Unfortunately, the article is pretty light on details. The the police have a search warrant, or did they just show up to "have a chat"?

If they had a search warrant, one would want to know what evidence was offered as probable cause.

If they just showed up to ask a few questions, then why did the guy cooperate with them? It's very human to want to be cooperative, but in modern times the response must be: "Sorry, but I won t be answering any questions".

I think you're being a little alarmist on this one. There are a few things missing from the story that we would need to know before being outraged. Was a search warrant issued? Did stormtroopers burst through his door? Was it a very unusual amount of hydro-whatever that he bought? Or did neighborhood police just stop by to get a sense of what was going on?

He feels it's profiling. It is. It's not racial profiling or library-book-record thought profiling. It's behavioral profiling. Police profile all the time. They have employees whose title is profiler.

He also feels that someone that buys a gun should not be assumed to be contemplating a crime. I agree. But I would hope that if somebody was buying up shedloads of semi-automatic weapons, someone might drop by to get a sense of what's going on.

You might have something here, but there is way too little information to warrant outrage. I doubt the police pay a visit to everyone that buys hydroponic equipment and there may have been more factors going on. Besides, contact with the police does not equal a violation of rights. It sounds like had he not answered the door, they would've simply gone away.

You're trying to portray some Glenn Beck fantasy police state run amok. It's certainly not evident in this story.

"What's next, keeping a close watch in grocery stores for people who buy a lot of Doritos and brownies?"

Well yeah, you can't buy too much cold medicine because you're automatically suspected of making meth. It's a small step away from that to monitoring Funions.

Just Google "limits on buying cold medicine" (without quotes) and you'll get a bunch of stuff.

Yawn. What whistleDick said. Even though I think growing pot should be legal (not decriminalised, completely legalised). Police discover hydroponic marijuana operations by excess electricity usage too. And sometimes it's something else, and they go away.

a_random_guy, reading the original article, they did in fact discover several genuine operations in the same night. I'm guessing - it doesn't say of course - that they would have had warrants for a planned operation, at least if they didn't have their heads totally up their asses (which is possible). This guy probably just really likes his tomatoes and slipped over whatever arbitrary purchase threshold they had set for "too much for a hobby".

If they had broken his door down, seized his equipment, frozen his assets under RICO laws, etc, then there would be cause for outrage.

Oops - they found one commercial operation and lots of individual plants. Sorry.

"...labeling him as a possible drug dealer because of buying hydroponic equipment is profiling."

Labeling him as a possible degenerate criminal because of buying drugs is profiling. The war on drugs is an outrage, no matter how well procedures are honored or how little force is used.

Meanwhile, in New York, hundreds of police officers are under investigation for fixing tickets. I wonder if anybody is monitoring the phone calls of the Independence, MO police department, because they could be guilty of the same crime.

Or is that different?

Just one more in a long list of legal purchases/transactions which can put you in the police crosshairs.
Hydroponics,
cold medicine,
Taking > $5000 cash from your bank account,
fertilizer,
buying a bullet proof vest,
buying a gun,
obtaining a gun liscense,
concealed cary permit,
Donating to certain groups,
Belonging to certain groups.
All considered suspicious activity, suspicious enough to have a paper trail.

The "War on drugs" has become the "War on Liberty".

Parallels can be drawn to U.S.S.R., Cuban and Chinese police tactics...

This isn't new. I remember seeing something on TV when I was in high school (over 2 decades ago) about how the FBI set up a fake power transformer on the light pole in front of a hydroponics shop so they could write down license plate numbers of everyone who went in.

I'm thinking of setting up an indoor garden so I can grow tomatoes and peppers year round. And when the DEA comes knocking, the answer will be "You can look, but you have to eat what you find."

And then I'll introduce them to Ghost Chili.

On profiling.. Friday before spring break I was getting ready for bed (I work nights) at 9am when 5 police officers appeared at my door with vests, belts and a search warrant. Banged my door so hard they put dents in it. Detained me (in my nightgown) in the living room while they tore my 17-year old sons room apart looking for tagger praphernalia.

The propable cause for obtaining the warrant? My son had doodled some grafitti looking drawings on the inside cover of ONE notebook. The alert "Narc" who searched his backpack at his high school had reported him as a possible tagger. They searched his room and my garage before they gave up and left without finding as much as a permanent marker.

My son has a's and b's and is graduating in a month. He's in the house at 10pm every night. Not a street kid or a hoodlum. Where did he learn to draw the doodles on his note book? From a leader at Youth venture... His church youth group!

It's getting scary around here!

