddy, evidently contacted the Ohio Department of Agriculture. After the first contact by state ODA officials, Manna Storehouse reportedly wrote them a letter requesting assistance and guidelines for complying with the law. This letter was never answered. Rather, the ODA agent tried several times to infiltrate the coop, as described above. When his attempts failed, the SWAT team showed up!
Food cooperatives and buying clubs have been an active part of the American landscape for over a generation. In the 1970s, with the rise of the organic food industry (a direct outgrowth of the hippie back-to-nature movement) food coops started up all over the country. These were groups of people who freely associated for the purpose of combining their buying power so that they could order organic food items in bulk and case lots. Anyone who was part of these coops in the early era will remember the messy breakdown of 35 pounds of peanut butter and 5 gallon drums of honey!
These buying clubs have persisted and flourished over the years due to their ability to purchase high quality organic foods at reduced prices in bulk quantities. Most cooperatives have participated greatly in the local agrarian economies, supporting neighborhood organic farmers with purchases of produce, eggs, chickens, etc. The groups also purchase food from a number of different local, regional and national distributors, many of them family-based businesses who truck the food themselves. Some of these food cooperatives have become large enough to set up mini-storefront operations where members can drop in and purchase items leftover from case lot sales. Manna Storehouse had established itself in such a manner, using a small enclosed breezeway attached to their home. It was a folksy place with old wooden floors where coop members stopped by to chat and snack on bags of organic corn chips.
The state of Ohio boasts the second largest Amish population in the country. Many of the Amish live on acreages where they raise their own food, not unlike Manna Storehouse, and sell off the extras to neighbors and church members. There is a sense of foreboding that this state crackdown on a longstanding, reputable food cooperative operation could adversely impact the peaceful agrarian way of life not only for the Amish, but homeschoolers and those families living off the land on rural acreages. It raises the disturbing possibility that it could become a crime to raise your own food, buy eggs from the farmer down the road, or butcher your own chickens for family and friends – bustling activities that routinely take place in backwater America.
The freedom to purchase food directly form the source is increasingly under attack. For those who have food allergies and chemical intolerances, or who are on special medical diets, this is becoming a serious health issue. Will Americans retain the right to purchase food that is uncontaminated by pesticides, herbicides, allergens, additives, dyes, preservatives, MSG, GMOs, radiation, etc.? The melamine scare from China underscores the increasingly inferior and suspect quality of modern processed institutional foods. One blog, commenting on the bizarre and troubling Manna Storehouse situation, observed that:
“No one is saying exactly why. At the same time the FDA says it it safe to eat the 40% of tainted beef found in Costco's and Sam's all over the nation. These farm raids are very common now. Every farmer needs to fully eqiped [sic] for the possibility of it happening to them. The Farmer To Consumer Legal Defense Fund was created just for this purpose. The USDA just released their plans to put a law into action that will put all small farmers out of business. Animals for the sale of meat or milk will only be allowed in commercial farms, even the organic ones.” December 3, 2008 7:09 PM
We the people need to organize better.
We need to find a lawyer and a judge that will charge these guys with unlawful imprisonment, theft, breaking and entering, branishing a weapon, etc....
This is not good not good at all!
I emailed both Ohio Senators & the Governor about the Gestapo Tactics used to serve a simple search warrant. Utter HorseShit! Out country has been feed by small farmers since the beginning & the wholesome healthy food they provide must not ever become a crime for selling to their fellow citizens. They held a gun for over 7 hours on women & children - & to top it off the father is serving over in IRAQ!
All fellow Buckeyes should be equally outraged & should contact their elected officials ASAP!
If people cannot sell their meat, eggs, produce etc
they will barter. Does anyone know if this raid happened in Dennis Kucinich's district? If so, he should be kicking ass. He is a vegetarian himself by the way.
Debbie
This is Ohio Congressional
This is Ohio Congressional District 9, Senators Brown & Voinovich and Representative is Marcy Kaptur. Here are their links:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/findyourreps.xpd?state=OH&di...
