At 1:53 PM -0700 10/27/97, Jim Burnes wrote:
On Mon, 27 Oct 1997, Tim May wrote:
As for plant cultivation, I'm sure we all recall the cases where DEA SWAT teams have raided homes because some electric company report gave the DEA some suspicion that grow lamps were being used. (In a lot of these raids, there are "side effects" of the residents being sprayed with small arms fire. "Whoops." Even more embarassing when no grow lamps are found. "Whoops." So much for the Fourth Amendment, which was gutted more than 70 years ago during the First War on Drugs.)
That wouldn't be the Donald Scott case, would it? I'm so suprised at you, Tim. The local prosecutor said they "lost their moral compass". The poor men! Now go back home, fill out your 1040 and shuddup. ;-)
Donald Scott, of Malibu, was one of these examples. For those who don't know the story, he was a retired medical doctor, living with his wife on a farm or ranchette of some sort on the Malibu coast, adjacent to some L.A. County public or park lands. Environmentalist groups had been trying to get him to sell his land cheaply, or donate it, to the parklands system. The LA County Sheriff's Office apparently took a close look at his land, to see if there was any way they could force him to sell. As I recall the story (a Web search will reveal more), they found a snitch who said Donald Scott was growing pot on his property. Aerial surveys were inconclusive. They raided his home, hoping to find drugs and thus seize the property under the civil forfeiture laws, then sell the property to the parklands system and realized a nice profit. (The civil forfeiture laws work like the "letters of marque and reprisal" system the freebooters had: those doing the raiding get to keep the profits from their raids. This has become a major revenue generator. See old episodes of "Miami Vice" for details on how this works.) Anyway, in the predawn hours the raider ninjas burst into Scott's home. No polite knocks on the door. (As if he could have flushed his alleged marijuana plants down the toilet.) Scott saw the intruders burst into his bedroom, reached for a gun from his night stand, and was sprayed with 9mms. His wife survived. No marijuana plants were found. No drugs were found. Probably not even any Paladin Press books. If there were justice in America, those who did the raiding would be tried, found guilty of capital murder, and sent to the gas chamber at San Quentin. But they won't be. "We lost our moral compass" is the most that will come out of this. Oh, and more laws making it illegal for sheep-units to have guns to defend themselves. And so it goes. This is why I have 3000 rounds of .223 stashed away, and several loaded weapons readily available. And an early warning system in case the night ninjas decide my house needs to be raided before dawn. --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."