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spoiler"I turned the lights on and it's 'Oh my God, 3ft of soil in my bedroom'," Charles Reeves says, still in disbelief, as he shows the BBC his home. "I'm surprised the floors are even withstanding all this stuff."

Mr Reeves, a north London homeowner, returned from working abroad to find his family home transformed into a cannabis farm.

The criminals, posing as tenants, had dumped 10 tonnes of soil in the property, causing extensive damage and leaving the family devastated.

According to experts, rental scams linked to cannabis farms are on the rise, with criminals seemingly exploiting the lengthy eviction process to complete illegal grow operations before disappearing.

The Reeves family had advertised their property online as they prepared to work abroad. They were approached by an estate agent who discovered they would be away for an extended period. The agent promised them a family of tenants, supposedly working for a City firm and with children.

However, the "tenants" turned out to be scammers who never paid rent and instead used the property for criminal activities. It was later discovered that the estate agent was operating a fake site, and the tenants were bogus.

The police told Mr Reeves it was one of the worst cases of this kind of crime they had seen. They seized more than 400 cannabis plants from the property, with an estimated street value of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Mr Reeves went to the property after the tenants had failed to pay their rent, having gained a court order to enter the house.

He knocked on the door and was greeted by several men, with one claiming the property was in good condition. Within half an hour, these men had disappeared, although we don’t know what role they played in the farm.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," Mr Reeves said, describing the moment he entered the house. "The cannabis crooks dumped 10 tonnes of soil in the family bedroom.

"The whole place had been transformed into a drug factory. There were holes in the ceiling, wires everywhere, and the stench was overwhelming."

Mr Reeves discovered an elaborate setup with fans, lights and a ventilation system powered by stolen electricity. The criminals had rewired the property's electrical system to bypass the meter, allowing them to power their extensive growing operation without detection.

In addition to the tonnes of soil dumped on the upper floor, the property had suffered significant structural damage. Holes had been cut into the ceiling and walls to accommodate the complex ventilation system, which was designed to regulate temperature and humidity for optimal plant growth.

The sophisticated lighting setup, which included specialist grow lamps, had been rigged up throughout the house. The intense heat generated by these lamps also caused damage to the property, with burn marks and melted fixtures visible in several rooms.

"There was a big curtain here. This is astonishing," Mr Reeves says. "They had fans going, the lights were going, this curtain was being pulled in."

The emotional toll on the family, from both the rental fraud and the damage caused to their home, has been immense.

Mr Reeves's wife Julia said: "When you're dealing with property, particularly a home that you're in for nearly 20 years, and raising your child in... It was pretty horrific to feel that you got attacked at the core, that inner sanctum, that place of comfort, that we'd rely on in the city, it's our home - very emotional."

Mr Reeves said: "Emotionally, it feels like my home has been defiled. That's what it feels like. The damage, the dirt, all this dirt everywhere.

"This is the first real home I ever had. We're crushed and devastated."

Metropolitan Police figures show more than 1,000 cannabis farms have been discovered in London in the past few years, with a total of 1,056 found between the 2018-19 and 2022-23 financial years. However, experts believe these figures represent only a tiny proportion of the cannabis farms currently in operation.

According to Allen Morgan, one of the UK's leading expert witnesses from criminal drugs trials and a former police officer who now runs a drug consultancy service, rental fraud linked to cannabis farms is increasing.

"We're seeing a definite uptick in these types of crimes, with criminals taking advantage of the rental market to set up illegal grow operations," he says.

"The criminals exploit the legal system and the eviction process. They know that it can take months to evict a tenant, even if they stop paying rent. During this time, they can complete multiple grows and make a significant profit before disappearing without a trace."

The lack of regulation in the rental property sector has made it easier for fraudsters to operate. Estate agents are not required to have qualifications, despite handling significant assets. This can leave homeowners vulnerable to scams and other criminal activities.

"If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is," Mr Morgan warns. "If somebody turns up offering to pay cash because they've been let down and they need to move in immediately, then alarm bells should start to ring."

The cannabis trade has evolved from small-scale grows to sophisticated multimillion-pound operations, allegedly run by international crime syndicates. London, with its vast local market and extensive transport network, has become a hub for drug distribution.

