Glad to see this story is getting more exposure:
A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme.
“This has been a difficult week and a half for us,” Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, said Thursday. “We lost our family dogs. We did it at the hands of sheriff’s deputies who burst through our front door, rifles blazing.”
The raid last week was led by the Prince George’s County Police Department, with the sheriff’s special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo’s home.
Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.
It is probably too much to hope that this will change anything. At the very least, some bad cops will get fired or demoted.
Pb
OT: Stay classy, Red State!
Krista
I’d be screaming bloody murder and doing everything I could to ruin those cops. Shooting a dog that’s running away from you — what kind of scum does that? If anybody shot a dog of mine, I’d have to be restrained from killing them with my bare hands.
And his poor mother-in-law — she was right there when it happened. Poor lady will probably be traumatized for life.
Punchy
Legal question — since the bust was determined to be w/o the proper warrant, can the cops be sued for property damage and emotional distress?
Or are they immune, as a gov’t entity?
calipygian
Final Essay Question (100pts): How would the dynamics of the story change if the mayor and his wife were black? Would this even be on CNN?
Tom
I see that the same news site is reporting that the FBI has opened an investigation.
I would also recommend to anyone interested in this kind of thing (i.e. reckless military-style police raids), Radley Balko’s excellent blogging in this area at the righty site Reason.
In my town of Minneapolis, recently some police got medals after shooting their way into an innocent family’s house.
D. Mason
Hopefully the gangsters will end up in a cell with someone they fucked over to get a promotion.
Edmund Dantes
Demoted or fired John? LOLLOL… hold on… LOLLOLLOLLOL… give me a sec to contain myself… LOLLOLLOLLOL
Most likely they’ll get Medals or haven’t you been paying attention to the saga of the Khang family?
Balko at The Agitator has more and more of these stories. I used to give cops the benefit of the doubt, but now I see how much the blue wall of silence contributes to bad cops getting away with shit so none of them get that from me anymore.
Fledermaus
Screw demotion. Lock the fuckers up.
pto892
It’s PG County. Take this from a former resident-nothing bad will happen to the cops involved. The county will stonewall on cooperating with any investigation and fight any lawsuit to an end with a nondisclosure clause coupled with an unpublished out of court settlement. In the meantime they’ll try to leak damaging information to the media concerning the victims, and imply that they somehow brought this upon themselves. They’ve already tried to do just that by claiming that the no knock raid was justified because one of the victims screamed when she saw the cops. Yes-seeing heavily armed men rushing at your house should NOT be a cause for alarm, citizens.
It’s more than the blue wall of silence. Shooting the dogs is not a bug, it’s a feature. They want to intimidate the people being raided.
Face
Well, if they were Black, clearly they’d be guilty, so it’s totally different.
Paul L.
Balko at The Agitator points out that the Minneapolis Mayor backed away from the medals.
He blames the “process”.
The Other Steve
I was going to say, usually they give police medals for this.
Brachiator
You really have to wonder how these guys got a badge in the first place. The story just keeps getting more infuriating as more details and background information emerge (Police raid Md. mayor’s home and kill his dogs)
Original Lee
The mayor has now filed a civil suit against the county, according to the noon broadcast.
As a current resident, I may say that my neighbors, regardless of skin color, immigration status, or ethnic background, are all VERY upset by this. We’ve been complaining for years (even the neighbors who are police officers themselves are complaining), but it doesn’t get very far. Part of the problem is that there are other, more prestigious and better-paid police jobs around here, so our police tend to be the ones who aren’t hired anywhere else. I’m not claiming that every police officer in PG is a total moron or jack-booted authority freak, because I know a few who are very professional and CHOSE to work for the county, but the good ones are also frequently depressed and gloomy unless they are buried in their work.
Catsy
Regarding the RedState Cafe Press store, I reported it to CP as a violation of their Content Usage Policy, which prohibits “defamatory” and “hate” content. Alleging that Obama is the Anti-Christ and smearing him with the debunked Hamas association is a pretty open and shut violation.
