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I wonder when capitalism became against the law in Tuolumne County?

MyMotherlode.com reported:

Crackdown On Marijuana Cultivation

Female marijuana plant

November 07, 2011 04:36 pm

By: B.J. Hansen,

Sonora, CA — Nearly a dozen people have been arrested over the past week in Tuolumne County for the cultivation of marijuana.

Some have medicinal marijuana cards and thought they were protected under the state’s laws governing medicinal cannabis. Officials argue that it was being cultivated and sold for profit.

Local officials seem hell-bent for election to prevent local medical marijuana patients from being able to receive the treatment they need.

Don’t police officers get paid for the work they do? Why on earth would anyone grow marijuana, only to give it away? Of course they are selling it for a profit! If the growers don’t make a profit, they certainly won’t be able to stay in business very long.

They all have charges related to the cultivation and possession of marijuana. The investigations leading up to the arrests have been led by the Tuolumne Narcotics Team.

Apparently, the Tuolumne Narcotics Team has too much time on it’s hands to go after real criminals. They spend their time harassing local medical marijuana growers — because they already have their names and addresses — why should they go out and do some real police work?

It’s only a matter of time before marijuana is legal once again and our local police force will have to sit around playing cards and telling bad jokes.

I just wonder why they aren’t going after the real criminals. Have you checked out the “News of Record” recently? What are police doing about all the burglaries, credit card fraud and dumping that goes on in Tuolumne county?

Just this week:

• 12:59 p.m., Sonora area — A woman reported someone burglarized her residence on the 19000 block of Lambert Lake Road. She reported she came home to find her garage door open, garage window shattered and a dirt bike missing.
• 1:17 p.m., East Sonora — A person cleaning out a shed on the 19400 of Hillsdale Drive reportedly found a metal container with dynamite in it and a box containing loose gun powder.
• 7:56 p.m., Crystal Falls — A woman on the 16900 block of Columbia River Drive reported she caught someone trying to break into her Jeep. She reported being outside on her porch when she heard her vehicle’s door shut. She looked around the corner and yelled and saw a person running away toward Crystal Falls Drive.
• 3:40 a.m., Tuolumne — Security guards reportedly found a bag of methamphetamine on the gaming floor of Black Oak Casino. Deputies recovered the bag of drugs and booked it for destruction. (You know the entire Black Oak Casino complex is under surveillance.)

What you notice about all of these, is the police were not involved in any of these complaints. We called them once as we were instructed to do, to have a deer put down that was suffering — we waited for 3-hours and watched that deer suffer in pain. It was one of the worst days of my life, why wasn’t someone available?

Medical Marijuana Laws - (MI law passed 2010)

Why are the local police obsessed with non-violent citizens, whose only crime is growing marijuana to help people who are in pain and suffering, while helping to sustain his own family during these tough economic times?  The medical community is unable or unwilling to help.

The government is seizing the property and destroying the lives of people who are not criminals — at least not in the State of California. These people followed the legal channels and did what they were required to do under the laws of the State of California. Shortly, pot will be legalized and when it is, all this harm brought on these citizens will have been for nothing. And all this in the wake of the California prison overcrowding problems that have forced even more costs onto the local jails…from non-violent drug offenses.

Related articles

• Tuolumne County bans dispensaries (twainhartetimes.com)
• Medical Marijuana Patients, Dispensaries File Suit Against Feds Over Crackdown (sfist.com)
• Marijuana dispensary crackdown draws suit (sfgate.com)

Image by epSos.de via Flickr

Did you happen to catch the news today? I know times are hard right now but these young men could have caused some serious problems. A community doesn’t spend $2,000 for a 200 foot section of guard rail, unless it’s needed.

Suspects Arrested In Guard Rail Theft

Sonora, CA– Tuolumne County Sheriff’s authorities arrested two men early
this morning suspected of stealing a portion of a guard rail.

According to Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jeff Wilson, a report was made
Monday regarding a 200 foot section of guard rail valued at approximately $2000
missing from Shawmut Road.