"The issue that London has is obviously it is one of the main distribution hubs for controlled drugs throughout the United Kingdom," Mr Morgan explains.

"The cannabis trade is so lucrative, what you get is when you convert a rented property, you effectively obtain five, six, maybe seven separate growing areas where you can produce cannabis plants, obviously discreetly and without any sort of evidential link to you."

Police have stated that what happened to the Reeves family is still under investigation, but the reality is that innocent landlords are being left to pick up the pieces of London's growing drug crime problem.

The Reeveses hope that by sharing their story, they can raise awareness of this growing problem and prevent other homeowners from falling victim to similar scams.

"We want people to be aware of the risks and to take every precaution when renting out their properties," Mr Reeves said. "No-one should have to go through what we've experienced.

"Not only was it the fraud, it was a destruction of our home."

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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by Kumikommunism@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

The banning non-competes is actually pretty good, don't get me wrong, but that also wasn't really him.

Link: https://lemmy.world/post/16818454

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linko

sadly most of the USA "left" belives in this

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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by ratboy@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

It's a tale as old as time of Anarchists absolutely shitting all over communists but god damn I hateeeee it. No self awareness

Link to Instagram post

Edit: to be clear I don't have a problem with Anarchists, just seems like very often MLs are met with so much vitriol with people they could collaborate with. Just sucks. Stupid interner

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Applicants must be okay with sitting for a video interview and must pass a background check. While not strictly required, a CV with relevant work and volunteer history will help during the application process.

Lmao

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Get back in your disability hole. You don't deserve to be seen in public. Order online and we'll throw the shittiest scraps of produce on the shelf down there for you if you don't want to be sneered at (which you deserve for being disabled and possibly even faking it)

What the fuck is wrong with these down-punching reactionary service workers? You're the very bottom of a mountain of shit rolling downhill so you need to create a class to abuse beneath you? Yes they are in fact entitled to access to fucking groceries. agony-consuming

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submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by ItsPequod@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

Ryan Grim and co are such clowns, what is it about yanks that lead them to such defeatist attitudes.

Palestinians can advocate for themselves how they protest their genocide.

Edit: link to post

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submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by PM_ME_YOUR_FOUCAULTS@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

clown-to-clown-communicationclown-to-clown-conversation

Love it when a tradcath cryptofascist gets to dialogue with a tradcath fascist about Wookiepedia-level religious trivia

I'd link but I think it's deleted

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WTF is this (hexbear.net)
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CW: reddit-logo, Destiny fans

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Look at the sleight of hand in this bullshit

French Election Becomes ‘Nightmare’ for Nation’s Jews

The place of Jews in French society has emerged as a prominent theme in the election because the once-antisemitic National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, whose anti-immigrant position lies at the core of its fast-growing popularity, has been one of the most emphatic supporters of Israel and French Jews since the Hamas-led terrorist attack of Oct. 7 on Israel.

Huh weird that the ethnonationalists are on the same sids as israel

Mr. Mélenchon’s France Unbowed, by contrast, has been vehement in its denunciation of Israel’s military operation in Gaza as “genocide.”

rat-salute-2

The confrontation of an abruptly pro-Israeli National Rally, whose antisemitic founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, described the Holocaust as “a detail” of history, with a far left that Mr. Macron described last week as “guilty of antisemitism” has confronted French Jews and others with an agonizing choice.

The choice being, do I side with the group that minimizes the Holocaust and supports the current genocide, or the side that doesn't? Hmm damn what a choice

Can they really bring themselves to vote for Ms. Le Pen’s party, given its history of antisemitism and its xenophobic determination to seek a ban on the public use of the Muslim head scarf if elected, out of loathing for Mr. Mélenchon’s France Unbowed?

He argued that the campaign of France Unbowed had been based on “hatred of Israel” and cited Aymeric Caron, a lawmaker who is a member of the New Popular Front coalition that left-wing parties have formed, as suggesting Jews were inhuman.