They should not be making money off their libelous embrace of some of the worst humanity has to offer.
Badtux
Some cops getting fired is the *most* that will happen. Just like at Abu Ghraib, where a few “bad apples” got fired, even though you and I both know that a bunch of chicken pluckers and hog slaughterers from West Virginia didn’t come up with the notion of sexually sodomizing those Iraqi prisoners. The people in charge, the people responsible for setting up a climate of corruption and brutality, will never pay, only the “few bad apples” ever will. And I doubt that even the “few bad apples” firings will happen. PGC has been infamous for *years* for police brutality and corruption, and despite lawsuit after lawsuit, nothing ever changes. Nothing short of firing every single police officer from top to bottom from the chief of police on down and starting over from scratch will fix this situation, it is part of a general institutional culture of police brutality and corruption that has led to PGC cops beating false confessions out of prisoners, prisoners mysteriously dying in custody after developing a bad case of the bruises consistent with being badly beaten, PGC cops refusing to allow someone in their interrogation rooms to see that person’s lawyer even when the person is demanding their lawyer and their lawyer is out in the lobby demanding to see their client, and so forth. PGC cops regularly and viciously violate people’s rights, and this has been true for years, and nothing — **NOTHING** — has ever been done about it.
Some folks say we need a revolution to get rid of these police state thugs. Sad to say, the majority of Americans *want* to live in a police state. Because, see, in a police state, the streets are clean and orderly. So, just as Iraqis embraced Saddam because he kept the streets safe, the people of PGC re-elect every year councilmen and officials who embrace and continue this situation of police thuggery. Americans want a police state here in America, because, apparently, democracy is too much work. Our founding fathers gave us a republic, and we piss on its grave every day.
– Badtux the Democracy Penguin
J. Michael Neal
Minneapolis cops? Behaving badly? I’m shocked!
The Minneapolis police are, without a doubt, the least professional, most vicious police I have ever dealt with. They enjoy all sorts of petty harassment of people.
I used to run parking lots downtown, originally on the weekend night shift. About 11:30 one Friday night, just as the bar rush where we made a lot of our money was getting started, a gang of them made a bust right at the entrance to one of the lots. In doing so, they blocked the entrance. Fine. They were making an arrest. Once it was over, though, one of the cars continued to block the entrance for an hour while they waited for a tow truck to take away the arrestee’s car. I asked them if they could back their cruiser up fifteen feet, into an empty spot along the curb, so that our customers could get in.
I got a lecture that it was vital to public safety that they continue to park as close to the vehicle they were waiting to have towed as possible.
That isn’t the worst case of misbehavior on their part I’ve witnessed (not close to the top five), but it was the most pointless Fuck You Just Because I Can moment I’ve ever seen from them.
As long as I’m evaluating police departments, though, I should mention that I’ve had nothing but good experiences with Minnesota state troopers.
Don
My initial reaction was “yay” but it took about .8 seconds after that for me to think “wait, WHO are they asking to look into allegations of ham-handed and overly violent raids?”
Maybe they’ll issue a report condemning PG’s goons for not setting something on fire after they shot the dogs.
EJ
Yeah, Minnesota State Troopers are OK in my book. I visit MN a lot because I’ve got family up on the iron range, and been pulled over for speeding twice (why does everyone in Minnesota drive so damn slow? I’ve never been pulled over once in LA, because driving at 80 mph you just blend in). Although I couldn’t talk my way out of either ticket, they were amazingly polite, low-key cops.
Once while I was getting gas I watched a state trooper pull over a car full of ne’er do wells who were giving him all manner of attitude and surly behavior. This cop just patiently took all the abuse until he finally got the guy he was after in cuffs and in his car. I don’t think he even called for backup. I was flabbergasted – even the nicest, most cordial LAPD or CHP cop wouldn’t have taken 10% of the abuse this guy did before having the suspect face down on the pavement with a boot on his neck.