The War Proceeds Apace
Jul 31st, 2008 at 12:30 pm by Chris
Another stunning success in our ongoing war on civil rights and basic human dignity drugs.
“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.
Sgt. Mario Ellis, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said the deputies who entered Calvo’s home “apparently felt threatened” by the dogs.
“We’re not in the habit of going to homes and shooting peoples’ dogs,” Ellis said. “If we were, there would be a lot more dead dogs around the county.”
I imagine that there are actually quite a number of “dead dogs around the county.” You just won’t be hearing about them because they didn’t happen to live in a local politician’s home when they were executed by the SWAT team.
“We’re not in the habit of going to homes and shooting peoples’ dogs,” Ellis said. “If we were, there would be a lot more dead dogs around the county.”
Wow, if that’s not a threat, then nothing is.
Outrageous. The full story includes this interesting tidbit:
“… [the mayor] brought in a 32-pound package of marijuana that had been delivered to his doorstep, police said.
***
“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.
The interesting thing is that the SCOTUS decided that cops don’t have to knock anymore when serving warrants: this is the inevitable result of that decision.
But you know what another inevitable result is going to be? In states like Texas, Florida, and Virgina, which have “castle laws” that declare that a homeowner can shoot first and ask questions later when he/she thinks the house is being broken into, cops are going to find themselves shot as well.
It’s disgusting behavior on the part of the police.
Not to be cynical or anything, but the facts that (1) They raided the house of a an upper-middle-class white man, and (2) that he is the mayor, MEANS that the used excessive force.
It would not be considered excessive force if done against a poor person or someone of color.
I predict that the PG County sheriff will have either a finding that (1) A “rogue” officer behaved improperly, and will be put on administrative leave with pay, or (2) Someone from the sheriff’s office (maybe the sheriff himself) will resign “to pursue other interests” — such as in private security.
This is the way the world works. Even in Bush’s America in 2008.
It would not be considered excessive force if done against a poor person or someone of color.
Sadly, that’s very true. The Mayor’s quote “They thought we were drug dealers, and we were treated as such.” certainly gives the impression that he feels that excessive force is warranted and expected in most cases, just not his. I would have gotten into that, but I didn’t have the time.
Wouldn’t be considered outrageous by whom?
actually,
there have been a lot of cases like this recently and surprisingly the cops have got fucked for doing the same thing to poor people.
Atlanta just had a case where they did this to a poor old black lady and shot her.
Of course, it doesn’t make the news right away, but justice was done eventually.
I wonder if it will come out that the wife in MD really was dealing?
I was always told that when one gets a special “present” in the mail one always needs to bring it in and let it sit unopened for a day or two so one can plead ignorance if the piggies come marching in…