Damn suggesting Jews are inhuman, that sounds really bad, let's read on

On May 27, Mr. Caron said on the social platform X, “It is evident that Gaza has shown that, no, we do not belong to the same human species.” He was referring to supporters of the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

Oh, he's saying that supporters of this genocide are inhuman

Supporters of the Israeli genocide

is-this is this Jewishness?

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planet-hillary warren-snake-green

Link

When people told me they hated Hillary Clinton or (far worse) that they were “not fans,” I wish I had said in no uncertain terms: “I love Hillary Clinton. I am in awe of her. I am set free by her. She will be the finest world leader our galaxy has ever seen.”

I wish, in those exchanges, I had not asked gentle, tolerant questions about a hater’s ridiculous allergy to her, or Clinton’s fictional misdeeds and imagined character flaws. More deeply still, I wish I had not reasoned with anyone, patiently countered their ludicrous emotionalism and psychologically disturbed theories. I wish I had said, flatly, “I love her.” As if I had been asked about my mother or daughter. No defensiveness or polemics; not dignifying the crazy allegations with so much as a Snopes link.

Maybe “I love her” seemed too womany, too sentimental, too un-pragmatic. Not coalition-building, kind of culty. But people say with impunity they love Obama, the state of Israel, their churches, Kurt Cobain. In the end, I wish I’d said it because it’s true.

And I’m not alone in my commitment. Millions of Clinton’s supporters — we were thanked by Clinton as the “secret, private Facebook sites” — expressed it among themselves, all the time, in raptures or happy tears with each new display of our heroine’s ferocious intelligence, depth, and courage. We were frankly bewildered by the idea that anyone would hedge their commitment to her (“You don’t have to be her friend”; “Yes, she’s made mistakes”; “lesser of two evils”). We didn’t remember anyone turning to this stock ambivalence when discussing Obama, Babe Ruth, FDR. If only one reporter — they knew about us — could have published a headline like “Clinton Inspires Historic Levels of Adoration From Her Supporters” about the people who have had their lives transformed by the power of her brilliant campaign, unrivaled effectiveness, and extraordinary career. Just one headline like that, like the ones Bill Clinton got.

Usually a legend is made by men and media — the legend of Kennedy, say, or Jim Morrison — and then, much later, a biopic, pretending to evenhandedness, reveals the legend’s shortcomings, his “human” side. The shortcomings are almost always something exactly no one actually believes compromises his heroism. His problem drinking. His mistreatment of women. Well, takedowns of Hillary were always already written. She has somehow made the time to hear out each dead-end line of reasoning about her fake mortal sins, and often she has also thanked everyone for sparing her further moral lashings, as if that were a kindness. Under cover of “humanizing” the intimidating valedictorian, reports and investigations and media clichés vilified her. But the feminist hero never got to be a legend first. And yet she is one, easily surpassing Ben Franklin, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs.

I want to reverse the usual schedule of things, then. We don’t have to wait until she dies to act. Hillary Clinton’s name belongs on ships, and airports, and tattoos. She deserves straight-up hagiographies and a sold-out Broadway show called RODHAM. Yes, this cultural canonization is going to come after the chronic, constant, nonstop “On the other hand” sexist hedging around her legacy. But such is the courage of Hillary Clinton and her supporters; we reverse patriarchal orders. Maybe she is more than a president. Maybe she is an idea, a world-historical heroine, light itself. The presidency is too small for her. She belongs to a much more elite class of Americans, the more-than-presidents. Neil Armstrong, Martin Luther King Jr., Alexander Fucking Hamilton.

Hillary Clinton did everything right in this campaign, and she won more votes than her opponent did. She won. She cannot be faulted, criticized, or analyzed for even one more second. Instead, she will be decorated as an epochal heroine far too extraordinary to be contained by the mere White House. Let that revolting president-elect be Millard Fillmore or Herbert Hoover or whatever. Hillary is Athena.

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submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by plinky@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

leading authority [citations needed]

linky to tweet

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submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by micnd90@hexbear.net to c/the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net

tldr; just a lib complaining about direct action. This is the most baffling column from the NYT, surpassing all of Friedman's or Dowd's brain diarrheas

https://archive.is/hPWPv

Don’t take it personally, but I don’t want to go to your protest. This isn’t a commentary about your particular movement or about the anti-Israel rallies this past academic year. I don’t care how foolish or noble the cause. When it comes to gathering in large groups and yelling, you can count me out. I did try it once. My first and last protest was freshman year of college when some women I liked were organizing a pro-choice rally. The cause was solid, it seemed like a decent way to solidify the friendships and I enjoy using magic markers.

