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Mysterious Men Are Dropping From Helicopters To Chop Down NorCal Marijuana Grows

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Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Messages
485
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...grows-mendocino-county-lear-asset-management/

MENDOCINO COUNTY (KPIX 5) — There’s been some mysterious activity in the skies over Mendocino County lately. Folks who live there want to know: Who are the armed men dropping out of helicopters to chop down their marijuana grows?

They dress in combat camouflage, some of them hide their faces. This summer, a group of men in Mendocino County loaded into helicopters and flew missions to eradicate marijuana. They’re not police officers. They work for a security company called Lear Asset Management.

According to their promotional poster, the group works with law enforcement .That’s why Susan Schindler suspected the posse, when her medical marijuana garden was hit last month.

“They took hand saws and just cut the trunks,” Schindler said.

Schindler said the armed men in camouflage dropped into her garden from an unmarked helicopter and refused to identify themselves. “There was no paperwork, no copies of any warrants they didn’t leave any inventory of what they took,” she said.

She told KPIX 5 that she is following all the county regulations: 25 plants per parcel, the legal limit in Mendocino County. And she said the strain of cannabis she grows has no street value: It really is medicinal.

“The irony is that this whole garden that was destroyed was not a garden that would get you high,” Schindler said.

Lear Asset Management’s president Paul Trouette turned down KPIX 5’s request for an interview, but said Lear had nothing to do with the raid on Susan’s garden.

So we asked Mendocino County’s sheriff, Tom Allman. “The sheriff’s department doesn’t hire any private security to go out and do our job,” he said.

Allman said his deputies have conducted some recent raids, including several in Susan’s area on the day she was hit. But he says his guys wear badges and clearly identify themselves.

“So are they seeing things?” We asked him. “Or is it just the fact that they are mistaken?”

“I think there are some people who may become paranoid this time of year,” he said.

But Schindler has another theory: Whoever is behind it, she believes she’s an easy target. “I think they tried to find places where they saw nobody, I think they tried to find places where they would not be confronted with guns.”

So it’s still unclear who exactly is raiding the pot farms. The security company, Lear, insists they are only staying on the private property that hires them. And that’s perfectly legal.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...grows-mendocino-county-lear-asset-management/
 
They should just form a class action lawsuit and sue the crazy jar head outta control thieving military company. That will end this shit quick and should end with cash in the pockets of the growers. I dont think its would be that hard to find a very sympathetic jury of one's peers in that particular region.8) Think like the multi billion dollar judgment that went against the tobacco comp. Sue the shit outa those vigilante cowgirls !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Every day this country increasingly resembles some futuristic dystopian novel.
 
Yeah I don't give it long before we got an article in here where some of these agents get killed and then the person protecting there crop gets shot or goes to prison forever because we live in a giant fucked up world
 
Oh, that's probably the DEA.
My sister's x husband used to do that for a living, with guns... jump out of helicopters as described.
Him and I didn't communicate much… :\
 
Maybe they're aliens. Everyone loves a nice, strong indica.. Edibles mainly!
 
That's really fucked up and creepy. Contract paramilitary garden vandals?

Hopefully something positive will ultimately come from this, such as legal precedents being set that will give the industry more protection from such shady mercenaries.
 
Private police forces are fucking scary. Most of the time they're not accountable to the public. In other countries they go around killing people willy-nilly.

Is anybody here a fan of Deadwood? There was something like this in Season 3, where the guy who was trying to take over the town hired a private army to intimidate the entire population and murder all dissenters.
 
Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd President of the United States of America) said:
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.
Click to expand...

I am afraid that FDR's words were more than mere words - a fleeting warning of what could come, and is now upon the American people.

I am afraid that what was once supposed to be "the land of peace; the land of freedom" has become a cesspool of private entities pulling the strings of the most important political and bureaucratic responsibilities, policies, regulations, and procedures in order to suit their interests, regardless of the potential international and domestic fallout.

And if they cannot get their way, they will resort to nearly anything, and with blatant insubordination of the United States Constitution - a series of articles which are supposed to be as sacred to US policymaking, government structure, and a citizen's unconditional rights as the Bible is to Christian morals, beliefs, and lifestyle choices.

I sincerely wish that America could have evolved into a better example for the rest of the world, and its governing body into a group of individuals who placed more precedence into the rights of all US citizens.

Alas, I fear the nation which I once had faith and hope in has slowly but surely been turning into a depot of shit. And it's sad (understatement of the year) because there are countless great American men and women - living and deceased - who put forth a lot of time and effort, and who sacrificed much in order to try and root out the vaguely aforementioned shit.

America has some truly wonderful men and women who I'd welcome with open arms (long term) into Canada if I could. Not that it's much better up here, but still, we could use a few good people from south of the border (if they were willing to come, and if the government was to allow it). We'll probably get annexed eventually by Uncle Sam, but until then, "party on Wayne!"
 
