Posted on 08/07/2008 11:14:41 AM PDT by abb
Berwyn Heights' mayor is expected today to ask federal officials to investigate possible civil rights violations stemming from last week's raid of his Prince George's County home by police officers who shot and killed his two dogs, his attorney said.
Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, will ask for a U.S. Department of Justice inquiry during a 2 p.m. news conference today outside their Berwyn Heights home, said Timothy Maloney, their attorney.
"They're going to call for the Justice Department to come in," Maloney said.
Calvo's home was raided by the county Sheriff's Office SWAT team and narcotics officers after a package of marijuana addressed to the house was seized. Police obtained a search warrant and officers broke down their door and shot and killed the family's two black Labrador retrievers, Payton and Chase.
But arrests this week of two men involved in a marijuana smuggling ring that allegedly delivers packages of the drug to unsuspecting homes appears to indicate that Calvo was not involved in any illegal activity.
Berwyn Heights' police chief, Patrick A. Murphy, said his agency was not alerted about the raid by county police and that those agencies need to state clearly that Calvo had no involvement with the marijuana ring.
"I see no connection between the mayor and his family and the persons who have been arrested in this case," Murphy said. "To keep it vague at this point is a serious disservice to this very decent, very honorable man. I think this continues to be an embarrassment."
During the raid last Tuesday, Calvo's mother-in-law was handcuffed and laid on the kitchen floor next to the body of 7-year-old Payton, Maloney said.
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(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
GOOD!
Fire the entire dept.
I had read the original article posted here. There were some Freepers who said this was a setup that the package would be delivered and then snatched off the porch by others. They were right.
Immediately.
One of the dogs was running away from the cops when it was killed.
So the only fair thing to do is find out if these idiots with badges have pets, and if they do the Mayor gets to shoot them in front of their families.
Then he proceeds with his lawsuit and strips them of every dime they'll ever have.
L
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/08/md-mayor-to-cal.html
Md. mayor to call for federal probe after SWAT team raids his house, shoots his dogs
The only time this sort of typical SWAT behavior makes the news is when it happens to someone important.
Watching the presser live now. Someone’s going to pay big time on this one.
True. Looks like this one may stick.
That's a bit too far, IMHO.
Its not the animals fault. No need for them to pay the price.
I'll agree with the taking every dime they have, as well as their homes and every other asset.
The People need to grow up, and realize the militarization of the police forces is a violation of our rights.
It's why it's referred to a Serving a Warrant, NOT Breaking Down the Door With Guns Blazing Warrant.
Cops used to do the paperwork, and if the person didn't cooperate, they would WAIT until he left his property and THEN arrest him, not endanger everyone in the household.
Toss the shooters in jail.
ohno.. it gets reported alot.. just no one every DOES anything about it until it happens to someone important.
I'm sure that would have taken less than a week or so...
It's quite instructive that the Grandmother actually refused the delivery, so 'possession' was never actually taken of anything.
It's also instructive that the warrant in question was most specifically NOT a 'no knock' warrant.
So what we have here is a case of a couple of cops violently entering a home without any legal authority whatsoever.
The Mayor or any member of this household would have been perfectly within their rights to shoot these two eggsucking stumblebums to death.
My money says it'll come out that the Sheriff himself set this mayor up by 'arranging' this little delivery himself.
L
So were the nazis. Peas in a pod.
The police discovered a sizable amount of drugs being shipped to the home.
They properly attained a search warrant based on that evidence, and conducted a raid within the parameters of that warrant.
During the raid, two of the property owners dogs were shot and killed defending their home like you would expect them to do when strangers knock in the door and invade the house.
However, it turns out the drug ring basically set them up to take the fall if the drugs were discovered.
So the police are being investigated not really because of how they acted during the raid, but because of not discovering that the drug ring had set the people up before the raid.
The property owner have very good reason to be upset, and I'm saddened that their dogs were killed, but the blame lies with the drug ring, not the police.
I would never shoot anyone’s dog for revenge.
But the owners...
No matter how bad the consequences for the police involved, they will not get even a small part of what they deserve.
“They properly attained a search warrant based on that evidence, and conducted a raid within the parameters of that warrant.”
Wrong. They had no authorization to conduct a no-knock raid, which is different than a normal search warrant.
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