A police SWAT team raided the home of the mayor in the Prince George's County town of Berwyn Heights on Tuesday, shooting and killing his two dogs, after he brought in a 32-pound package of marijuana that had been delivered to his doorstep, police said.
Yes, the house of the mayor. It gets worse:
The package was addressed to Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic, said law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
Tippett said police are working to determine for whom the drugs were meant.
Calvo said yesterday that he did not know how the drugs wound up on his doorstep. He works part time as the mayor and serves as director of expansion for the SEED Foundation, a well-known national nonprofit group that runs urban public boarding schools.
"My government blew through my doors and killed my dogs," Calvo said. "They thought we were drug dealers, and we were treated as such. I don't think they really ever considered that we weren't."
Calvo described a chaotic scene, in which he -- wearing only underwear and socks -- and his mother-in-law were handcuffed and interrogated for hours. They were surrounded by the dogs' carcasses and pools of the dogs' blood, Calvo said.
Spokesmen for the Sheriff's Office and Prince George's police expressed regret yesterday that the mayor's dogs were killed. But they defended the way the raid was carried out, saying it was proper for a case involving such a large amount of drugs.
Does anyone seriously think that the war on drugs is worth it? The dogs were Black Labs.
11 comments:
Street drugs are illegal so don't get snagged by that argument.
But why was the situation handled as guilty until proven innocent? And handled so violently when no one was resisting anything? What if the drugs were actually ordered by the daughter for the mother's, say, upcoming chemo?
Equal opportunity police state.
Insane.
There is no justification for drugs to be illegal. If we accept that people should have (mostly) free speech, we should accept that people should be free to put what they want in their bodies.
Whether it comes out of your mouth or goes in it should make no difference.
Someone at work told me this story today, but they said it was Montgomery County Police. I said to them, gee, sounds like something the PG county cops would do. This is not the first time I have heard about them shooting someone's dog. There was a story years ago about a women in PG county who called police because when she came home one night her door was cracked open and she thought there maybe someone inside. She waited for the cops to show up and when they did they entered her house and her Lab. PUPPY came running out of the house, let me say this again, it was a PUPPY, and ran around the side of the house where there was another cop looking around outside. When the puppy came around the corner, the cop shot and killed it. Needless to say this woman was devastated and the cop just acted like it was no big deal, that the dog, i mean PUPPY charged him. If I lived in PG county, I would be more scared of the Cops than the criminals.
PG County Cops have a terrible reputation for being overly brutal.
See here:
http://www.geocities.com/ericsquire/articles/dogs/mdao011210.htm
and here:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_6_33/ai_75434981
and here:
http://onoekeh.blogspot.com/2005/05/prince-georges-county-police-again.html
Anon 5:22,
This is obviously a policy that the entire police dept has adopted in PG county, preciptated likely by a real danger.
That information makes me angry with irresponsible dog owners rather than the over reaction by the police.
Owning animals is a huge responsibility, not just for food and vet bills but training and time spent with them.
Also, I don't understand how these stories got so buried. I read about it here and had to search news sites to find any mention.
I heard one of the dogs was RUNNING AWAY when they shot it. RUNNING AWAY!
I doubt that either dog was running away, they were probably defending their home and their humans (or more likely just trying to lick and sniff the intruders). That said, it is a sad day for America when a SWAT team can break down your door and shoot your dogs because someone sent you a package, the contents of which harm no one.
Actually, one of the dogs was running away. This is from the most recent story:
"Calvo has said that sheriff's deputies shot his 7-year-old dog, Payton, near the front door and then his 4-year-old dog, Chase, as the dog ran into a back room."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080103223_2.html?sid=ST2008080103916&pos=
I should have kept reading before posting.
The same story from above mentions that this was a "no-knock" raid. One wonders what the judge was thinking when he/she signed off on this type of warrant, which are usually only used when there is reason to believe the suspects are armed and dangerous.
I stand corrected. This is an unfortunate example of a gross and inhumane misuse of government power. Absolutely sickening.
The police in the U.S. is out of control!!! I cannot believe American citizens are letting the country turn into a fascist police state! Our cops have bad attitudes not to mention they are the most uneducted pieces of crap for cops in the first world! Maybe we have become 3rd world? I'm glad not to be living there anymore!!!
"Cops kill Mayor's Dogs". What a headline! I'm sure the Chinese will be laughing with this one, especially considering our making an issue out of THEIR civil rights violations! We just burst in on a couple and shoot their dogs. I guess they should feel lucky they are still alive! All too often American police raids end with innocent people being gunned down or, if their luck, just being beaten! Who do we think we are going around making an issue out of other countries' civil rights abuses?! We are one of the worst civil rights violators and probably the worst simply because we're such hypocrits about it! We pretent to live in a little gingerbread house when in reality most Americans are simply living in American's version of the gulag--suburbia--where are lives are monitored and regulated and where enough fear is pumped into our world to ensure that we will be quiet, subservient little robots. Screw you! I don't live in the usa anymore and am happy about it. I don't even want to visit. Believe it or not guys, there are freer countries in which to live!
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