Trust in God, but tie your camel tight.
http://www.ohiofreedom.com
thanks for links
we should do a mass email to them, rip'em a new one for this ever happening, and make darn sure it never happens again. NWO wants to use food, or lackthereof, to control the population.
and people still are not aggressively forming militias to deal
w/ an OUT OF CONTROL GOVERNMENT!!!
You still think we need to wait??? ARE YOU MENTALLY INSANE??
WHEN THEY TAKE AWAY MY RIGHT TO EAT HEALTHY FOOD...WHEN THEY BREAK THEIR OWN FUCKING LAWS.... AND STILL THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO (basically) ARE TO AFRAID TO ORGANIZE INTO GROUPS TO COUNTER THE GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION..THAT IS SOOOOOO
OBVIOUSLY OUT OF CONTROL
If this thread just broke the camels back for you and you finally are ready to do whats our founders said to do..and organize into small local militias... (but have no idea how. send me a note at contact.. I will send you a simple 7 day plan that you can start right now!!! TODAY!!
and within a week or less you will have your own local organization that can stand up to these damn government bullies!!!
Now on InfoWars
http://www.infowars.com/?p=6373
www.peacechicken.com
www.twitter.com/peacechicken
This story is now headlined
This story is now headlined on OpEdNews.com, please vote and comment to keep it at the top:
http://www.opednews.com/
http://www.opednews.com/articles/SWAT-team-raids-an-Ohio-or-...
www.peacechicken.com
www.twitter.com/peacechicken
Also posted
Also posted here:
http://www.nowpublic.com/health/swat-raids-co-op-rural-ohio
www.peacechicken.com
www.twitter.com/peacechicken
Hard to immagine
These are the stories I grew up with that our propaganda told us life was like in a communist country or in some dictators control.
It is obvious to all of us as time goes by that it might well take force to reclaim our country.
Bruce
Bruce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeYscnFpEyA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKFKGrmsBDk
They want to control the food supply.
they do not want us to grow organic food from heirloom seeds.
they want us to use their genetically modified seeds and food. They have a patent on that and they want full control over the food supply.
MONOPOLY!
Heres The Buttwipe Cops Contact Numbers....
Give em hell....
# 440-329-3709 (Main)
# 440-329-3761 (Administrative Services)
# 440-329-3801 (Detective Division)
# 440-329-5515 (Civil Division)
# 440-329-3703 (Records Division)
# 440-329-3770 (Inmate Information)
# 440-284-0615 (Drug Task Force)
# e-mail to: sheriff@lorcnty.com
Revolt For Freedom !!!
Revolt For Freedom !!!
.
.
Trollkiller, thank you very much for
this info.
Ron Paul is my President.
Debbie
DIGG all of these, especially Peacechicken's blog with ACTION!
Local food cooperative searched by state
http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2008/12/03/news/mj309...
(comment and thank for covering this story)
ACTION!
SWAT Raids Co-Op in Rural Ohio
http://www.peacechicken.com/2008/12/05/action-item-swat-raid...
http://digg.com/politics/SWAT_Raids_Organic_Co_Op_in_Rural_Ohio
Swat Team conducts food raid in rural Ohio
December 4, 2008
http://digg.com/politics/Swat_Team_conducts_food_raid_in_rur...
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/swat-team.htm
SWAT TEAM CONDUCTS FOOD RAID IN RURAL OHIO
http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php?Article...
http://digg.com/search?s=ohio+rural&submit=Search§ion=al...
Trust in God, but tie your camel tight.
http://www.ohiofreedom.com
How terrible
those poor people how terrified they must have been.
I've posted this story on my
I've posted this story on my blog (http://www.peacechicken.com/2008/12/05/action-item-swat-raid...), NowPublic, Columbus IndyMedia, and Digg.
FYI, my post includes phone numbers and email addresses for Cleveland Media contacts, hopefully people will pressure them to investigate this further!
www.peacechicken.com
www.twitter.com/peacechicken
Remember the 5th of November!
.
Kissinger favors controlling the food supply & using famine
as an instrument for social control in the NWO. The NWO is not for humans.
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
--Isaiah 55:12, KJV
This is just
a few minutes from my house, WOW!
