....but how often do we hear of really dumb cops?

Shoot First, Ask Later
In Prince George's, a drug bust goes awry.

Thursday, August 7, 2008; A20

THE DRUG raid by Prince George's County law officers on the home of
Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo last week was a Keystone Kops operation
from start to finish.

Acting on a tip that a 32-pound package of marijuana had been sent by
Federal Express from Arizona to Mr. Calvo's home (addressed to his wife,
Trinity Tomsic), Prince George's police swung into action. Which is to
say they got on the phone, calling law enforcement agencies to see who
might have a SWAT team available to bust the unsuspecting Calvo family.
(It seems the police department's own team was tied up.) After being
turned down at least once, they finally struck a deal with the Prince
George's Sheriff's Office, whose track record with domestic disputes is
extensive but whose experience with drug busts is slight. And it showed.

Without bothering to alert Berwyn Heights police, sheriff's deputies
moved into position. Posing as a deliveryman, a deputy took the package
to the family's door. After Mr. Calvo's mother-in-law initially refused
to sign for it, the package was finally taken into the home, where it
sat, unopened, on the living room floor. Whereupon the deputies, guns
drawn, kicked in the door, stormed the house and shot to death the
Calvos' two Labrador retrievers, one of them, apparently, as it
attempted to flee. The canine threat thus dispatched, the mayor -- in
his briefs -- and his mother-in-law were handcuffed and interrogated in
close proximity to the bloodied corpses of their dogs.

Within an hour, it seems, the police concluded that something was
seriously wrong and that there was at least a strong possibility that
the Calvos -- whose home contained not the slightest evidence of
involvement in the drug trade -- were unsuspecting victims. The deputies
left without making arrests. And yesterday, county police announced the
arrest of a deliveryman and another person suspected in a scheme to
smuggle hundreds of pounds of marijuana by shipping packages addressed
to unsuspecting recipients such as the Calvos.

The Post's Rosalind S. Helderman has reported that when deputies stormed
the Calvo household, they didn't even have a no-knock search warrant,
the tool specifically designated under Maryland law to deal with
searches that police do not wish to announce because they could be
dangerous. They had plain vanilla warrants to enter the house and seize
the package. In other words, they should have knocked.

Law enforcement officers are justifiably cautious during drug busts,
knowing that traffickers frequently are armed and dangerous. In this
case, even a cursory investigation prior to the raid might have given
the authorities pause about kicking in the door and entering with guns
blazing. The sheriff, Michael Jackson, seems embarrassed by the whole
episode. He should be.

- - - - - - - - - -


Sometimes I think we should just let the police handle traffic duties,
and hire entirely different people to investigate serious crimes. As far
as safety and protection go, you're on your own and always have been.

...

On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:46:51 -0400, hk wrote:

"Illegal" drugs should be sold on the open market. That would get rid
of the criminal dealers. Users get the drugs anyway. Maybe with much
cheaper drugs the users wouldn't have to do crimes to pay for them.
The DEA and other drug law enforcement guys should be enforcing
boating speed and no-wake laws.

--Vic

On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:27:40 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

The DEA and other drug law enforcement guys should be enforcing
boating speed and no-wake laws.

Or better yet, working for a living.

Casady

wrote:
On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:46:51 -0400, hk wrote:

...but how often do we hear of really dumb cops?


Far too often. The whole "SWAT team" concept is out of control. If
they had some kind of evidence that the mayor's wife was a violent
criminal that warrants machine gun toting thugs to take her down there
are other ways to deal with it.
This is Waco and Elian Gonzolez all over again. ... but Reno was an
old drug warrior too.
In real life, even if it was her pot, they probably lose the case
because she didn't sign for it. The best they could hope for is to
bust mom.

What ever happened to cops in real police uniforms, not masked storm
troopers in Rambo costumes and ninja suits?


FBI to Review Raid That Killed Mayor's Dogs

By Rosalind S. Helderman and Aaron C. Davis
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 8, 2008; B01

The FBI has launched a review of the violent law enforcement raid of the
home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo in Prince George's County last
week that resulted in the deaths of the family's two dogs.

The agency has begun "reviewing the events that occurred at Mr. Calvo's
residence," said Richard J. Wolf, spokesman for the FBI in Baltimore,
which has jurisdiction over federal civil rights investigations in Maryland.

The FBI announcement came in response to a call yesterday by Calvo and
his wife, Trinity Tomsic, for such a probe. Calvo and Tomsic suggested a
systemic problem might exist in county law enforcement.

"We have witnessed a frightening law enforcement culture in which the
law is disregarded, the rights of innocent occupants are ignored and the
rights of innocent animals mean nothing," Calvo said, surrounded by
county elected leaders and friends on the front lawn of his house. "A
shadow was cast over our good names. We were harmed by the very people
who took an oath to protect us."

