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Originally posted by Niki2:
The Garden of Eden really does exist… in Arlington, Texas. It’s a sustainable farm community blending modern technology and green practices, where a small group of people live and grow food in a garden about half the size of a football field. The farm, which was founded by Quinn Eaker, is on 3.5 acres in South Arlington.

The farm has been involved in a code dispute with the city of Arlington since February of this year, trying to find a balance between public safety and private rights. According to the Garden of Eden website, this dispute had been settled, the inhabitants having trimmed grass and bushes per the city’s request. At that time, the city had signed documents agreeing that they would take no further action on those violations. The community of the GOE thought that was the end of it. Turned out that they were sadly mistaken.

On the morning of August 2, police descended upon the small farm. That is about the only thing that everyone agrees on. Police state that they were only on the property for 45 minutes while the GOE claims it was 10 hours. Considering the actions taken by police, the 10-hour estimate sounds more believable. The inhabitants of the GOE were all handcuffed while police searched the property for marijuana. Why? A tip came that the residents were growing marijuana in a spot “surrounded by bamboo,” and aerial surveillance indicated that “the plants inside appeared to be consistent with marijuana.” Whoever examined those photos needs a book on botany: the plants were tomatoes.

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The owners of a small organic farm in South Arlington are demanding an apology from police who raided the property in early August in what amounted to be a fruitless search for marijuana.

Police were searching for marijuana in the gardens, according to search warrants obtained by NBC 5. Code compliance officers found several reported code violations, but police did not find any drugs.

"We live a very peaceful life here,” said 30-year-old Quinn Eaker, a resident of the farm, who was arrested during the raid for an unrelated, outstanding warrant over unpaid parking tickets. “We've never hurt anybody. This is our land. We have the right to be secure in our person and our property. Period. That's undebatable."

Eaker told NBC 5 that the six adults who live at the farm - what they describe as a community that has come together with the common values of freedom, sustainability and consciousness - were handcuffed when SWAT officers from the Arlington Police Department came to their home with weapons drawn.

Code compliance officers removed wild, cultivated plants including blackberries and okra, as well as other items that the members said they used for their sustainability projects. "We had mass amounts of materials taken,” Eaker said. “If you saw the list, it's pages and pages and pages of materials taken. That wasn't junk. That wasn't trash."

The property owner, Shellie Smith, gave the officers a tour of the property and Eaker spoke with them about gardening techniques and workshops that he conducts on the property, according to the warrant.

In June, an anonymous source provided police with information that Eaker was growing marijuana in a garden that is surrounded by bamboo, the warrant states.

On July 30, a Texas Department of Public Safety aircraft conducted aerial surveillance of the Garden of Eden property, according to the warrant. Based on the investigating officer's experience, and upon review of photographs taken of a garden surrounded by bamboo, the plants inside appeared to be consistent with marijuana, police state in the warrant.

When asked why he believes police thought they were growing marijuana, Eaker answered, "I think that they were hoping that that was true. And I think that they made a mistake and I think that they know they made a mistake. They can't even tell the difference between tomato plants and a marijuana drug cartel; that's just really bad intel," Eaker said.

Eaker told NBC 5 he and the members of his community demand an apology from police. The community wants police to admit they were wrong and to compensate them for the damage caused to their property during the raid. http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Arlington-Farm-Owners-Demand-Apology-
From-Police-After-Drug-Raid-Comes-Up-Empty-219520531.html

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Originally posted by BYTEMITE:
My botanist side is twitching to point out all the obvious differences.

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