The part where they sent a letter asking how to comply
concerns me. Small aerospace shops get dumped on because big companies control the certification agencies. Average Joes can't run a political campaign because you need a team of lawyers to comply with election laws. Laws and regulations are there to make sure we have to do business with only those who keep the lawmakers in their backpockets. Don't bother looking for a truck to make a buck helping with storm clean-up because the township will send out their contractors to work for "free" anyway.
Taking initiative to be independent is being made into risky or even criminal activity at every turn.
I remember my parents wanting to be prepared to barter food if things got bad. When I started hearing about all the contaminated spinach, I knew it was a matter of time before they would crack down on even that. You can't escape.
Local food cooperative
Local food cooperative searched by state
PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP — An Ohio Department of Agriculture agent seized food, electronic devices and documents from a Pittsfield Township organic and natural food cooperative believed to be unlicensed, according to a search warrant filed yesterday in Lorain County Common Pleas Court.
Jacqueline and John Stowers, owners of the Manna Storehouse, 43565 SR 303, were inspected in November 2007 by the Lorain County General Health District, according to court records.
http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2008/12/03/news/mj309...
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"The disease of liberty is catching." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1820
thank you
well that helped...
now it's confirmed
Want Government out of your life??
get off your asses and do something about it.
Hiding will solve nothing.
Quote--ThePatriot
★★★thank you RON PAUL★★★
Do you know what happens when
you give a procrastinator a good idea?
Nothing!
Your welcome If anyone needs
Your welcome
If anyone needs to find local info go to - http://www.world-newspapers.com/ all countries,states,local newspapers
In this case you needed to find out what county that city is in,and then find the newspaper.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"The disease of liberty is catching." --Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1820
the same thing is happining across the country
I dont know if you have heard of kent hovind but he was arrested by the IRS for taking his own money out of the bank, 45 counts. And he was also assalted by a swat team. Right now he is serving 10 years in a federal prison for taking his own money out of the bank. Dont believe me go to www.penaltyprotesters.com and look up the hovind case, they have all of the documentation there. I believe they were his lawyers in the case.
Quick question. Even though Kent Hovind commited the crime of taking his money out of the bank in florida, he is now serving his sentince in south carolina can mark sanford issue him a parden considering that Mr. Hovind is in Sanfords state? If so I will religiously e-mail and call him to do just that along with a couple of thousand other people who are very much for Kent.
IRS is federal
Ask Bush for a pardon. (It's now the end-of-last-term pardon season. So it might acutally work.)
By the way: How about somebody posting what he was charged with. "Withdrawing your own money from the bank" seems like a strange thing for IRS regs to ban outright. B-)
= = = =
"Wunnerful, Wunnerful! Turn off the bubble machine!"
-Lawrence Welk (as satirized by Stan Freeberg.)
i just want to know if this has been verified
my gut says yes but is there any backup documentation besides
what is here?
Ron Paul is My President
Ron Paul is my President
I can't find anything--I will search all day
Manna Storehouse
43565 State Route 303
LaGrange, OH 44050
(440) 355-5826
(440) 355-5831 fax
mannastorehouse@windstream.net
www.mannastorehouse.com
LAGRANGE TOWNSHIP
353 South Center Street
P.O. Box 565
5900 people and I can't find a newspaper that
is published there... :-( or even around there
LaGrange, OH 44050
http://lagrangeohio.net/index.shtml
Phone (440) 355-6071 Fax (440) 355-6081
E-mail - Township@LaGrangeOhio.net
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
http://www.ftcldf.org/victories.html
8116 Arlington Blvd, Ste. 263
Falls Church, VA 22042
Email: info@ftcldf.org
Phone: (703) 208-FARM (3276)
Fax: (703) 208-3278
Berit Kjos, RNN Columnist
Berit Kjos is a respected researcher, the author of many books and magazine articles,
and a concerned parent (and grandparent) who has extensively studied religious trends,
today’s social changes, the roots and branches of the United Nations, the rising worldwide
management system, and – most alarming of all -- the transformation of the church.
