ALPINE, TX — Federal agents violently raided a tobacco shop, unnecessarily broke down a door, tampered with surveillance cameras, and allegedly cracked a woman in the neck with a rifle stock. In the process, they also raided a neighbor’s home, only to later cover their tracks by acquiring a warrant retroactively. The carnival of injustice was completed when witnesses were ordered to recant their stories under penalty of law.
* * * *
While raiding a tobacco shop for suspected synthetic marijuana, the owner's sister was cracked in the neck by a DEA agent's M-16 rifle stock. When told to leave the property, she said, “What are you going to do, shoot me?”
The agent began to grapple with the woman, and performed a leg-sweep, driving her into the ground. “At that moment, he took his foot and tripped her to get her off of her feet and have her down to the ground,” Ilana said to NewsWest-9. “One of her feet came flying up and accidentally hit him in the shin. At that time he started saying, ‘Well now you’re assaulting a police officer.’ And he started attacking her more. He took the butt of his M-16 rifle and smashed it into her neck.”
“She was yelling, ‘Get off of me. You’re hurting me. You’re choking me,’” Ilana recalled. “He had his hand around her neck as he was holding her face into the ground of the neighbor’s property.”
* * * *
While the tobacco shop was getting looted by federal agents, the neighbor was getting raided too. He lives adjacent to the shop but in an entirely separated address and residence. He demanded to see a warrant when he came home to the armed thugs stealing his stuff.
“I don’t need to show you a F—–g warrant,” the agent retorted, according to Branson.
Branson said, “I need to see a warrant, based on the fourth amendment…”
“‘Oh you’re a F—–g lawyer now? We can do this the easy way or the hard way,’ and put his finger on the trigger of his M-16. That’s when I just backed up,” Branson said.
The only warrant that the agents possessed was to search the tobacco shop, the Big Bend Courier reported. After the raid on Branson’s home had begun, they sought out and acquired a warrant, retroactively, for his address. One was issued at 11:58 a.m., well after the agents broke through Branson’s wooden gate and invaded his home.
* * * *
Business owner Ilana Lipsen was arrested and charged with a first-degree felony, for allegedly selling a controlled substance, synthetic cannabis, in a drug-free zone. The charge is so draconian that it could result in a potential life-sentence in prison; not unlike the Texas teen who faces a similar charge for baking pot brownies.
As a condition of her release from jail, the judge ordered her to pay $10,000.00 and publicly recant her story, which she had already televised to the media. The handwritten orders required that she request that pictures of her sister’s injuries be removed from the internet, and that she write an apology letter to the DEA for impugning their reputation. Specifically, the judge ordered that Lipsen “will advise media that her sister, Ariel Lipsen, was not beaten by agents… and her sister instigated/assaulted agents.”
* * * *
While raiding a tobacco shop for suspected synthetic marijuana, the owner's sister was cracked in the neck by a DEA agent's M-16 rifle stock. When told to leave the property, she said, “What are you going to do, shoot me?”
The agent began to grapple with the woman, and performed a leg-sweep, driving her into the ground. “At that moment, he took his foot and tripped her to get her off of her feet and have her down to the ground,” Ilana said to NewsWest-9. “One of her feet came flying up and accidentally hit him in the shin. At that time he started saying, ‘Well now you’re assaulting a police officer.’ And he started attacking her more. He took the butt of his M-16 rifle and smashed it into her neck.”
“She was yelling, ‘Get off of me. You’re hurting me. You’re choking me,’” Ilana recalled. “He had his hand around her neck as he was holding her face into the ground of the neighbor’s property.”
* * * *
While the tobacco shop was getting looted by federal agents, the neighbor was getting raided too. He lives adjacent to the shop but in an entirely separated address and residence. He demanded to see a warrant when he came home to the armed thugs stealing his stuff.
“I don’t need to show you a F—–g warrant,” the agent retorted, according to Branson.
Branson said, “I need to see a warrant, based on the fourth amendment…”
“‘Oh you’re a F—–g lawyer now? We can do this the easy way or the hard way,’ and put his finger on the trigger of his M-16. That’s when I just backed up,” Branson said.
The only warrant that the agents possessed was to search the tobacco shop, the Big Bend Courier reported. After the raid on Branson’s home had begun, they sought out and acquired a warrant, retroactively, for his address. One was issued at 11:58 a.m., well after the agents broke through Branson’s wooden gate and invaded his home.
* * * *
Business owner Ilana Lipsen was arrested and charged with a first-degree felony, for allegedly selling a controlled substance, synthetic cannabis, in a drug-free zone. The charge is so draconian that it could result in a potential life-sentence in prison; not unlike the Texas teen who faces a similar charge for baking pot brownies.
As a condition of her release from jail, the judge ordered her to pay $10,000.00 and publicly recant her story, which she had already televised to the media. The handwritten orders required that she request that pictures of her sister’s injuries be removed from the internet, and that she write an apology letter to the DEA for impugning their reputation. Specifically, the judge ordered that Lipsen “will advise media that her sister, Ariel Lipsen, was not beaten by agents… and her sister instigated/assaulted agents.”