@Bella,
In most jurisdictions, it is illegal for you to be detained anywhere while a search warrant is carried out. You have the right to read the warrant in it's entirety before allowing the searchers into your home, and to follow along with searchers to make sure that they are not looking in any areas not specified in the warrant.

Also, for those with kids, to avoid a possible similar situation, a backpack is considered part of your child's "effects" and is not searchable without consent or a warrant, even by school officials. Especially when they get to high school age, make sure your kids know their rights. Too often, the school's aren't going to let them know.

"...The man told Judy that he supports fighting drugs and has no problem with the officers who came to his home. But he also said he thinks labeling him as a possible drug dealer because of buying hydroponic equipment is profiling."

In other words, targeting people for investigation due to their equipment purchases in order to fight the Drug War is okay, as long as he's not one of the profiled?

Nice.

What I find is ridiculous is the amount of people complaining about how they are under observation if they buy a bunch of cold medicine, but it wasn't but a few months ago that Missouri was trying to make it illegal to buy cold medicine without a prescription.

Also, for those with kids, to avoid a possible similar situation, a backpack is considered part of your child's "effects" and is not searchable without consent or a warrant, even by school officials. Especially when they get to high school age, make sure your kids know their rights. Too often, the school's aren't going to let them know.

Do you have a source for this? I'd love it if this were true, but my understanding is that schools operate en loco parentis and can basically do anything short of a strip search with neither consent nor a warrant (might be an exaggeration, but I mean that pockets, backpacks, lunches, and the like are subject to search at the administration's discretion).

@Bella,
"In most jurisdictions, it is illegal for you to be detained anywhere while a search warrant is carried out. You have the right to read the warrant in it's entirety before allowing the searchers into your home, and to follow along with searchers to make sure that they are not looking in any areas not specified in the warrant.

Also, for those with kids, to avoid a possible similar situation, a backpack is considered part of your child's "effects" and is not searchable without consent or a warrant, even by school officials. Especially when they get to high school age, make sure your kids know their rights. Too often, the school's aren't going to let them know"

In most jurisdictions attempting to even discuss your rights with law enforcement will result in an ass-kicking followed by an arrest on charges of assaulting an officer and obstructing justice.

@ Christopher
Sorry I took so long to get back. I was a bit broad in my wording. The way I worded it is what I was taught by one government teacher in high school. The more strict version may apply only in my state (MN) or it may not apply at all, and he was over broad in his understanding.

However, according to New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985) school officials don't need a warrant, and apparently don't need "probable cause" but DO need "reasonable belief" that a violation of school rules has taken place before searching. Also, much like with a warrant, basically if what they're looking for as far as rule breaking isn't found, the student can't be held liable for anything else they do have in their bags, unless they consent to the search.
In the specific case, they were looking for cigarettes because a teacher had caught the girl smoking. She consented to the search, and so when they found marijuana in her purse also, it was admissible later in a criminal proceeding.

Basically, teach your kids to know that they should never consent to a search. Whether or not it would have helped Bella's son, I don't know. She doesn't say what evidence or reasoning the "narc" had before searching his backpack, or if it was a student or a teacher.

@nuzltr2
That is why you don't even talk to the cops. The only line you should ever say to a cop at your home (or any other place when you're being accused of a crime, or questioned) is "I need to speak with my attorney, and I do not consent to any search." Then call your attorney immediately. Chances are they'll have a better understanding of possible legal jargon in the warrant anyway.

Thank you for the advise. I don't think I have a leg to stand on. My son was searched in a random search conducted by the school police officer. He is an armed and uniformed officer who patrols the school. The reasoning was that he (my son) had been observed talking to some kids in a skate group who were suspected of doing some tagging in the neighborhood.

What gets me is that they went to a judge, got an actual search warrant and tore my kids room apart without ever talking to him, me or anyone who knows him. They didn't even know that he was a male. His name is a bit ambiguous so they asked for her boyfriend. They also thought, according to the warrant, that he/she was a pacific islander... He is of mixed heritage. They found a broken piece of a bebe gun in his closet and the parting words were "Don't let me see him outside with this. Id hate to have to shoot him!"

If they can get a search warrant based on that, a doodle in a note book, what can they do from here on? I'm really frightened that they somehow can cause problems for my child this close to graduation. I have advised him not to talk to anyone in an authority role without my consent and presense.

He is not an angel by any means, if I thought he had anything to do with it Id be delivering him to the authorities myself and make him clean grafitti all day long but hes not guilty of any tagging. Thats ridiculous.

Such a practice of restricting reporter pictures and movies, employing the explanation presented by the White colored Residence, appears to be no big deal. But when taken together with other numerous operate-ins with the press that have characterised this Administration, citizens have every single correct to be wary.