Background Info: On Sept. 16, 1995; dan&mary's Monastery-Hemporium of the Church of Cognizance, received a phone call from an Individual Orthodox Member Monastery located in London England. A request was made by them that we contact a Leonard Mecado in Kerny Arizona about a recent invasion of their religious sanctuary. We contacted Leo, and provided him with some legal information he requested reguarding the Desecration of Religious Items; via FAX. We then sent him a package we supply our registered member monasteries, that contains other useful information related to the protection of Religious Freedom, and our church; and we offered therein to post any information he would like us to post to the related newsgroups on the Internet. On Sept. 19 we recieved the following FAX, with a request from Leo that we Post it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Begin~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Religious Persecution in Pinal County Interview by: Rattlesnake Attn: Joel K. Barr Publisher Grapevine News Oct. 17, 1995 Interview Rattlesnake=R Leo=L R: Leo, I understand that on Friday, the 13th of October, you experienced our well renowned Pinal County Drug Task Force at you residence. Tell me of your impression of their tactics...be specific. L: On Friday afternoon our doors were busted in by a heavily armed SWAT team. My wife, my youngest child, and I were assaulted by heavily armed individuals. I was eventually served a warrant for the cultivation of marijuana. R: Leo, what precipitated this overwhelming show of force? Did you resist? L: Far from resisting, I was completely cooperative, and willing to assist in order to minimize the destruction. R: Of what Leo? L: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. R: Could you be more specific Leo? Were your lives threatened? L: Most definately. R: In what manner were your lives threatened, what made you fear for your life? L: Two fully automatic weapons pointed at my head. R: And what of your wife? L: She was sick and in bed, and already suffering quite a bit, and her condition was extremely aggravated by the presense of armed thugs in our bedroom. R: So they served a warrant on you, with their usual discretion. The warrant was for cultivation of marijuana. Correct? L: Yes. R: You don't grow marijuana? L: No. R: So Leo, let me get this straight. You were served a warrant for cultivation, but they found no plots of marijuana on or around your property? L: Correct R: I understand that you and your wife were both booked into the Pinal County Jail that night. Why? What were the charges? L: Pursuit of Herbal Freedom, my religion. R: Let me understand this. You were arrested by our Drug Task Force for pursuing your personal religious endevours? L: And ONLY for that. R: What aspect of your religion could possibly warrant the use of potentially lethal force in your apprehension? How is the practice of your religion such a threat to your community and to the American way of life, that they deemed this necessary? L: I am apparently guilty of holding the unpopular belief that the Lord God created all plants for the benefit of mankind, to be used with prayer and thankgiving. Particularly the sacred power plants, specifically, Holy Peyote which I maintain in living form in my family altar. R: So let me get this right. The Task Force served a warrant for cultivation marijuana and after they found no cultivation, they turned around and looked for some other way to justify your arrest? What brought their attention to your religious altar? L: After realizing their suspicions to be unfounded they grasped at whatever stems and seeds they could find in our home. Peyote plays a central part in my religious beliefs and is likewise prominently and lovingly nurtured within the sacred space of our living quarters. The quite display of power the Holy Peyote emanates was obvious even to these short-sighted individuals. Consequently, while forced on the ground, cuffed, and two fully automatic weapons pointed at my skull, I was asked if the plants in the room were there because of my religious beliefs, and I answered "Absolutely Yes." Subsequently, my wife produced written, notarized verification of this, and presented it to the detective in charge. Shortly thereafter I was notified by this detective that the County Attornee had no interest in pursuing this particular matter as a criminal charge. Unfortunately, and I believe, much to the discredit of his office this was later changed on a whim. I was informed by the detective in charge that the County Attornee had come up with the statutes had somehow been altered. The decision was then made to desicrate and confiscate our Sacrament, and also arrest my wife, who before this time had not been under arrest. R: The whole thing sounds like a nightmare to me, First off, if you were on the floor, handcuffed, unarmed, of course, with numerous armed-to-the-teeth Task Force officers in close proximity, I find it hard to believe that the situation called for you to have the barrels of weapons put to your head. Did they ever offer any reason for the use of these tactics on an American? L: Aside from religious persecution being nothing new, the only thing I can come up with is that herbalist are a dangerous and subversive bunch. NOT. R: I detect a note of sarcasim in your last statement, but getting back to it. I was under the impression that life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, religious freedom, protection against unlawful search and seizure-all these things, the foundations upon which America is based, are all protected by law. Did you inquire of the arresting officers about your Civil Rights during this process? They knew they were arresting you because of your religious beliefs? L: I quoted from memory word for word, Arizona's Revised Statutes specifing our right to use Peyote in our religoun. I also warned these people if our alter was desicrated, they would be the ones held liable for their actions. R: Liable to whom? L: God, and hopefully to our justice system, if such still exist. Our justice system, I mean, not God. R: Knowing by your information that this was part of a religious altar, did they take care, since they felt it necessary to confiscate, and keep your altar and parts therein from being disturbed desicrated or harmed? What happened? L: To the credit of Detective Keck, I was informed by him that he would advise his people to treat the Sacrament with some care and respect. In my mind he was aware of the unholy nature of the task at hand. R: So, Leo, did they treat the Sacrament as a Holy item, with respect, or did they treat it like a drug they were confiscating? How did they treat the items that are the core of your religious beliefs? L: Sadly, in my heart, I do believe that these cogs in the wheels of injustice have no concept of sacred. R: So, after all, they did desicrate your shrine? L: Absolutely. R: How? L: The medicine was tagged as criminal evidence, dug up unceremoniously and piled in a harmful way in evidence bags. R: Harmful? L: Yes. Aside from the obvious lack of respect of this act, any person knowledgeable about the care of cacti in general, knows that succulent plants will in fact quickly deteriorate under such conditions. This not only is obvious an unholy thing, but shortly leads to the destruction, by rot, of the so-called evidence. R: Well, I guess that's it in a nutshell. So, Leo, being the religious person that you are, how do you feel about the men that did this to you? L: They know not what they have done. I would like to believe that someday they will have a clue, and that the Great Spirit will be merciful to them. R: You sound like a very forgiving person, what about tomorrow? Will you continue with your will you continue with your religious beliefs in spite of their condemnation of your lifestyle and religion? L: I sincerely THANK Pinal County and the multijurisdictional Task Force for strengthening my religious principle and beliefs. R: Thank you and God Bless you, Leo. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~END~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Later on the evening of the same day we recieved a voice call from Leo, advising us that he had discovered that the DARE officer that instructs at his Daughters school, along with a police officer had interrogated his daughter, without any other witnesses, and without any record of the questioning. Leo had previously, upon enrolling his Daughter in their school had met with the principle of the school reguarding his concern over the aggenda of the DARE program. He was assured by the principle that his Daughter would not be subjected to this program, but instead would be given a period of study hall in its place. But the sad thing is this wish was not honored, and once again the Government has used the DARE program to infiltrate the Bonds of Family, using an innocent child to gather evidence against her family to be used as pretext for this invasion of privacy. Leo request that we now send him info on the DARE programs failures, which we will be doing just as soon as we get this out to the group. At the current time the situation is in limbo, as the State is still considering the legallity of the States actions in this case. Leo has agreed to keep us informed as to the status of this outrage, and we will post as more information is learned. Pax Vobiscum (Peace be with you) dan of dan&mary
USE YOUR BROWSER BACK BUTTON TO RETURN TO PREVIOUS PAGE
OR USE THE BACKLINKS IN THE MENU TO THE LEFT