Four Innocent Victims; Two Dead

Shaun should have posted text to flesh out this story, because this is a VERY important issue IMHO.

There is an insane "War on Drugs" hysteria in America, where police feel entitled to violate basic rights in their determination to arrest peddlers of weed etc.

One characteristic of many of these illegal raids: the cops shoot dogs!

There is a lot of outrage about this issue on the Net, and I have been following these stories for a while. I have come to conclude that the cops are pumped up during these raids, and want to shoot someone (sometimes they shoot children) . . . so often they will go out of their way and kill dogs who are no threat whatsoever, as in this case.

In one raid I know of, the cops walked through neighboring yards and shot the neighbor's dog for good measure.

In this case in particular, the dogs were no threat to the police officers. They actually chased down and shot one of the dogs who was running away to escape. Then they terrorized the mayor and his family . . . tracked dog blood all over the house. . . and left.

Yes, just left . . .
No arrest. No apology. And no F***ing NO-KNOCK warrant to begin with. (They subsequently publicly lied about this!)

Where is the outrage on the Left about this? Folks lather themselves up in a rage about the threat to liberties in waterboarding one or two AQ . . . here we have TOTALLY ILLEGAL outrages occuring to law-abiding American citizens on a DAILY BASIS by the very police officers who supposedly protect them.

Dogs deserve better. They are innocents, who don't understand what is happening. The cops in this case should be stripped of their badges and prosecuted.

Perhaps more importantly, these cases symbolize the REAL THREAT to Americans constitutional rights that is occuring under their very noses. Why do America's "War on ______" often seem to "justify" unconstitutional actions?

This is an excellent post, Shaun, on a VERY important issue.

I wonder how much of this story is affect by the humans being white and articulate and the dogs being black labradors. If there is antthing SWPL it is black labradors.

I wrote a post about this outrageous event on my blog a few days ago. Note that the sheriff's department didn't call in the Feds or notify the local police department. Apparently they also didn't even bother to do one shred of research on who might live in the house. Why? My take on it is very simple. They were so anxious to make what they thought would be a huge bust by themselves because of the perverse financial incentives that law enforcement agencies have because of our bizarre seizure "laws" when it comes to drugs. If you don't tell the local cops (And thereby learn that you're about to break down the door of the mayor's house.) then you don't have to split the money with them. I love animals, especially dogs, and my vocabulary fails me when it comes to adequately expressing how angry this whole thing makes me. And no, SD, when I wrote my blog entry I actually had absolutely no idea what color the people involved were.

I did not flesh out the story because I wanted to provoke some discussion. So far so good.

I default to the police in many instances because they've got a tough and dangerous job to do.

But absent some explanation that is not yet forthcoming, the perps in this instance should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and be grateful if they are fortunate enough to find work over a deep fat fryers at a donut shop.

Mistakes happen, but this was not a mistake, and incidents like this occur with a shocking frequency.

Marlowecan--

You might find Radley Balko's blog worth reading.

I barely trust myself to comment on this. The mindset that allows it to occur is UNAmerican to the core and is indefensible. Sometimes I really understand those who choose to isolate themselves, stock up on weapons, and dig moats....... oh, and collect dogs.

The amount of damage being done with no-knock raids, primarily during drug cases, but for others as well, is a national problem.

The militarization of police forces is to blame, along with a new attitude among law enforcement that all arrests by definition are high-risk events, requiring overwhelming force, despite ample evidence against that theory.

We now have the police acting more like gangland thugs of the thirties, but with no need to worry about legal accountability, except in the most rare of cases.

AR:

Amen.

Komrad Marlow,
Libby at Newshoggers posts about these raids and the "War on Some Drugs" all the time from the Liberal perspective. Seems Memorandum isn't worried about this:
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&...
Your search - Cheye Calvo site:http://www.memeorandum.com/ - did not match any documents.

Now the interest in Edwards "love child" is another story.
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,540 from www.memeorandum.com for Edwards love child. (0.26 seconds)

You can thank the Pat Riot act and the MCA for that.


If they were yappy terriers or pocket-poofs ( which are more likely to bite first ) they would not have been killed. Statistically, black and dark colored dogs are less likely to be adopted from shelters- yet here's the irony- most breeds of dark-coated dogs ( shepherds, Rottweilers, Collies, Labradors) are smarter than the yappy pocketbook variety.
I guess the shoot em first fill out paperwork later school of Police work applies here.
The guy was a public official and they go in guns blazing! WTF?

I'm not sure if I believe my eyes, it seems there may be a consensus here uneffected by ideology! Zounds!!!

