Police swarmed onto a Georgia man’s property after spotting what they thought was marijuana from a police helicopter, CNN reported Tuesday.
But what they saw wasn’t a cannabis plant. It was an okra bush.
Dwayne Perry told CNN affiliate WSB that police officers with the governor’s drug suppression task force showed up at his Cartersville, Georgia home “strapped to the gills” with a K-9 unit in tow.
Georgia State Patrol Capt. Kermit Stokes, whose agency oversees the drug task force, told WSB that the plants in Perry’s okra garden had a number of characteristics similar to a cannabis plant. Perry argued that his okra bush has five leaves, rather than the seven leaves a cannabis plant typically has.
Stokes apologized to Perry and to the news station for the mix-up.
“If we disturbed them in any manner, that’s not our intent. Our intent is to go out and do our job and do it to the best of our ability,” he said.
Well, your ability sucks. Were you thinking you could seize his house and use it towards another helicopter, Kermit? Hooray for the War on Drugs which makes people stupider than the drugs themselves.
This reminds me of the drug raid in Wichita some years ago when the cops mistook sunflower plants for marijuana and searched the property. Turns out the elderly homeowner was a former mayor.
And BTW, the sunflower is the state flower, and the cops, judge and DA were too ignorant to realize it wasn’t marijuana.
Maybe the laws against weed are ummm… draconian?
The full SWAT treatment for okra? You can’t make up incompetence like this, even if you’re trying to come up with the most ridiculous parody of police behavior.
This is almost as good as Maricopa County using armored vehicles to go after cockfighting.
They are already self-parody.
If not for the fact that this poor guy was needlessly and stupidly terrorized by law enforcement, this would be hilarious.
It’s like cops are no longer able to just investigate a case. Their only solution is to go to DEFCON 1 at the drop of a hat. It’s high time we took away ALL of their toys and left them with .38s and billy clubs.
Do not underestimate the intoxicating powers of good fried okra.
I got no problem with this. I hate okra.