Posted on 08/11/2008 4:22:26 AM PDT by Ken H
Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo on the police raid on his home earlier this month:
"The reality is that this happens all the time in this country and disproportionally in Prince Georges county and most of the people to whom it happens don't have the community support and the platform to speak out. So I appreciate you paying attention to our condition but I hope you'll also give attention to those who may not have the same platform and voice that we have."
-snip-
Here are a few excerpts from Calvo's letter to the Justice Department requesting that investigation:
My mother-in-law was made to lie face-down on the floor in the kitchen, several feet away from where Payton was bleeding to death. Her hands were restrained with plastic handcuffs behind her back. She laid there on the floor with her head held down by police so that she could only see Payton's lifeless body for a considerable period of time.
The officers called for me to walk downstairs backwards with my hands up, which I did. The officers then directed to me to kneel down in the living room by the open front door in my boxer shorts with my hands restrained in plastic cuffs behind my back. I remained in that position for a considerable period of time, watching Payton's body in the other corner of the room and my mother-in-law lying face down in the kitchen.
Georgia was questioned by a detective named Kim, who in the course of her questioning managed to talk on her cell phone and to make a veterinary appointment for her dog. Georgia overheard Kim tell her friend that, this was her first raid and that it was "exciting" because it was the mayor's house.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
So they knew it was the mayor. I wonder if the package was sent by his political opponent and coordinated with the police chief.
After all, this seems like perfectly acceptable police behavior when one considers the slide we are on towards a totalitarian socialistic state.
Oh ... I get it. He knew these kind of raids were being conducted, but he never dreamed one would be aimed at him, or his.
Although I live in Baltimore County - I worked in Prince George’s County for 20 years - I always found it to be the political and cultural center of the universe.
My guess is that one of the first things Calvo said to the police officers was that he was the mayor. I think it was just another botched SWAT raid.
You’re probably right. Its more offensive because it happens all the time and if you’re not mayor you are not heard.
Isn't this sort of an oxymoron? Like a "robbery gone wrong?"
One of these days the jbts will hit a house belonging to some moderately suspcicious survivalist type who believes that the "government is out to get him," and who has taken proper defensive precautions. They probably won't be crowing about how exciting it was then.
Have we gotten to the point where we are accepting "botched SWAT raids"? I would hope not. We need to de-militarize our PDs and SOs, get them back into UNMASKED uniforms, accountable to WE THE PEOPLE.
I find it amazing that our miltary, in the midst of a shooting war (in Iraq and Afghanistan) can conduct themselves with amazing restraint and yet be very effective. Yet, the least little PERCEIVED "bobble" and they are brought up on (wrongful) charges. Why do we not hold our PDs and SOs at least to the same standard of behavior with the exception of being brought up on wrongful charges of course. No excuse.
Our soldiers/Marines are very effective because they patrol AMONG the people, either on foot or in vehicles, matching the methods to the conditions. They get to know the shop owners and residents in their AO. I have family involved in these situations and I'm no stranger to the officers and men who are part of that. We've talked a length about these very differences.
I have also dealt with SO and PD officers that had NO CLUE as to who lived where or where folks belonged, worked, etc., and this was in a rural area where a deputy or small town patrolman should know every family. Yet, good street cops in some larger cities could tell me the store owners, their families and who didn't "belong there" and I noticed that they had the respect of the people, who also knew them because they were part of the community, not some mysterious "authority" driving down the street anonymously behind dark-tinted windows. No, it's time to get back to CIVILIAN law enforcement techniques. If one wants to militarize himself then enlist in the Army/Marines but you'll find that they are under far stricter restraints and ROE.
This does not evince a "lack of training." The consistency of the raids across the country shows that the Officers Of The Law are following their training exactly. The license to shoot pets is obvious because it is almost always done no matter what sort of pet it might be and no matter whether the pet "is threatening." It is probably better to have a dog on the premises when you get raided 'accidentally" so that the police have something to shoot other than yourself.Actually I suspect this raid was some sort of political payback. Maybe the mayor had refused to pay up.
The only way "this kind of thing" is going to be stopped is by the people taking back their republic from the despots that are turning it into a socialist police state.
With over half the population in favor of a socialist form of government, I don't see that happening. Do you?
Thanks for the Ping!
They do this to a few more upper class white people, and it will change.
These unreasonable (Reads: Jack booted thugs) assaults on the American public are a well known fact of life, for anyone who cares enough to read.
From the decoy female cops on the corner (whore look alikes) to Waco, the public has been warned that their government is out of control.
Now we the people are even facing government intrusion by camera surveillance on our streets, while the police forces hesitate to even go into many areas because they are intimidated by the gangs, and / or vermin that reside there.
Seems now we have become a society of "every man for himself".
I wish us well.
I’ve heard that dealers send packages via Fed-Ex or whatever to a random address and then try to pick up the package on the porch before the owner gets home.
If this is true, the dealers didn’t get there in time and the mayor picked up the package quite innocently, which in turn led to the raid.
Doubtful.
Seems to me most of Congress is "upper class" white people. Most local governments are "upper white" people. Most judges are "upper white" people.
These "upper white" people are the ones that are responsible for creating, and continuing these assaults.
These are the same ones who refuse to stop illegals from pouring over our borders. The same ones who control the public schools that teach your children that homosexuality is diversity, and that Christianity is to be shunned.
I'm afraid the "change" will continue to be for the worse, as long as we refuse to be weaned from the teat of the socialist cow.
/Rant off
You need a cup of coffee and a severe wake-up call. I’ve worked in and around PG county for 30 years and have never found ANY center of anything above a trash heap of stupidity and venal police activity.
The difference between us and “them” complaining about these mistakes is that we complain because it is WRONG. They complain because they are pro-criminal!
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