Police Raid Berwyn Heights Mayor's Home, Kill His 2 Dogs

Washington Post ^ | July 31, 2008 | Aaron C. Davis

[Mr. Mojo]

A police SWAT team raided the home of the mayor in the Prince George's County town of Berwyn Heights on Tuesday, shooting and killing his two dogs, after he brought in a 32-pound package of marijuana that had been delivered to his doorstep, police said.

[vk45]

Any ideas why federal law enforcement wasn’t involved/mentioned since this situation involved an interstate drug shipment?

[fr_freak]

More dogs murdered for our stupid failed war on some drugs.

It makes me sick that some police seem to get off on slaughtering people's pets, but I would reserve the term "murder" for human beings.

[monday]

“now show me the entry and exit wounds on the dog “

They exist and will certainly be used as evidence when the Sheriff's department is sued.

[packrat35]

yup. but my point is that there could have been much more behind that door. it is reasonable to assume that someone who receives 32 pounds of weed would also be into harder substances, weapons, etc...

You MUST be a cop but theat does NOT seem reasonable to me or anyone I know at all. He was the mayor for Christ sakes..

Are you REALLY defending this nonsense? If so, then understand why cops are NOW held in such low regard.

[packrat35]

Real soldiers like yourself, who are in harm’s way far more than these cops, see through this.

Thank you for your service and your common sense. Wish we had more cops that thought like you.

[packrat35]

A suspicious package addressed to his wife? My wife always has packages coming in the mail. It's a fairly common occurrence for me to find a package on my front porch. I just carry them in and leave them somewhere my wife will find them, just like this guy.

Real me too. Guess that makes us potential drug lords!!

[Repeal The 17th]

Try honing your reading comprehension skills.

[commonguymd]

Look like typical drug dealers to me. /s

[mysterio]

When the animals are members of the family and are shot as part of the failed war on some drugs, I think “murder” describes it quite nicely.

[Reily]

To all

PG county is notorious for “irregularities” in it county government & services such as police & fire as well as others. The county has had this reputation as long as I can remember.

[fr_freak]

what are people questioning here? the raid itself or the tactics? i myself have questioned the tactics used. but i do not question the raid itself.

OK, since you are a police officer, maybe you can explain to us why the police couldn't simply check who lived in the house, check their record, determine the threat risk (which was virtually zero), perform their sting, then knock on the door?

I disagree with no-knock raids, period. We cannot reasonably claim to be honoring the 4th Amendment if police can simply kick in the door and begin shooting without having to show any warrant. In this case, the violation of that particular Constitutional protection is even more blatant, given that a person has no control over what is mailed to him, and therefore, receiving a package is not de facto evidence of a crime.

I have seen two basic arguments in defense of no-knock raids: 1) to stop drug dealers from flushing evidence, 2) to ensure officer safety. Perhaps you can tell me how either one of these concerns even applies to this situation? Even if I were to accept those two concerns as legitimate reasons for throwing Constitutional protections out the window, those two reasons don't even apply here.

Finally, they arrested nobody, even though it is indisputable that there was 32 pounds of marijuana in the package. If there wasn't enough cause to arrest someone for that, then there certainly wasn't enough cause to kick in the doors with guns blazing. If you can't understand the reasons for concern here, then you are part of the problem, regardless of what your intentions may be. Your attitude is more of a threat to our freedoms than pot dealers.

It is supremely ironic that we have soldiers who risk their lives to safeguard freedom, while police officers increasingly justify trashing those freedoms to avoid risk.

[Repeal The 17th]

This quote from your profile page seems at odds with your chosen line of work:
“The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.” - G.K. Chesterton

[Mila]

I posting a link to another article about this event. After looking around, I found it on The Huffington Post. I know, I know, but as far as I can tell it’s a straight news article with no embellishments. There is a little more on the killing of the dogs.

“Sheriff’s office spokesman Sgt. Mario Ellis says deputies “apparently felt threatened” when they shot the dogs.

Calvo said officers entered about 7:30 p.m., first shooting 7-year-old Payton. They then pursued 4-year-old Chase, who ran away and was shot by police from behind, he said.”

I think that this is horrible.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20080731/mayor-raided/

[Balding_Eagle]

I doubt that there’s much byzantine politics going on there.

Never the less, the mayor has a lot more clout to put a stop to this kind of nonsense that the average taxpayer, so let's wish these acts to happen to those in control.

[TBall]

The story was all over the AM radio today and it made my blood boil. I can’t imagine that no jobs will be lost over this one. I still haven’t figured out why they hate weed so much when its the drunks who actually do all the real damage.

[kenth]

Well, they have all that cool paramilitary gear. What good is it if they don’t get to use it and pretend to be Rambo?

Our local sheriff’s election has one of the deputies in the running. A good portion of his campaign website was him touting his SWAT experience and photos of himself in the paramilitary gear. He might as well be a kid in the dirt playing with toy soldiers. The problem is that he’ll run rampant over people’s rights; he is a democrat after all.

[Oztrich Boy]

Perhaps it was a setup.

Perhaps? I'm thinking 32lbs (maybe more) of marijuana "went missing" from the police evidence locker last week.

[RobRoy]

Based on the facts of the story, so far they got the guy for bringing in a package delivered by a “legitimate” deliveryman. Last I heard, that is not a crime, unless the package contains contraband and the prosecutor can prove you knew it.

I think maybe they should have waited to see what he did with the package. Then either he would have turned it in - or they would have an ironclad case against him.

Either this story is missing some important facts, or this guy was set up, I suspect.

[Oztrich Boy]

Why would anyone have MJ mailed to their home especially such a large package, and the most important part, how did the police find out about it?

They remembered where they put it (yeah I know it's a stretch, but possible)