CNN-- The grower was alarmed when the police helicopter swooped low over his property. Soon, Bartow County, Georgia, deputies -- "strapped to the gills" and with a drug dog in tow -- converged on his doorstep. They had the grower dead to rights. Except the plant that the chopper cops had spotted from the air was ... okra.
Dwayne Perry of Cartersville told CNN affiliate WSB that he is none too happy about last week's "raid" conducted by the governor's drug suppression task force.
"Here I am, at home and retired and you know I do the right thing," Perry told the station. "Then they come to my house strapped with weapons for no reason. It ain't right." He received many calls about all of the police officers at his home, Perry said, and he worries that his reputation in the community may suffer.
The helicopter was combing the area in search of cannabis plants when it came across the five-leaflet okra plant, the station reported. Marijuana plants can have anywhere between one and 13 leaflets per leaf, depending on maturity and health, but they generally have seven or nine.
"It did have quite a number of characteristics that were similar to a cannabis plant," Georgia State Patrol Capt. Kermit Stokes told WSB.
Upon realizing that it had dispatched officers to confiscate a popular gumbo ingredient, the Georgia State Patrol, which operates the task force, issued an apology, both to Perry and publicly. "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," Stokes told WSB.
It seems like a humorous mistake, only because no one was hurt, but there have been numerous instances in which innocent citizens have been injured or worse when police acted on bogus information. That potentiality didn't escape Perry.
"The more I thought about it, what could have happened? Anything could have happened." he told WSB.
Possession of a CDS (culinarily delicious substance)?
Intent to distribute gumbo?
Wow mighty fine investigative work there. Usually you want to do a "sneak-n-peak" before you call out the troops.
“Marijuana plants can have anywhere between one and 13 leaflets per leaf”
Hmmmm, must have been grown in Chernobyl. 😉
To the cops defense. I live in Cartersville and I can tell you there are drugs everywhere. Three or four years ago a farmer in a nearby community got busted for growing about 2 acres of marijuana in the middle of his corn field. Street value at 4-5 million. If you had met the guy you would have never suspected in a million years that he would have done something like that....and now we have meth in here....It was bad...but not as bad as it could have been.
I think some cops are out spreading pot seeds, from airplanes! To generate funds, for their thing...
Actually I ratted out the okra guy. Vile vegetable unless pickled 🙂
I feel the same about asparagus, so don't let me find any of you growing that either!!
LOL
🙂 I don't care for green beans either!
(Big tough, unsalted are the worst!)
N
Alright Foghead listen up!
Now you listen up here Foghead, OKRA happens to be a staple “down South”.
For instance, fried okra with fried mullet (if fried properly) and butter grits is a delicacy. Have you ever even heard of gumbo without Okra? Fresh Okra sliced and marinated in Italian dressing then mixed with fresh tomatoes and Florida sweet onions is a gourmets delight!
Have a great weekend! 😉
Okrie here in Oklahoma..
..is divine. I have a simple recipe of stewed 'maters. okrie and jalapenos. Money Penny kinda turns her nose up at it...she's from Milwaukee.
But that's OK...I turn my nose up at Czernina (soup made from duck blood in Poland...where it can stay as far as I'm concerned...)
Okrie here in Oklahoma..
"Money Penny kinda turns her nose up at it...she's from Milwaukee."
Well THAT explains those unflattering remarks she made about my beauty! 😉
Post the recipe. 🙂
It's time to legalize marijuana anyway. Didn't prohibition teach us anything?
