California congressman bulldozes Asian-run pot greenhouses, quotes ‘Apocalypse Now’

In May, a Northern California sheriff’s office asked on Facebook for volunteers to help bulldoze the marijuana greenhouses that have recently popped up by the hundreds on private property in one small area of the remote county.

Less than a week later, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office got an unlikely volunteer: The local congressman

On Wednesday, the office of U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa released a series of YouTube videos that feature the Richvale Republican touring the grow sites, speaking with local officials and climbing into the cab of a yellow bulldozer before he tears down greenhouses during a sheriff’s office operation as part of a court-ordered abatement.

“I love the smell of diesel power in the afternoon. It smells like victory,” LaMalfa says in one video clip, riffing on the line from the Vietnam War epic, “Apocalypse Now,” before breaking into a grin.

LaMalfa’s office said the congressman wanted to release the footage to highlight the environmental problems, squalid living conditions, human trafficking and organized crime that the illegal cannabis growers have brought to Siskiyou County.

But advocates for the Siskiyou County growers, who are of predominately Hmong and Chinese descent, said the congressman’s videos couldn’t have come at a worse time.

“It sounds like a divisive message that’s likely to inflame the tensions instead of making them better,” said J. Raza Lawrence, one of the attorneys for the Hmong growers, many of whom are descendants of those who fought on America’s behalf during the Vietnam War.

Local authorities have passed ordinances that prohibit water trucks delivering to the grow sites, many of which lack running water or sewage service. The sheriff has warned those who deliver soil and other supplies to the grow sites that they could be charged with “aiding and abetting” a criminal enterprise.

The growers also have accused firefighters of refusing to fight the Lava Fire after it burned into the area, torching several of their properties in the Big Springs area. Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue said the firefighters held back because the growers blocked roads, threw rocks at firefighters and threatened them, forcing Cal Fire to retreat from the area

During the fire, officers also fatally shot a 35-year-old Hmong man from Kansas, Hawj Soobleej Kaub, near a checkpoint at the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision after they say he pointed and fired a gun at them. The investigation into the shooting remains underway.

Lawyers for the growers have been seeking a restraining order and injunction against the county to stop it from enforcing an ordinance requiring permits to bring in water, and they filed new documents in federal court last week in Sacramento claiming some farmers are unable to get water for their food crops or take showers because of the ordinance.

A hearing is scheduled for early next month.

Large pot grows throughout far Northern California

Local authorities estimate there are as many as 5,000 to 6,000 greenhouses growing pot in the Big Springs area alone. Almost all of the greenhouses have shown up within the last three years. As many as 4,000 to 8,000 people may be tending them.

Proposition 64, approved in 2016, allows local governments to ban commercial cannabis operations if they choose. Some conservative rural counties, like Siskiyou, have chosen not to allow any commercial cannabis operations. Siskiyou limits the number of pot plants on a property to 12. It has banned outdoor grows.

In the bulldozer video, LaMalfa praised Siskiyou County officials for taking a stand against what he called the “cartels” behind the grow sites.

“Despite the endless flow of cash to their lawyers, the county’s prevailed so far and stopped water and materials from feeding even more of these cartels’ grows,” he said in the video.

“Counties around California and the country can learn from the example that Siskiyou County has shown against these criminals. They know I will be here to help and stand with them either with a bulldozer or in the halls of Congress.”

The video concludes with him stepping out of the dozer’s cab and flexing his arms in celebration.

As a rice farmer from Butte County, LaMalfa has experience driving heavy equipment, though his political career often takes him away from his family farm. He was elected to congress in 2013, after serving stints in the California Assembly and Senate.

He’s one of the most staunchly conservative members of Congress, joining the group of Republicans who voted against certifying Joe Biden as president following the mob of Trump supporters attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 4:20 PM.