After the Sheriff’s Department conducted an investigation this week, Deputy
Paul Speers discovered two men this morning at around 2 am, near the section of
the missing rail. He also noticed another section of rail had been unbolted from
its posts and was laying on the ground. Speers says he had checked the area
earlier and knew the rail was still on its posts at that time. [continue reading…]

I had heard that people were stripping copper wiring and copper plumbing, out of their houses before the bank foreclosure. Would you be surprised to learn that this case is not all that unusual? For instance in Augusta, GA.

Metal thefts bring renewed scrutiny

Sheriff’s Investigator Kendall Brown can legally question anyone waiting in line to recycle their metal. But on a recent morning Brown was biding his time, patiently scanning the scrapyard crowd through the tinted windows of his silver Impala.

“You have to read the person, watch what people are loading,” said Brown, who coordinates the newly resurrected CSRA Metal Theft Task Force. The task force is a holdover from 2008, when a spike in theft followed a jump in the prices of precious metals.

More than 20 law enforcement agencies and civilian businesses have joined forces to share their information on what’s been stolen and who’s responsible. Richmond County is the hub of the task force because of its six scrapyards; by default, almost all the stolen goods eventually trickle through here. [continue reading…]

In San Diego investigators got a call from a local recycler who got suspicious after five  people brought in a bunch of caps to recycle.

Fire Hydrant Theft Ring Busted

Escondido police officers arrested five people for stealing brass caps  off hundreds of fire hydrants around the city. On Friday, police got a call from a North County recycler that a group of people were trying to sell more than 80 hydrant caps. [Source:  Thieves Tamper with Hydrants | NBC San Diego]

The San Ramon Express News reports:

 Thousands worth of copper stolen from PG&E facility

Approximately $2,000 worth of copper wire was stolen from the PG&E Testing Facility on Crow Canyon Road last week, according to police reports. [continue reading…]

Other unusual items being stolen for recycling include:

• Lodi flooded with sprinkler head thefts
• WINCHESTER: Arrest made in attempted theft of brass water pumps
• Man charged with theft of air conditioners

All this was found doing a quick search for the terms, “theft recycle.” I can only imagine just how huge this problem has become. I guess what this all means is business and homeowners will need to make a bee-line to the recycling center, if they hope to retrieve their stolen items before they are crushed beyond recognition.

On the other side of the coin, many others are using these tough times to their own advantage by going dumpster diving, an activity we used partake of when I was a child. Did you know that people throw away tons of perfectly usable items, simply because they are unwanted? Over the years I have liberated many supposedly unwanted items doomed to end up in the garbage heap.

Of course, it wasn’t as acceptable of a practice back in the early 70’s as it is today. We were always afraid one of our friends would see us and make fun, but that didn’t stop us from going out again the following weekend. Apparently, some communities have laws against dumpster diving.

Dumpster diving yields hidden treasures

Yoder’s best finds include roller skates, records, clothing and furniture. However, according to the City of Lawrence, Yoder obtained these “treasures” illegally.

A city code prohibits unauthorized individuals from going through or removing other people’s trash. Since January 2010, city officials prosecuted six people for unlawfully removing trash.

“Some people feel very strongly against others going through their trash because they consider it an invasion of privacy,” Lawrence communications manager Megan Gilliland said. “It is their understanding that the city will dispose of their trash without others going through it.” [continue reading…]

You should check with your local officials before dumpster diving, unless you want to risk being arrested.

Communities talk a good story about being “GREEN” but how many really are? The state of California is discouraging people from shopping online (a green thing to do), so back in the car they go, shopping for bargains. Children here are rounded up for truancy, why not encourage them to school online?

Our landfills are getting full but hey, let’s pass laws preventing people from saving items destined for the landfill. What kind of sense does it all make? Are we going to be good stewards or not? We really need to stop and think about what kind of world we are leaving to our children and begin making better use of our resources.

Well, that’s my opinion anyway. Any thoughts on the topic?