Texas State Tried To Shut Down A Sustainable Community

Collective Evolution, Joe Martino, December 18, 2013

Texas state brought several SWAT teams to the quiet and peaceful Garden of Eden Community and threatened its existence. In what appears to be an intimidation tactic, only a single arrest was made based on unrelated outstanding traffic violations, and a handful of citations were given for city code violations. Absolutely no drug related violations were found and all inhabitants of the community were unarmed.

Each of the community members present in the house were initially handcuffed at gunpoint by heavily armed SWAT officers. This included the mother of a 22 month old and a two week old baby. As part of the raid many of the crops were destroyed by officers, this included wild and cultivated plants such as blackberries, lamb’s quarters and okra. Officers also proceeded to remove a variety of materials the community had planned to use in sustainability projects like pallets, tires, cardboard and more.

The Garden of Eden Community is a sustainable community geared towards living a ‘high vibing’ lifestyle outside of the confines of how the average person would live. The community believes in coming together to produce the basic necessities of life and they support each other through each step. They grow their own food, live peacefully and since 2009 they have been providing food, shelter and sustainability education classes and workshops to the public for free. 

“The Garden of Eden is a New Paradigm EcoVillage located in Arlington, Texas. Here, we live freely, abundantly, and easily. Our purpose is to share with the world the living reality of A Sustainable Community so that others may open to embrace LIVING LIFE FULLY, in THRIVAL.” – The Garden of Eden community

Land owner Shellie Smith is looking for a peaceful and honorable resolution to the matter. She states “The City codes are in violation of our natural and Constitutional rights to live freely while causing damage to no one, and since there is no damaged party, there has been no crime committed on our part. Rather, the City of Arlington has trespassed and committed robbery against us, amongst other crimes, and will be held accountable in a court of law in due time. We have been targeted by the system because we are showing people how to live without it. We are growing more than just tomatoes here, we are growing the consciousness that will allow people to live freely and sustainably, and the system doesn’t want that to be known.”

In the video Luke Rudkowski travels to Dallas Texas to visit Quinn Eaker of the Garden of Eden community. Quinn shares the overall mission of the Garden of Eden community and also speaks about the pressure the state of Texas has brought upon the community by intimidating, fining, and threatening the existence of their community. All this after the community began making their existence more public and teaching others how to do what they do.