Posted on 04/05/2006 12:57:02 PM PDT by JTN
In the course of researching paramilitary drug raids, I’ve found some pretty disturbing stuff. There was a case where a SWAT officer stepped on a baby’s head while looking for drugs in a drop ceiling. There was one where an 11-year-old boy was shot at point-blank range. Police have broken down doors, screamed obscenities, and held innocent people at gunpoint only to discover that what they thought were marijuana plants were really sunflowers, hibiscus, ragweed, tomatoes, or elderberry bushes. (It’s happened with all five.)
Yet among hundreds of botched raids, the ones that get me most worked up are the ones where the SWAT officers shoot and kill the family dog.
I have two dogs, which may have something to do with it. But I’m not alone. A colleague tells me that when he and other libertarian commentators speak about the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco many people tend to doubt the idea that the government was out of line when it invaded, demolished, and set fire to a home of peaceful and mostly innocent people. But when the speaker mentions that the government also slaughtered two dogs during the siege, eyes light up, the indifferent get angry, and skeptics come around. Puppycide, apparently, goes too far.
One of the most appalling cases occurred in Maricopa County, Arizona, the home of Joe Arpaio, self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America.” In 2004 one of Arpaio’s SWAT teams conducted a bumbling raid in a Phoenix suburb. Among other weapons, it used tear gas and an armored personnel carrier that later rolled down the street and smashed into a car. The operation ended with the targeted home in flames and exactly one suspect in custody—for outstanding traffic violations.
But for all that, the image that sticks in your head, as described by John Dougherty in the alternative weekly Phoenix New Times, is that of a puppy trying to escape the fire and a SWAT officer chasing him back into the burning building with puffs from a fire extinguisher. The dog burned to death.
In a massive 1998 raid at a San Francisco housing co-op, cops shot a family dog in front of its family, then dragged it outside and shot it again.
When police in Fremont, California, raided the home of medical marijuana patient Robert Filgo, they shot his pet Akita nine times. Filgo himself was never charged.
Last October police in Alabama raided a home on suspicion of marijuana possession, shot and killed both family dogs, then joked about the kill in front of the family. They seized eight grams of marijuana, equal in weight to a ketchup packet.
In January a cop en route to a drug raid in Tampa, Florida, took a short cut across a neighboring lawn and shot the neighbor’s two pooches on his way. And last May, an officer in Syracuse, New York, squeezed off several shots at a family dog during a drug raid, one of which ricocheted and struck a 13-year-old boy in the leg. The boy was handcuffed at gunpoint at the time.
There was a dog in the ragweed bust I mentioned, too. He got lucky: He was only kicked across the room.
I guess the P.R. lesson here for drug war opponents and civil libertarians is to emphasize the plight of the pooch. America’s law-and-order populace may not be ready to condemn the practice of busting up recreational pot smokers with ostentatiously armed paramilitary police squads, even when the SWAT team periodically breaks into the wrong house or accidentally shoots a kid. I mean, somebody was probably breaking the law, right?
But the dog? That loyal, slobbery, lovable, wide-eyed, fur-lined bag of unconditional love?
Dammit, he deserves better.
Radley Balko is a policy analyst with the Cato Institute.
"In Columbine they cowered outside while innocent schoolkids were being shot."
Regardless of what I think about the tactics discussed here, your statement is totally untrue. I'm not sure if it is an outright lie or just your ignorance."
Well then how about explaining the 50 some minutes the cowards waited outside while kids were dying inside? Explain the fact that instead of rescuing the teacher bleeding to death in a second floor classroom where people were calling for help they searched the entire 1st floor then searched the 2nd room by room. I agree with Paddles: COWARDS!
I'm sick of hearing cowardly cops defended by people like you. They make such a to do about how dangerous their job is yet according to the Labor Dept. they rank 30th in on the job mortality. Most construction trades have a higher mortality rate.
to shoot an animal in cold blood is heartless, cruel and unspeakable. These animals are not being killed to eat or as a religious sacrifice. They are being killed because someone wants to go in somewhere and kick some booty, there's no booty to kick so they shoot the dog.
They are a$$holes and cowards that would do that to an innocent dog who in no way, shape or form was a threat to that human holding the gun.
Where are all the links to these facts?
YOU seem to be the one misdirecting anger at ME. If, somehow, you see me endorsing the willy-nilly shooting of animals by the JBTs, then you have completely missed the point of everything I've said on this thread. I give up...once again.
He was on private property (the neighbors)and as far as I'm concerned the dogs had a right and a duty to bite the son of a bitch. If my dogs let some damn cop walk across my property to bust the neighbors it would be time for re-training.
I got your point but you simply can't compare smoking a joint or some kid selling a quarter ounce of pot with murder and rape. If drug prohibition was ended so called "drug crimes" would mainly be victimless crimes. Sure it sounds like we're giving up on a portion of the population but personally I don't think it's worth what we're spending on trying to save these people from themselves. Not to mention what the WOD has cost us in constitutional protections and freedom.
