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Another "oops" moment
If you're going to pull a SWAT raid, and shoot two dogs, don't do it to the mayor. That's gotta hurt promotion protential.
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Not to mention the cops delivered the dope.
And it wasn't a no-knock warrant (the narcotics unit lied to their PR people, fancy that).
However, their jobs aren't directly in danger, since this is the mayor of a tiny (population 3,000) town in Prince George's County, Maryland, the town's police department wasn't informed.
The brave men who shot the labs were from the county, who's law enforcement officers have a really nasty and well earned reputation for generic police brutality, including fatal NDs into handcuffed or compliant prisoners. Given their record, it's fair bet the dog killing was premeditated to create an ideal environment for the following hours long interrogation.
- Harold
WTF?
This is an egregious abuse on a level that is beyond governmental. If somebody comes in and shoots my dogs: I'm shooting back! I don't give a crap who you are. Mistake or not, this is something that needs to be dealt with in the most public manner possible.
We had an incident in Wilmington, NC that was similar to this in which a SWAT team went in to procure a couple of stolen Playstations and shot through the front door of the house. This type of stuff is getting too common.
here's the link:
http://www.whas11.com/topstories/stories/whas11_topstory_playstation.1ca2ae83.html#
This group of cops is out of control. With this crew, if you shoot one of them, you just earned a death sentence carried out by them. This whole story with the Mayor of this little town brings the problems with these types of raids in general (and PG County in particular) into sharp contrast. Apparently with these guys, they were so used to doing no-knock entries that they not only didn't bother to get a no-knock warrant, they didn't even bother to bring the warrant with them. This has been brought to light because of who they raided, but my guess is that this is SOP. Usually it is just little folk that they do it to so no write-ups in the WAPO. Top the whole thing off with the fact that the people they raided were innocent victims of a smuggling scheme involving the delivery man. You end up with the police claiming that they can break down anyone's door without knocking, shoot any dogs in sight (even if they are running away) and interrogate the occupants with complete impunity. Remind me again what country this is?
In other news, guess what color the victims of this treatment typically were? This sounds a lot like the Shenanigans that go on in Broward County in FL.
Here is the racial makeup of PG County:
* 62.70% African American
* 27.04% White
* 7.12% Hispanic or Latino
* 3.87% Asian
* 3.38% Other races
* 2.61% Two or More of any race
* 0.35% Native American
* 0.06% Pacific Islander
Any ideas as to why it doesn't make the news?
Further reading between the lines:
As of 2006, the county reportedly contains the highest crime rate for the Washington Metro area, comparable to Baltimore.
It's sounding more and more like Broward every second now.
-lots of poor black people committing lots of crimes? Check.
-all the good cops left town and the force is now full of lower primates who want smash face and kick dog? Check.
-county so full of fail for so long that none of it makes the news any more? Check.
And they call themselves professionals....
Mayor wants a follow up investigation
http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1451678&nid=25
Watch, these numb nuts will turn out to be BATF rejects.
The sheriff is the supreme law of the land. These officers are above the law. Nothing will happen to them. They were just following orders. It was all legal. These are not the droids you are looking for.
It is never legal. Cops may have the power BUT the authority still rests with the People and the People MUST retake power. Police are SERVANTS. My father was a cop in the 40s and 50s. It was a different world then. At that time in our town, NO cop would shoot someone's dog then. But my father was a MAN. He dealt with bad guys, was shot at, shot back, etc. Lethal force was used ONLY after the cop(s) were first attacked. Now, it's cops who attack first mostly, imo, because they are gutless psychopaths.
If you want to learn more about what has happened in our country, I suggest reading _The_Cult_of_the_Presidency for starters.
Don't forget that they tracked the dogs' blood all over the house. It wasn't enough to kill the dogs, they had to double down on the arrogance. Nobody steps in a pool of blood by accident. That's intentional.
Plus - the mayor and his family are white. I'll bet $20 that race was a factor in their poor treatment.
"Given their record, it's fair bet the dog killing was premeditated to create an ideal environment for the following hours long interrogation. "
No, this is not the case. Not to defend the cops here, in fact, I loathe and despise this sort of crap. But the dog killing wasn't intended to create a better environment for interrogation.
The dog killing is, however, standard operating procedure for any entry unit - because bean counters decided it is cheaper to kill dogs on sight than risk dogs biting cops or alerting owners to the raid.
Under the law, a dog has almost no value. It isn't considered a "life" like a child, even though many people view pets as family members. A dog is, under the law, mere property. The "value" of a dog, under the law, is therefore what it costs in dollars to go get one. Since most dogs are comparable to what you can pick up at the pound for a small fee, most dogs killed have a replacement value assigned of $50 or so.
Sure, some dogs have a higher legal value. But that is because of status as champion breeders, or value as racing dogs or assistance dogs. Most pets, however, are worth no more than $50 in any legal suit.
However, an officer who is severely injured by a dog could have thousands of dollars in medical bills and could be out of service for weeks. And if a dog alerts an owner to an entry, the owner could have time to destroy evidence or arm himself. That could mean millions of dollars in injuries and no admissible evidence.
So the bean counters have decided: just shoot the dogs when you enter.
IT IS CHEAPER THAT WAY.
So what we need to do is change the law that assigns value to pets. We need a statute that defines a pet and allows civil suits for damages beyond mere "replacement costs."
Of course, there are problems with this. If dogs suddenly had a higher value, then lawsuits over things like pets hit by cars would flood the courts and wreck havoc on not only the legal system but also the insurance business. Pet owners would see their insurance triple! And, there is the slippery slope: if "pets" have "value" as living things, then what about farm animals? Could PETA use such laws as jumping points for suits over treatment of chickens and pigs?
So we have to be VERY careful on how we handle this. I think a good starting point would be legislation that allows civil suits for pain and suffering caused by the INTENTIONAL killing of a PET outside of legitimate agricultural use. That would eliminate suits over accidents and suits over livestock. Making the exception only for legitimate agricultural use eliminates the use of the exception defense by cops.
The dogs are fair targets for cops today only because the costs to cops are far lower than the risks of leaving the dogs alive. Change that dynamic! Make it COST money to harm pets.
Also, don't forget the warrant. You got a warrant, right? Oh yeah, forgot that too.