So you think they should have just seized the package and not bothered enforcing the laws and trying to catch the people they reasonably believed to be dealing in large quantities of drugs?
I can understand to some extent the feeling that pot shouldn't be illegal since it's really not physically addictive or overly harmful, but it's not up to the police to choose not to go after people committing what our legislature has decided are very serious crimes.
No, they should have seized the drugs and continued their investigation. But they wanted to play cowboy and knock down a few doors, with these subsequent results. And let's not forget the lying in an attempt to cover this up.
This clearly could have been handled much differently. You can dance all around that, but it doesn't change the fact this this military style raid on this guys home was really stupid.
Again, the LEOs should have hand delivered the package when someone was home, play delivery man, with backup right there, have them sign for it, then detain them, start the investigation...Find out if they're connected etc.
All this hiding in the bushes, dropping the package, waiting for the innocent victims to take it inside and conducting a military style home invasion, killing the dogs...Gezzzz... No matter how you chop it up, this is just nuts.
Defense of this, is even further over the top.
Substitute something else for the pot, have the normal FedEx driver deliver the package on schedule but with some cops in his truck and some more nearby, and see what happens. Best case, when the driver goes to deliver the package, someone is in front of the house waiting there for it. If the person takes the package, have police close in and ask him if he actually lives there. Check his ID against the property ownership records and if he doesn't live there, you've caught the real crook.
Doesn't that sound like a much better approach?