But standing on the campus green of our overwhelmingly liberal university brandishing a broken hanger struck me as not only futile but ridiculous. The only mind that was changed by that protest was mine — about participating in protests. After 40 minutes or so, I left to go to the bathroom. Later, I signed up to escort patients at a local abortion clinic. There are better ways, I realized, to effect change.

Temperamentally, I just wasn’t up to it. It’s not only that I don’t like standing outdoors in the sun for long periods or that I always need to pee. But I’d rather read about strikers in “Germinal” than march on a picket line. My full gratitude then, to The New York Times for giving me a get-out-of-jail-free card by forbidding your journalists from participating in political protests while encouraging us to report on them.

I’ve never been much of a tribalist or a joiner, and have no use for conformity of thought or dress. Unless it’s Halloween or a costume party, I don’t like playing dress-up. Nor do I want to be part of a group where people might think I accidentally left my pussy hat at home. When I see a bunch of white kids wearing kaffiyehs I can’t help wonder whatever happened to the whole anti-cultural appropriation thing. When someone drones on about “solidarity,” all I hear is, “Get in line.” When there’s no room for dissent from the dissent, there’s no room for me. Color me an anti-fan of performative politics, particularly if it means I’d be part of the show that features bigots posing as bleeding hearts. Plus, all that earnestness! It brings out my ironic and impish side, inclined to correct typos on signage or foment some kind of peripheral debate. Every time someone at one of those encampments cried out “Free Palestine” I’d be tempted to yell “From Hamas!” I’d surely get kicked out of the group that wants to kick other people out. They don’t want troublemakers.

Protests are about operating in unison and I find that creepy. Back in the early 90s, I visited college friends in Washington, D.C. It happened to be the Fourth of July and so we headed to the National Mall to celebrate. I was stunned to find people passionately yelling en masse, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” What, I wondered, was the alternative? Who’s the other team?

I realize we live in a country born of protest and my attitude may seem vaguely un-American. Watching the rabble-rousers on HBO’s “John Adams” during Covid lockdown, my first grumbly thought was, “Stop whining and pay your taxes!” Reading about the Whiskey Rebellion made me think of drunken MAGA types sloganeering at a Trump rally about the glory of firearms. (I do make a sentimental exception for revolutions set to music, especially when French.) Speaking of history, I can’t say I’d relish hollering alongside people who’ve only studied it on TikTok. But those of us who read about it in, say, books usually come to understand that even factual history is complicated, nuanced and full of boring and endless repetition.

Protests, those books remind us, can end poorly. In 2020, when people were posting black squares on Instagram to show their antiracist cred, I insisted that we watch “To Live” for family movie night. Zhang Yimou’s depiction of the Cultural Revolution provides a terrifying warning to those who think offering children a bullhorn is a good idea. Still, plenty of Boomers view protest through a nostalgic filter. Sure, there was some passionate shouting on the quad about wiping out Jews, they’ll say, but even the righteous antiwar movement had its Hanoi Janes and the Weather Underground. Is painting a Hamas symbol on a Jews’s door worse than settler-colonial oppression? But no matter the context and whether it comes from the right or the left, antisemitism is a bad look.

Maybe the protesters could use a moment of peace and reflection. A chance to take a deep breath and open their minds. Picture, if you will, a meditative room filled with floor pillows, breathwork exercises and a small but well-curated bookshelf in the corner. Perhaps now that we’ve gathered here all kumbaya-like, we can even offer a word for the people who look at the bawlers, the get-ups, the outrage and the zealotry and say to themselves, “No, thank you.” Here’s to the people who doth protest not

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the_dunk_tank

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It's the dunk tank.

This is where you come to post big-brained hot takes by chuds, libs, or even fellow leftists, and tear them to itty-bitty pieces with precision dunkstrikes.

Rule 1: All posts must include links to the subject matter, and no identifying information should be redacted.

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