I’m confused as to what everyone is saying.

Is this a condemnation of police in general? Is the point that black democrats shouldn’t be police chiefs?

Do the police resent black dogs because they’re smarter than white dogs?

My head hurts. I’m going to lay down for awhile.

Yes, Shaun, you have provoked discussion.

GeorgeSorwell and Rudi, thanks for the links.

JSpencer: "I'm not sure if I believe my eyes, it seems there may be a consensus here uneffected by ideology! Zounds!!!"

Yes, it is amazing. Partly, because the dogs are powerful symbols. But partly because this can happen to anyone . . . anytime . . . .

AustinRoth is very right, in noting: "The militarization of police forces . . . with a new attitude among law enforcement that all arrests by definition are high-risk events, requiring overwhelming force".

Innocent people are often shot, and sometimes killed, in these raids.

This case is illustrative of a profound threat to American's constitutional rights, by their own law enforcement. FISA? Pshaw... What is listening to overseas phone calls in comparison with heavily armed police smashing into your house...shooting guns off everywhere, killing pets...and terrorizing you WITHOUT a legitimate warrant.

Worse, look at the changing story of the police involved:
At first they claimed there was a No-Knock warrant. Now they claim there are no No Knock warrants in Maryland, and that the decision to enter was made by the operational team on a standard search warrant.

Hmmm...but standard search warrants don't authorize bursting in w/o warning. SCOTUS has broadened the acceptable criteria on this recently, I recall . . . but this looks very bad.

Clearly the police are in full lockdown on their version of this story. They know a PR nightmare when they see one, and have lawyers covering liability where possible.

I hope the Mayor is not restrained from his intent to pursue this further!

RememberNovember says: "The guy was a public official and they go in guns blazing! WTF?"

The cops didn't know he was the Mayor and could cause them trouble. I am sure things would have been different had they known.

Thus, I suppose I should realistically qualify my comment:
"This can happen to anyone . . . anytime . . . who lacks significant political or other power."

Actually, Remember, from my following stories of cops gunning down dogs in these incidents . . . it is clear that the police have no prejudice or bias regarding breed or color whatsoever . . . if it is a dog - even in the backyard and no threat - it dies horribly.

Bastards.

IMHO Americans rights are threatened everyday by the "War on _____". Insert whatever in the blank you choose. It seems to be a Blank Cheque.

I'd like to jump back in and reinforce something very important: I believe that most police officers are decent people and until one walks in their shoes they cannot fully understand how emotionally, physically and mentally demanding their jobs can be. With the spread of what was considered big-city crime to the 'burbs and beyond, this metric is now true of cops pretty much everywhere.

Two of my best and oldest friends are cops, one a NYPD narcotics officer and the other a small-town cop.

But as Bridget notes in her post above and some of us have alluded to, the perverted social bifurcation over drugs in this country has caused incalculable harm. Viagra good, marijuana bad. Sedatives good, marijuana bad. And so on and so forth.

Until we as a society can accept casual marijuana use (as well as medical marijuana use) as a not bad thing, the slaughter will continue. By the way, I don't expect that to happen anytime soon -- certainly not in my lifetime.

By the way, both my cop friends vehemently disagree with marijuana policy in this country because they understand how relatively harmless it is.

BTW, it was 5 victims. don't forget the mayor's mother-in-law. According to what I've read that poor woman was cuffed and left lying on the floor next to the pool of blood and dead body of one of the dogs while the buffoons of the Prince George's County Sheriff's Department interrogated her.

I don't give a rats a$$ about the dead dogs. What if the couples children were shot? How many nuance dogs are killed in shelters everyday? Is there the same outrage for these stories, all from the Agitator:
http://www.theagitator.com/category/general-dru...
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/08/officer...
http://www.theagitator.com/2008/07/14/cleveland...
http://www.theagitator.com/2008/07/09/another-i...
http://www.theagitator.com/2008/06/30/what-happ...
http://www.theagitator.com/category/drug-inform...
http://www.theagitator.com/2007/05/04/atlanta-p...
http://www.theagitator.com/category/cory-maye/

Poor white or black, killed in raids or sent to prison for protecting home during police raid.

Son of white judge charged with multiple counts of trafficking serious drugs - traetment in Mississippi.
http://www.theagitator.com/2008/06/30/what-happ...
http://nallforgovernor.blogspot.com/2008/06/som...

Some Drug Traffickers Are More Equal Than Others
Published at Capital City Free Press

Do you ever wonder if the justice system in Alabama is fair? Ever questioned whether justice here is indeed blind? Is it important to you that everyone be treated equal under the law?

