Farm cop sees growth of agricultural crime in California's Central Valley

[cowcommander]

Source: LA Times

It's not even 11 a.m., and Jordan Whaley's dashboard radio has been crackling all morning with crimes newly committed: crops pilfered, gas siphoned, copper wire stolen. This latest call is one of the strangest so far. Thieves have taken 54 brass valves from the irrigation system on Ryan Hopper's orange farm. They've also stolen scrap metal from his tool shed and siphoned hundreds of gallons of gas from a diesel tank on his field.

The crime infuriates Hopper, costing him time and money just before the orange harvest. But it's just one more of the mysteries Whaley tackles on a daily basis. "It's never-ending," said Whaley, 26, who is himself a farmer. He's also a detective in the Tulare County Sheriff's Department agricultural crimes unit, tasked with catching the people who steal crops, tractors, chemicals and other farm equipment, and then turning the suspects over to the district attorney's office. Think of him as the law in "Law & Order," farm edition.

Four years of a soft economy have led to a rise in agricultural crime throughout the country. In Ohio thieves are taking tractor batteries. Texas and Oklahoma authorities say bandits are stealing more cattle. And in Ivanhoe, a small farm town of 4,000 near Visalia, they're taking farm equipment. American farmers and ranchers have been fending off thieves since the heyday of cattle rustling in the 19th century, but the duty of battling rural crime waves now falls to law enforcement. Tulare County sheriff's deputies investigated 105 agricultural crimes in the three months ended Sept. 30, up from 77 in the same period last year.

These crimes can deal a blow to California's economy: The state's oranges, melons, alfalfa and other crops are big business, generating $34 billion a year. But spread over 25 million acres, they are not easy to protect. "Farmers aren't like most businesses: Their property, produce and everything is out there in the open. They don't have a way to secure it in four walls," said Jody Cox, a detective sergeant in the Tulare County Sheriff's Department agricultural crimes unit.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ag-crimes-20101231,0,4458551.story

[tabatha]

1. Two Californias

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/255320/two-californias-victor-davis-hanson?page=1

[1776Forever]

3. You should do a post on that article - it is really riveting! Thanks for the link! n/t

[diane in sf]

4. The article is a major Republican screed for wrecking environmental legislation, etc.

Article: "I note these vast transformations over the last 20 years that are the paradoxical wages of unchecked illegal immigration from Mexico, a vast expansion of California’s entitlements and taxes, the flight of the upper middle class out of state, the deliberate effort not to tap natural resources, the downsizing in manufacturing and agriculture, and the departure of whites, blacks, and Asians from many of these small towns to more racially diverse and upscale areas of California. "

I disagree with the premises of the article. Changes like the horrible state of education, etc. are largely due to under taxation of the upper class and corporations, prop 13, and the willingness of corporations to hire as many illegals at substandard wages as they wish. Keeping fish alive and not drilling for oil do not even begin to cause the problems we're currently experiencing.

[Hannah Bell]

5. +100. Central Valley = one of the poorest parts of the US

Fresno, Calif. has the highest levels of concentrated poverty in the nation. In some neighborhoods, nearly half of all residents are living below the federal poverty line. Over the past year, many of those poor residents have slipped out of housing completely. Now shanty towns are springing up along the railroad tracks, an image that recalls shanty towns of a different era: the so-called Hoovervilles of the Great Depression. KALW's Thea Chroman reports.

http://sfpublicpress.org/news/2009-03/shanty-towns-rise-in-the-central-valley-as-poverty-levels-climb

[Le Taz Hot]

6. I like this comment:

"I don't like that you're making this out to be worse than it really is. The shantytown is roughly about 1 acre in size. Making overdramatized gestures such as this really only goes to hurt the image of Fresno as well as the confidence in consumer spending, which in turn affects our economy. Knock it off."

I would venture to guess EVERY town has shanty towns, particularly in this economy. Residents of other, larger California cities LOVE to make fun of Fresno -- often with their mouths full of Valley-grown produce, but I digress. From one side of their mouths they advocate cutting off the Valley's water, THAT WE PAID FOR, for environmental purposes yet, on the other side decry the plight of the poor farmers/farm workers -- never making a connection.

Fresno is also filled with wonderfully generous, giving people and we still carry the small town culture of helping one another. Please keep that in mind before you blanket bash the Central Valley.

[Hannah Bell]

7. i didn't blanket-bash the central valley. or fresno.

[Fumesucker]

2. These people don't need to steal..

It's like Jesus with the loaves and fishes.

"siphoned hundreds of gallons of gas from a diesel tank on his field."