Video scene from the multi-agency raid on Rawesome Foods June 30. It’s often said that a picture is worth a thousand words. So it is with the video showing officers from the Los Angeles District Attorney entering the Rawesome Foods warehouse with guns drawn. Though there have been a number of raids on farms and buying organizations, this is the first time I’m aware they’ve been captured on video. Seems the agents didn’t cover up the surveillance cameras quickly enough…or maybe they wanted to be seen in battle mode, for the full intimidation effect.
I spoke with James Stewart, the manager of the Rawesome Foods warehouse (which he launched together with Aajonus Vonderplanitz in 2005) on Friday, and he told me that even before the raid, membership growth had been steady and accelerating. It grew to 500 over the first three years, and in the last two years has increased to 1,500 member. Just since the raid took place three weeks ago, membership increased by 200. And that was before the video of the raid became public. I can only presume membership growth will continue to accelerate.
And in that dynamic, the dilemma facing the authorities becomes clear. They desperately want to make the food clubs go away, but their raids have the opposite effect: they serve as better marketing than any advertising or special promotion ever could.
It’s not unlike what Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures noticed in 2006 and many other raw dairies have noticed since as a result of being shuttered for possible pathogens: their business increases in the aftermath. The regulators are discovering that the more they turn up the heat on producers of real food, the more they educate the market about the seriousness of the official desire to deprive people of access to nutrient-dense foods, and the desperation inherent in their raids and other actions.
In the wake of the recent raid, Stewart tells me, “People have confided in me that they are ready to take a stand…They are ready to stand up. You have the entire Baby Boom generation concerned about health.” So much for the intimidation effect.
All of which raises another risk in these raids: Each time the authorities come in pretending they are Wyatt Earp or The Lone Ranger, the greater the chances become for a provocative incident. Increasing numbers of people are going to become ever more aggravated, and some angry consumer somewhere is eventually going to refuse an order to move out of the way or put down the raw honey or kimchee, and an officer’s revolver is going to go off.
What then? For starters, we’ll have the ultimate bureaucratic dilemma: Does that injury or death from gunshot wounds count as a victim of food safety, or assault/murder? In our ever-more-repressive enforcement atmosphere, don’t rule out the former.?
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Canadian raw milk producer Michael Schmidt continues to surprise. First he shows off his legal skills by representing himself in court and beating back a team of government lawyers to get himself exonerated on charges of violating the Ontario dairy laws. Next he displays his musical skills by writing an opera. Now Schmidt is letting Canadians know about his political skills as he declares his candidacy for a seat in the Ontario parliament in. Good luck!
David,
Thank you for writing that. The practical effects of gunshots have been clouded today, sanitized as neatly as a bulk tank, by TV and movie images of super-heroes and almost-real people doing almost-real things. I think that is why guns can be so glibly pointed today–there is a false sense of innocuousness about them. As you say, police may feel that they are playing a role, like Wyatt Earp or the Lone Ranger. Likewise, at some level police fear that civilians will do the same, thus the problem feeds on itself. Reality arrives only when it’s too late, when triggers are pulled and real people bleed.
Kent State.
That image burst into my mind when I read the above line.
My generation.
Must be why so many of us are willing to fight for raw milk.
Mark, I love how you say things!! You are exactly right -I agree 100%!
If anybody gets sick in my family (very rare!!)- I don’t worry – I know it means that we were slacking a little in supporting our bodies! We all pull up our socks diet-wise, get some natural homeremedies or homeopathic medicines and we are back to normal in 1 or 2 days.
And I think to my self – well, we’ve just "immunzed" ourselves from that one for awhile!
A funny thing at family camp this summer – went with the kids to sign up for a job – what do they get?? Hand-Sanitizer Pumper girls(for the cafeteria line-up) It was ALL I could do to keep my mouth shut, just fit in and say "Sure, we can do that!"
All best to Micheal schmit in the election – you’re not in my province but I’ll be cheering for you!
When the cops refuse and there is zero threat..then sue them in civil court for abuse of power and unsafe handling of guns when no threat exists. The potential raw milk violations are misdemeanors not felonies. The cops will say that they felt a threat to their personal safety. This is bullshit and everyone knows it.
Then you can ask them to please describe the lethal threat. There will be none unless it is that damned raw milk….
Cops can not use threat of lethal force at will. It must be a part of a logical and defendable escalation of a threat.
It is power to the people not the cops.
Cops use guns to intimidate and dominate. You must push back and document their "personal files" for abuse of power and get court ordered repremands. They hate this and it works.
If we intend to have any freedom we must seize the day and take advantage of the abuse of power by cops. All the while the fascists jerks make your membership and sales go up and the outside people see it for what it is….corrupt absurd abuse of police power and criminal behavior.
You are the Raw Milk Green Peace Anti-Whaling Ships in down town LA.
Some of my best friends are cops…and they would not be involved with this. These cops are selected for their low intellect and ability to follow lemming like commands given to them.
The Raw Milk storm troopers must pay for pulling out their guns on good people.
When the FDA comes to OPDC they keep their guns out of sight. If they were to show them or brandish them…I would refuse them entry and call the sherrif to press charges.
Know and defend your rights or surely you will loose them. Cops get away with crap because we allow them to get away with crap. An LA jury would not allow these cops to get away with brandishing weapons on unarmed raw milk and raw honey sales people.
Call them on it…let the jury see the tapes. Make their lives a living hell. They will not do it twice if you do.
Mark
What was the outcome of your July 18th post (copied in part below)?
"OPDC is investigating whether government inpectors are entering retail stores in CA and taking OPDC products off the shelves and not leaving a receipt or a business card or any authority…Early this week video camera surveilance will reveal who these theives are. When we find them we will press charges to the fullest extent of the law. This is theft…OPDC owns all products at all CA stores because OPDC guarantees all sales….I will post the store video footage of these thieving criminals on YOU TUBE and this secret thing is going to become some serious news!! These poor bastards are about to lose their jobs. Our investigation will be complete in a few days."
MW
Aside from the ludicrousness of this situation something has to be done to prevent the loss of our freedoms. Losing the right to drink raw milk is but a drop in the (milk) bucket to the big picture. We are slowly and subtly losing our freedoms to "our" government.
Blogs, such as this one, Facebook and other forms of social networking, and some radio programs are doing a lot to help spread the word regarding the plight of our world. We have to keep spreading that word. We have to rebel, we have to fight back and most often the old cliche holds true, "The pen is mightier than the sword". You can insert the word "gun". Right now I am hoping the cops in the video are feeling totally and completely embarrassed and foolish. Will that stop them? Probably not. Hopefully, it will give them pause to reconsider their actions.