But a lawsuit filed by a data privacy watchdog says a Northern California utility went too far by racially profiling Asian communities as it routinely fed customers' power use information to police without requiring a warrant or any suspicion of wrongdoing, in violation of state laws.
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Um, maybe because they're the ones running the grow houses?
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we started getting this fantastic strain of smoke called BC Bud because it came from British Columbia and northern Washington state, and it was grown exclusively by Southeast Asians - Hmong and Montagnard refugees for the most part.
They'd rent houses in nice neighborhoods, park a car or two in the driveway, then install the lights and ventilation. Once the grow was started, they'd have somebody come over once or twice a week to shuffle the cars around in the driveway, mow the yards, shit like that to make the house look occupied.
The San Joaquin Valley has a fairly large population of Southeast Asians and it's just natural that the folks up north would filter down south to do the same thing.
I was convinced we had a grow house in our neighborhood some years back. Never saw anyone there, but occasionally there'd be a car parked in the driveway. All windows covered with foil, no outside lights ever. I'd tell my wife and she'd be like, "No, our neighborhood is too nice for that!" and I'd be like, "that's why they'd pick this neighborhood!". Finally house went up for sale and normal people moved in. Never knew for sure, but all the signs were there.
ReplyDeleteI lived in a suburb of Vancouver called Coquitlam. It was a nice place - the ocean, the mountains, Fraser River, and some pretty swanky areas. They rented the house 2-doors down, and just like you said, kept the place looking good, waved if they saw you, the whole shebang. 2-months later they were gone before the authorities had time to notice the huge spike in electricity, took their equipment but the humidity and mold pretty much caaked the place. BC Bud - I should have more memories of my 20 odd years on the coast, but I don't.
ReplyDeleteNone of which is sufficient for a warrant. And the utility was obviously acting as a governmental agent. Here's to hoping the utility gets slammed good and hard with a civil suit. And the police that acted on this information.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of crap that gives law enforcement a really bad rep. Stupid stupid stupid.
Same around here, small town AB. A chinese guy but a house that was a dump on bank repo. Repainted the outside, parked a toyota in the driveway and put roll shutters on all the windows. Everyone knew it was a grow op.
ReplyDelete6 months later rcmp raided it and... it was a grow op. The courts sold the house, new owner was chinese and 6 months later raided as a grow op.
Exile1981
I don't understand why anyone would be surprised that high electricity usage in California would lead to a police response.
ReplyDelete"You're profiling me" is an argument that really shouldn't hold water if a person is guilty. Not that growing weed should even be a crime.
A couple of comments-
ReplyDelete"None of which is sufficient for a warrant."
I knew a guy that was growing pot 30 years ago in the upstairs section of his two car garage. He was stealing the power by turning his pre-smart meter upside down regularly. PG&E got a warrant and he got busted for both growing pot and stealing power. So yes, in California it is sufficient for a warrant.
Hmong growers- The LA Times recently did a story on how the Hmongs have literally taken over Siskiyou County. The article had drone footage of industrial greenhouse after industrial greenhouse in a flyover.
This wasn't news to me. A report of a fire last year near Weed included a zoomable Google Earth map of the fire that had gone through an area that included both small hoop greenhouses and outdoor grows. When I looked at the area on regular Google Earth it turned out that it covered over six square miles. The property had been bought and subdivided into 40 acre parcels who then sold the parcels to his Hmong buddies.
When the fire came through and Sheriff's Deputies were attempting to evacuate the area they shot and killed one of the growers when he bailed out of his truck with a gun in his hand.
Needless to say, the Sheriff's Department is completely overwhelmed. The Hmongs have completely changed the county... and not for the better.
We had two Asian young men move into the small rental house we have in our neighborhood. They would come and go but they kept the yard. I would occasionally catch a whiff of burning weed when I passed their place while riding my motorcycle. All of the windows had blackout drapes. Their neighbor told me every window on the back side of the house had a window AC in it and there were two quiet running generators that were constantly on. One morning the drapes were gone, the window units, generators, as everything was loaded out during the night. They left the front door open. You could stand on the front porch and smell the stench of weed that had been in the house. The guy that owned the house had to gut it to get the smell out before he sold it.
ReplyDeleteI am disgusted with the entire content of the press-release.
ReplyDelete.
We operate a small organic teaching farm near the outskirts of Eugene, Oregon.
We grow food, we participate in local farmer markets, we furnish foods to local-owned family-operated grocers.
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Apparently, in Oregon, 'recreational amounts' of narcotics was legitimized by Dominion and the other vote-machine people.
Opiates, methamphetamine, barbiturates, any type of drug is legitimized by the 'popular vote'.
Anticipating the acceptance, marijuana growers rented and purchased warehouses for indoor growing.
The investment in equipment and real estate exceeds the ability of casual abusers.
This attracted major money from non-resident manufacturers.
And similar to other off-shore manufacturers, the health of the local community is not a factor... use it, waste it, burn it out, abandon it.
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The stench of marijuana resin and rosin is unmistakable -- skunk, but worse.
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I can drive past an indoor grow, and instantly need to vomit... partly from the skunk stink, but partly from knowing the associated corruption of anybody using the stuff, and selling the stuff, and stealing the stuff.
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The loss of potential for our young people is inestimable.
Casual abusers will be forever lost, never reaching anyplace close to the standards set by the builders of our great state.
I think this is equivalent to sending children to war, cannon-fodder to be vaporized in the name of 'progress'.
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The skunk stink over-powered any other odors, soaking into clothing and upholstery.
I say 'did', because the market was immediately saturated, with unsold tons of 'prime bud' molding and rotting in mini-storage units... turning the units into unrentable reeking messes.
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Disclaimer:
Early-1970s, for six years, I worked with the California Bureau Of Narcotics Enforcement.
I endorse the medicinal use of marijuana, I know it can help many very ill individuals.
And I know the controlled use of opiates is helpful in a medical setting.
However, the recreational use by the chronically stupid is a downhill slide for the whole community.
And that slide is accelerating, a violent waterfall instead of a series of peaceable gradual steps.
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Meanwhile, the off-shore and outside investors take their money, and create a new environment elsewhere, somebody else's community to ruin and abandon.
Locusts.
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I welcome your rebuttal.