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*** Edit - i started writing this post before i saw yours, ro4eva - seems we were thinking along similar lines though***

Private prisons, private LEOs, corporations bigger than governments - none of this sits well with any idea of democracy I'm familiar with.
It is scary, and contradicts the very purpose of these institutions.
When no police department, private contractor or law enforcement agency will take responsibility for destroying these people's (lawfully accepted) livelihood, they seem to have become a militia working within a business framework, loosely enforcing federal law by proxy (I assume?).
Either that or the Mendocino County sheriff is being evasive - or lying.

I must admit that from across the pond, the politics of the Mendocino MMJ industry are really confusing. Is it that these cops just can't let go, or is it more about the tussle going on between State and Federal legislatures on this issue?

And are sheriffs in the area elected officials? The system in Australia is very different - and we don't yet have any official medical cannabis in any states or territories - but when we do, I sure hope it isn't as fraught with tension and contradictory authority, as seems to be the case in parts of California, at least.

I'm so impressed by what the communities there have been able to achieve - not to mention envious, being rather fond of cannabis - but it seems like a really contentious issue still; or at least.
Perhaps this is what the erosion of prohibition will look like (LE agencies throwing everything they can at maintaining the status quo) as it plays out across the world.
I hope not.

At what point do such private companies cease to be 'working with law enforcement', and instead become a gang or private army being used domestically? It seems like the lines are getting very blurry - which is the really scary thing.
 
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spacejunk said:
*** Edit - i started writing this post before i saw yours, ro4eva - seems we were thinking along similar lines though***

Private prisons, private LEOs, corporations bigger than governments - none of this sits well with any idea of democracy I'm familiar with.
It is scary, and contradicts the very purpose of these institutions.
When no police department, private contractor or law enforcement agency will take responsibility for destroying these people's (lawfully accepted) livelihood, they seem to have become a militia working within a business framework, loosely enforcing federal law by proxy (I assume?).
Either that or the Mendocino County sheriff is being evasive - or lying.

I must admit that from across the pond, the politics of the Mendocino MMJ industry are really confusing. Is it that these cops just can't let go, or is it more about the tussle going on between State and Federal legislatures on this issue?

And are sheriffs in the area elected officials? The system in Australia is very different - and we don't yet have any official medical cannabis in any states or territories - but when we do, I sure hope it isn't as fraught with tension and contradictory authority, as seems to be the case in parts of California, at least.

I'm so impressed by what the communities there have been able to achieve - not to mention envious, being rather fond of cannabis - but it seems like a really contentious issue still; or at least.
Perhaps this is what the erosion of prohibition will look like (LE agencies throwing everything they can at maintaining the status quo) as it plays out across the world.
I hope not.

At what point do such private companies cease to be 'working with law enforcement', and instead become a gang or private army being used domestically? It seems like the lines are getting very blurry - which is the really scary thing.
Click to expand...

I agree. PMCs (Private Military Companies), PLEOs (Private Law Enforcement Organizations), Private Prisons - is it only a matter of time before their agenda shifts from one of aiding their government to one of offering their services to the highest bidder? It is certainly concerning - particularly if they are able to acquire thermonuclear weapons (or other weapons of mass destruction), or at the very least several dozen kilos of highly enriched uranium (~90% U-235) which isn't very difficult to turn into a devastating bomb - and especially dirty with respect to fallout if detonated at ground level.
 
"Lear, insists they are only staying on the private property that hires them."

This sounds like the feds are hiring a private firm to eradicate pot grows on federal land. Either that lady was "accidentally" growing on federal land that was adjacent to her property, or the private firm "accidentally" crossed onto her private land that was adjacent to federal land.
 
PMCs are a much larger threat than any terrorists. The scary thing is that the best soldiers are joining the PMCs and taking their expertise with them, leaving the regular armed forces with mediocre talent. The lack of regulation in this area is astounding, and even if regulated by the US, there are tons of places throughout the world more than willing to gives these people a safe haven in exchange for protection. See how long it takes them to highjack one of their safe havens if they ever need to...

Well Americans, how are your rights to bear arms helping you out with this one so far?
 
^ great post.
This is one of the reasons the "small government (at any cost)" crowd leaves me cold.
Privatising everything - from essential infrastructure to emergency services to police and military is reaching the point of insanity.

Call me an idealist, but the purpose of government - and the institutions they oversee - is to serve the people.
And in a democracy, the people run the government. The government represents the people.

The way corporations have taken over so much of what governments once did is a total erosion of democracy, and is leading us into dangerous territory, for sure.
If anyone is able to stage a coup in a country like the USA, it is likely to be a privately owned armed force - not 'the people'. This seems fairly redundant anyway, as the people are no longer in charge of the way countries are run, as it is.
It could be argued this has long been the case, but with the surveillance state, the prison industrial complex and the military industrial complex melding into this twisted police state, it is hard to see how things can get "better" from here.
These patterns aren't cyclical - they don't unravel themselves.
The power is concentrated into some pretty scary pockets of society, and it's not heading in a pretty direction.
 
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