The only real cure for drug abuse is education that we can't afford while we're busy supporting this industry that basically preys on people's weakness. Make no mistake about it the WOD supports the criminals because without it they would have no incentive to be in this business.
That post is completely out of line, rp. It deserves a response, but not one appropriate for these forums.
drive thru TX, MS, GA, FL, AR, MO with $3000 in cash in your pocket and see if you still have it when you exit the states
Well, the only reason you shouldn't still have it when you exit Texas is because you had to put it all into the gas tank.
drive thru TX, MS, GA, FL, AR, MO with $3000 in cash in your pocket and see if you still have it when you exit the states
Well, the only reason you shouldn't still have it when you exit Texas is because you had to put it all into the gas tank.
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ROFLMAO....that is funny...and true
No one is advocating that but do you realize that at least 25 percent of the people we have in prison are there for relatively small amounts of drugs. In some states you can get 6 months for one joint and 5 years for a second offense of one joint. Those same states will give you 5 years for one gram of cocaine. Seems like a terrible waste of my tax money to me and I'm trying to do everything in my power to see my money better spent.
Since you sound like such a nice person let me say this before you start and piss me off. Do not classify me with the druggies, I neither take drugs nor drink alcohol but I am smart enough to see my tax money being pissed away.
And he has a right to defend himself. Florida law (where the incident occurred):
"The owner of any dog that bites any person while such person is on or in a public place, or lawfully on or in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog, is liable for damages suffered by persons bitten, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owners' knowledge of such viciousness."
"A person is lawfully upon private property of such owner within the meaning of this act when the person is on such property in the performance of any duty imposed upon him or her by the laws of this state ..."
-- Florida Statute 767.04
"If my dogs let some damn cop walk across my property to bust the neighbors it would be time for re-training."
It's time for re-training all right. You need to get familiar with your state laws. Or not.
Then, in your eyes, around a fourth of the US population must be guilty of genocide.
Most of the crime, thuggery, and murder is directly tied to the drug trade, as is forced prostitution (rape). I'm not at all impressed with "casual users" who simply finance the criminal organizations.
That's what happens when high-demand products are driven into the black market. Take my native Russia as an example. Their transition to capitalism has admittedly been far from smooth, but now that western clothing and music are no longer banned, no one gets beaten or killed over a pair of jeans or a Beatles record.
Again, my point is that if you want to legalize drug use, argue for it on its own merits.
Gladly! The WOD has been immoral from the very beginning - racist and fraudulent in its origins, even more disastrous than the alcohol prohibition out of which it grew, and continues to be an inexcusable assault on freedom to this very day. I could go on for pages, but 1) I type slow, and 2) the burden of proof is not on ME to argue why drug users don't belong in cages, but rather on the WODies to argue why they do. The practical (less abuse of search & seizure, less violent crime, etc.) is inseparable from the moral, and will logically follow.
Just as I am entitled to respond.
i'm not angry at you. I don't know you. But animals do need our protection - even those in the wild because we are encroaching on their territory and now they are coming into "human" space and they are being killed - but this is a different topic all together. I was just making a point how I felt and I was not taking it out on you directly.
Truly sorry if it came across that way.
And to think, some people call them pigs ...
Well, if one is going to compare our incarceration rate with other countries, especially Russia and China, then perhaps we should compare the entire justice systems. Maybe there's a reason why Russia and China lock up fewer people -- but maybe that reason is one that we do not wish to emulate.
What's the goal here, anyways? Freedom or incarceration rates? Be careful what you wish for.
I'm sorry, but it really pi$$es me off when bleeding-heart posters like TKDietz use these analogies. Like those who say the WOD is failing because we only arrest a small number of users. But if we institute a policy that results in a larger number of drug arrests, suddenly it's a "police state" with "jackbooted thugs" breaking down doors, killing puppies and babies.
"that at least 25 percent of the people we have in prison are there for relatively small amounts of drugs."
It's 20%, and most of those scumbags are in prison for drug dealing or drug trafficking. If they're there on possession, it was likely due to a plea bargain down from dealing. Your average drug user is not being sent to state or federal prison. (www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/whos_in_prison_for_marij/whos_in_prison_for_marij.pdf)
"In some states you can get 6 months for one joint"
6 months in prison? For a first offense? Possessing one joint? Excuse me, I find that hard to believe. Which state, please?
"Seems like a terrible waste of my tax money to me and I'm trying to do everything in my power to see my money better spent."
Let me say this. If we are sending first time marijuana users to prison, then I agree that this is a terrible waste of the taxpayer's money.
Not an abuse of power nor an intolerance of freedom and expression, but rather a waste of money. You are consistent with that 'ol fascist perspective thingie.
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