June White Dillard, president of the NAACP's local chapter, also called
for a thorough investigation and said Calvo experienced police action
familiar to many young black men in the county.

County police said they would cooperate with the FBI review. "We've
tried to establish a pattern of transparency and clarity about the way
in which we do our work, and I'm sure the chief will be cooperative and
forthcoming in any investigation," Prince George's police spokeswoman
Sharon Taylor said yesterday.

Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Mario Ellis said the department had
not been informed of the FBI's plans. "If they deem it necessary to do
that, we welcome it," Ellis said, adding that the department has also
begun the standard review it conducts any time a deputy fires a weapon.

The Prince George's Sheriff's Office SWAT team and county narcotics
officers raided the home after Calvo brought in a 32-pound
marijuana-filled package addressed to his wife. They tied up Tomsic's
mother and Calvo, and they interrogated the mayor for hours.

On Wednesday, police announced they had arrested a package deliveryman
and another man in connection with a scheme to smuggle marijuana by
intercepting packages addressed to unsuspecting recipients.

Police Chief Melvin C. High said that Calvo and his wife were probably
innocent victims of the conspiracy but that the case remained under
investigation. He and Sheriff Michael Jackson defended the actions of
deputies and officers who carried out the raid.

FBI reviews precede investigations and are used to determine if law
enforcement agencies followed procedures. The agents will likely look at
both the forceful entry of the mayor's home by sheriff's deputies and
the narcotics investigation by county police that led to the search,
legal experts said.

They will examine "what information did the police have about the
residence at the time they went there, what justification did they have
to enter under those circumstances," said Jim Sotos, a lawyer who has
written about evolving search and seizure law.

Sotos said they will also probably review other search warrants served
by the sheriff's office and county police in recent years.

An attorney came forward yesterday to allege a possible pattern of
animal abuse by the sheriff's department. Michael Winkleman said he is
representing another family whose dog was shot by sheriff's deputies in
November, along with a woman who is suing the department for searching
her home without a warrant and threatening to shoot her dog.

In the first case, Winkleman said, sheriff's deputies arrived at the
Accokeek home of Frank and Pamela Myers with a warrant for another house
on their street. After the couple informed the deputies of their error,
they continued to question the couple and looked around their home.

As they spoke, the couple's 5-year-old German boxer began barking in a
yard, out of sight. Soon after, according to Winkleman, the couple heard
gunshots, and they found the dog shot to death. He said the family is
preparing to file suit.

In another case, Upper Marlboro resident Amber James has filed a $4
million lawsuit accusing sheriff's deputies of searching her home
without a warrant in May 2007 while looking for her sister, who lived in
Capitol Heights. According to the suit, deputies falsely claimed to have
a warrant and searched every room of the home. When they did not find
the sister, the suit alleges, they threatened to return the next day and
search again, saying that if they did, James's dog would be dead.

Some lawyers and leading law enforcement groups said deputies should
have known to do everything possible to avoid killing Calvo's dogs.

Courts across the country in recent years have ruled that it is almost
always unacceptable for police to kill pets in the course of searching a
home. Cases in three federal circuits have found that killing pets
amounts to unreasonable seizure.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop a lawsuit by the Hells Angels
motorcycle club after police in San Jose killed three guard dogs during
a 1998 raid. That case, which also involved police taking items from the
group's clubhouse, resulted in $1.8 million in settlements.

"It was the fact that the dogs were shot that made the public
sympathetic to the Hells Angels," said Karen Snell, who was the club's
attorney during the case and has since successfully tried similar cases.

Killing dogs is considered a "last resort," said John Gnagey, executive
director of the National Tactical Officers Association, a group that
provides tactical training for police departments and is advocating a
national accreditation system for SWAT programs.

The group recommends that SWAT teams develop multiple plans for dealing
with animals during a raid. "You have a plan so that, first, maybe you
hit it with a fire extinguisher, and if that doesn't work, maybe you
give it a good swift kick into an adjoining room and close the door,"
Gnagey said.

Yesterday, Calvo also called on the sheriff's office to release photos
taken the night of the raid of the two black Labrador retrievers, which
he said would prove the dogs did not engage deputies as Jackson said
Wednesday. He said the children of 3,000-person Berwyn Heights would
testify to the dogs' gentle nature, and he said deputies had killed them
"for sport."

He also asked Jackson to take back his suggestion that the SWAT team was
justified in raiding the home without knocking first, ordinarily
required by law, because his mother-in-law had screamed upon spotting
officers. That suggestion shifted blame for the no-knock entry onto her,
Calvo said.

Police had been tracking the package since Arizona, where a police dog
had alerted them to the presence of drugs. It had been left on the porch
by police posing as deliverymen and was later seized unopened from
inside the home.

**********


Ahhhhhh. Cops. They ought to stick to catching speeders and eating donuts.