Through their website, Berit and her husband offer information, warnings,
hope and encouragement to concerned people around the world http://www.crossroad.to/
Want Government out of your life??
get off your asses and do something about it.
Hiding will solve nothing.
Quote--ThePatriot
★★★thank you RON PAUL★★★
Do you know what happens when
you give a procrastinator a good idea?
Nothing!
Reminds me
This reminds me of a case in Northern Indiana recently where the SWAT team was in a standoff with a presumed man in a house. The standoff lasted for hours...they even paraded their tank around the neighborhood. They blew out every window in the house and shot a cat.
The house ended up being empty. Who was responsible for the damage? The homeowner, of course.
http://federalfallacy.blogspot.com
http://federalfallacy.com
keep us posted..
this is soooooooo wrong.
Thank you for bringing this
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I've posted this to the Ohio Freedom Alliance forum so everybody here in the Buckeye State can become aware of this.
This is nothing less than an OUTRAGE!!!
www.peacechicken.com
www.twitter.com/peacechicken
Here's another
Report it to these guys:
http://www.mpna.com/swoum/
"Tyrants fear nothing more than insubordination"
"It's just one big club... and WE ain't in it!"
Search Warrant Review?
I would like to see a lawyers interpretation to decide on whether or not the search warrant was valid. If not then this is a clear violation of their 4th amendment rights. I think they only need to read your miranda rights if you are being charged, or if you will be asked to make statements.
JOhn
A glimpse of what is to come.
"Presumably Manna Storehouse might eventually be charged with running a retail establishment without a license."
A few years ago one inspector would have approached these people and closed down the store until they filled out the license form or even helped them fill it in.
Every child indoctrinated by Obama, to serve, is a potential future member of this swat team.
legal defense
I was recently talking to a family member about how I can best promote freedom and liberty and how obtaining a law degree to provide defense of liberty/freedom issues could be appropriate.
It appears this idea is becoming more appropriate. This would be a big personal and family commitment.
Absolutely unacceptable!
...................I hope the Farmer To Consumer Legal Defense Fund is all over this one....please keep us posted on any updates....
Give Peace a Chance - John Lennon
http://www.enduswars.org/
Watch what happens...
...if they come to my house to mess with my garden, or the illegal backyard chickens that I plan to start raising for eggs this coming year.
The Retrocon
Hope for America, Ron Paul for President in 2008!
The Retrocon
Hope for America, Ron Paul for President in 2008!
"Hey it doesn't effect me so
"Hey it doesn't effect me so why should I care, those people are just a bunch of whacked out hippies anyway, besides the game is about to start gotto go"...
That is why this stuff continues. People are still to fat and happy they have to experience a good amount pain before they will even consider fighting this crap. And then we'll be lucky if 1% have the kahones to stand up.
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Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats. H. L. Mencken
Get Prepared!
-----
End The Fat
70 pounds lost and counting! Get in shape for the revolution!
Get Prepared!
you are right.. about
you are right.. about summertime this will change!
"When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny."
-Thomas Jefferson
I am more concerned about the return of my money than the return on my money. --Mark Twain
"When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny."
-Thomas Jefferson
I am more concerned about the return of my money than the return on my money. --Mark Twain
SICKENING
_________________________________
My liberty-minded home base of thought:
www.ponderthis.net
_________________________________
"Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the children of God." - Matthew 5:9
My liberty-minded home base of thought:
www.ponderthis.net
Terrible
Is there a report in mainstream news? Sounds stupid, but I'd like to forward it to people who won't believe it unless it's in a mainline publication.
Anyway, shocking story.
________________________________________________
"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it." -- Joseph Goebbels
_____________________________
"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it." -- Joseph Goebbels
here are a couple of links.,....
http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php?Article...
http://truediscernment.wordpress.com/2008/12/05/swat-team-co...
and people still are not aggressively forming milias to deal
w/ an OUT OF CONTROL GOVERNMENT!!!
Hard to defend
You get no warning or notice before these kind of attacks. But each state militia has to step up to defend the people when they can.
It's time.
"Tyrants fear nothing more than insubordination"
"It's just one big club... and WE ain't in it!"