The LA Times has done a follow-up story on the Rawesome Foods raid that occured this summer in Venice, CA. It turns out that 10 law enforcement and regulatory agencies including the FDA and the LAPD spent a year on an undercover investigation of the raw-food store.
A law professor quoted in the story says "It may sound like overkill. But from the agencies' perspective, they want to show they can do their version of a major case. They don't want to lose it." In other words, bureaucrats want to feel important and make their authority felt. To non-bureaucrats, it looks ridiculous to run an armed raid on a food store as if it were a drug lab.
"But attorneys for the defendants believe the investigation and raid on Rawesome was overkill. They said regulators could have made their point with citations and fines. Using undercover agents and hidden surveillance cameras to put farmers and health-food advocates behind bars was a reach, they said.
"'It's a tremendous misuse of resources and a waste of time,' said Matthew Bromund, the attorney representing Palmer and her farm. 'The kind of investigation that was done in this case is similar to what you see in a violent criminal enterprise, something the mob would be involved in.'"
For the glut of agencies in our bloated government, raw means war.
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