--


John McCain - Same old politics, same failed policies.

HK wrote:
wrote:
On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:46:51 -0400, hk wrote:

...but how often do we hear of really dumb cops?


Far too often. The whole "SWAT team" concept is out of control. If
they had some kind of evidence that the mayor's wife was a violent
criminal that warrants machine gun toting thugs to take her down there
are other ways to deal with it.
This is Waco and Elian Gonzolez all over again. ... but Reno was an
old drug warrior too.
In real life, even if it was her pot, they probably lose the case
because she didn't sign for it. The best they could hope for is to
bust mom.
What ever happened to cops in real police uniforms, not masked storm
troopers in Rambo costumes and ninja suits?


FBI to Review Raid That Killed Mayor's Dogs

By Rosalind S. Helderman and Aaron C. Davis
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 8, 2008; B01

The FBI has launched a review of the violent law enforcement raid of the
home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo in Prince George's County last
week that resulted in the deaths of the family's two dogs.

You forgot to mention that Prince Georges county is controlled by the
Democrats at all levels of government.

wrote in message
...
On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:46:51 -0400, hk wrote:

...but how often do we hear of really dumb cops?


Far too often. The whole "SWAT team" concept is out of control. If
they had some kind of evidence that the mayor's wife was a violent
criminal that warrants machine gun toting thugs to take her down there
are other ways to deal with it.
This is Waco and Elian Gonzolez all over again. ... but Reno was an
old drug warrior too.
In real life, even if it was her pot, they probably lose the case
because she didn't sign for it. The best they could hope for is to
bust mom.

What ever happened to cops in real police uniforms, not masked storm
troopers in Rambo costumes and ninja suits?

Up here the city police always wore navy blue and in the summer you'd see
them in a much lighter blue shirt.
As usual we always seem to copy what goes on down stateside so these days
they all run around in black uniforms.
I blame it on American TV. We were a bit isolated here from the influence
until cable tv came in the 70s... now it's all downhill.

Don White wrote:
wrote in message
...
On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:46:51 -0400, hk wrote:

...but how often do we hear of really dumb cops?

Far too often. The whole "SWAT team" concept is out of control. If
they had some kind of evidence that the mayor's wife was a violent
criminal that warrants machine gun toting thugs to take her down there
are other ways to deal with it.
This is Waco and Elian Gonzolez all over again. ... but Reno was an
old drug warrior too.
In real life, even if it was her pot, they probably lose the case
because she didn't sign for it. The best they could hope for is to
bust mom.

What ever happened to cops in real police uniforms, not masked storm
troopers in Rambo costumes and ninja suits?

Up here the city police always wore navy blue and in the summer you'd see
them in a much lighter blue shirt.
As usual we always seem to copy what goes on down stateside so these days
they all run around in black uniforms.
I blame it on American TV. We were a bit isolated here from the influence
until cable tv came in the 70s... now it's all downhill.



There's something to be said for that. Americans seem to get off on
watching violence, but sex...that scares the crap out of them.

Violence Good. Sex Dirty.

I certainly can understand why someone would want to be a fireman. It's
heroic work. But becoming a cop? It's such a corrupt, politically
influenced institution in so many areas. After that home invasion by the
police in a nearby county, I was thinking the best thing to do with cops
is have them handle traffic and nothing else, and form some new sort of
organization to chase after criminals.


--
Republicans - They Take Special Pride in their Ignorance.

On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:42:22 -0400, BAR wrote:

hk wrote:
...but how often do we hear of really dumb cops?

Shoot First, Ask Later
In Prince George's, a drug bust goes awry.

Sometimes I think we should just let the police handle traffic duties,
and hire entirely different people to investigate serious crimes. As far
as safety and protection go, you're on your own and always have been.

Isn't PG county run by a bunch of Democrats?



It's simply a continuance of Washington D.C.

On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:03:13 -0300, "Don White"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:46:51 -0400, hk wrote:

...but how often do we hear of really dumb cops?


Far too often. The whole "SWAT team" concept is out of control. If
they had some kind of evidence that the mayor's wife was a violent
criminal that warrants machine gun toting thugs to take her down there
are other ways to deal with it.
This is Waco and Elian Gonzolez all over again. ... but Reno was an
old drug warrior too.
In real life, even if it was her pot, they probably lose the case
because she didn't sign for it. The best they could hope for is to
bust mom.

What ever happened to cops in real police uniforms, not masked storm
troopers in Rambo costumes and ninja suits?

Up here the city police always wore navy blue and in the summer you'd see
them in a much lighter blue shirt.
As usual we always seem to copy what goes on down stateside so these days
they all run around in black uniforms.
I blame it on American TV. We were a bit isolated here from the influence
until cable tv came in the 70s... now it's all downhill.


As long as you blame all of Canada's problems on the USA, Harry will be
your best bud.

Strange, isn't it?