I believe most citizen's have asked themselves those questions at one time or another. Warning: If you are one of the citizen's who is convinced that we have a fair, neutral and blind justice system in this state and that everyone is treated the same according to the law then you probably shouldn't read any further. I take no responsibility for any meltdown you might have as a result of being exposed to the truth.

On March 1, 2008 John Alexander Rochester, son of 40th Circuit Court Judge John Rochester, was arrested at the Ashland City Park in Ashland, AL for trafficking of meth, first degree possession of marijuana, trafficking cocaine, possession of paraphernalia, distribution of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance. I immediately began following the case.

Actually, 'following' the case is not the right term. Reporting the case is much more like it, since no other media outlet in the state has deemed it newsworthy to report the arrest of a judge's son for drug trafficking and the special treatment he is receiving from the court system. Yet, every other regular Jim Bob or Mary Jane that has been arrested for the same or similar offenses has had their name and alleged crimes reported in their hometown papers and on the 5 O'Clock News.
...

Prince Georges County Maryland has a long and very checkered past, especially on police related issues. This is the same police department facing investigation for strangling a suspect in custody accused of killing a police officer in the last couple months

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,374362,00.html

Racially tinged police brutality has been a complaint regarding this department for decades. The county executive steered tons of major contracts on a big riverfront hotel and related development to his cronies. Serious ugliness there that outweighs the admittedly awful and unnecessary shooting of the two dogs.

Gichin13 is absolutely correct.

Prince Georges County has a history of racist behavior, as evidenced by the 75% vote against Michael Steele in the ’06 election.

The county is a hotbed of corruption, cronyism and mismanagement.

Of course, John Kerry carried the county with 80% of the vote in ’04. About the only county that voted more democrat is Wayne County (Detroit). I’ll have to check how the mayor is doing there (as soon as he gets out of jail).

jwest - the no-knock raid problem is absolutely a non-partisan problem. There is no correlation between Democratic or Republican leaning strongholds and where these tragedies are occurring. There isn't even a correlation to corruption. It is systemic problem infecting just about every police force.

As Shaun said, most police officers are good people, especially when you consider them individually. But even a lot of the good ones get caught up the the para-military aspects of modern SWAT-style operations.

I have been following the increasing number of these cases for the past 5 - 6 years. I am hoping the circumstances of this might help shed light on the problem, but it is unlikely. In the end, no one want to either come across as soft on drugs and crimes, or put themselves in a position to be blamed on the rare occasions that officers do come under deadly fire in what was an otherwise routine-looking situation.

AR,

I was following the Bush doctrine of preemptive strikes.

Shaun was sure to tie this to Dick Cheney at some point – especially since innocent animals were shot.

Thanks AR for pointing out the non-partisan nature of this problem to those who struggle so mightily to maintain objectivity. ;-)

jwest, stop proving to us you're just a troll. As AR and other said, this is a NON-partisan issue. The militarization of our police forces is a cause for concern no matter what your political leanings are.

A case could be made this issue is getting worse post Patriot Act, but it was occurring before, so it's not true that it was the cause. The fact that the SCOTUS is largely ignoring these types of issues takes some of our constitutional rights away every time it occurs.

Rudi, the outrage isn't totally about the dogs. It's the lack of a "no knock" warrant yet they still do it. Yes, I'm upset that they shot the dogs, especially if true the dogs weren't a threat.

I too hope the Mayor takes this case all the way.

Rambie - I don't even agree with no-knock warrants in most cases, unless solid evidence, not just a suspicion, of heightened danger and likelihood of armed resistance can be demonstrated.

And there is another issue that did not occur (thankfully) in this case, but has in many others - homeowners, unaware that they are being 'served' by a police force, killing an officer in self-defense, then facing life or even the death penalty for killing an office in the line of duty.

Good point AR. If I am rudely woken from my sleep by my dog going nuts (which is exactly what she would do) and the sound of a door breaking down, the first thing I am going to do is reach for a very conveniently placed firearm in order to protect my home from what I will have to assume is a criminal.

"CIvil asset forfeiture laws," J-Sat. A.k.a. plunder or simple outright theft.

They're more greedy than the IRS.

At least you're not one of the lefties who assume by my criticizing civil asset forfeiture I'm not by default someone who values Property Over People, which is horseshit.

"perverted social bifurcation"

You have to understand that it is impossible and silly to expect all drugs, including heroin, for example, to be treated the same and fully legal to possess and to use.