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Title: SWAT Team Kills Two Dogs in Raid on MD Mayor's Home
Source:
AP
URL Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5 ... cxt7AOXQ-3_yi2gRT365QD92930G80
Published: Jul 31, 2008
Author: AP
Post Date: 2008-07-31 22:26:00 by winston_smith
Keywords: JBT, SWAT, Police State
Views: 257
Comments: 11
BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. — A SWAT team raided the home of a Washington, D.C.-area mayor, killing his two black Labrador retrievers and seizing an unopened package of marijuana delivered there. Prince George's County Police said Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo brought a 32-pound package of marijuana into his home that had been delivered by officers posing as delivery men. The Tuesday evening raid was conducted by county police narcotics officers and a sheriff's office SWAT Team. The package was addressed to Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic. His mother-in-law had asked the supposed delivery men to leave the package outside. Calvo has not been charged, though police said he, his wife and his mother-in-law are "persons of interest" in an ongoing investigation. "We never opened the box. We have nothing to do with this box," Calvo said. 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. Calvo said he doesn't have any idea how the package ended up at his house. He called the raid "the most traumatic experience" of his life. Calvo, who called his town "Mayberry inside the Capital Beltway," gets a small stipend as mayor and works at the SEED Foundation, a nonprofit that runs public boarding schools for at-risk students. His wife works as a state finance officer. "These were two beautiful black Labradors who were well-known in the community. We walked them twice a day; little kids knew their names and would come up to them and pet them," he said.
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#1. To: winston_smith (#0)
"These were two beautiful black Labradors who were well-known in the community. We walked them twice a day; little kids knew their names and would come up to them and pet them," he said. What a bunch of disgusting creeps. I'll bet they got their tough guy rocks off "hunting" down those 2 family pets, Peyton and Chase. Shooting the 4 year old lab from behind took considerable BullyBoy courage. Weep for America. These are the people who "guard" our safety and welfare - sure they do - count on it.
If shooting a cop dog is the same as shooing cop, chasing defenseless dogs and shooting them needlessly is the same as chasing down a defenseless person and shooting him needlessly. In other words, it was cold blooded murder, and the "peacer officers" involved should be charged with that crime.
Looks like the JBT's have a nation-wide green light to kill every dog within 2 miles of a drug-bust. Screw them, I hope a rabid pitbull rips the throats out of a few cops.
How about letting this bunch of pussies know how you feel about them? Police_CustomerService@co.pg.md.us I shall not vote for evil, lesser or otherwise.
Here's a link with a photo of the 2 "dangerous" family dogs that were shot from behind as they were running away.
I sent a not-so-polite e-mail to the Prince George's Country sheriff's office and told them exactly what I thought of their dog-killer deputies. More people should do this, it's the only way "they" will ever know that they have lost the respect of the citizenry.
Well said.
We are in deep trouble. Last year a couple of our tenants were having an upstairs/downstairs noise fight. I told the upstairs tenant to call the police and generate a report as we do not get involved in tenant fights. We will evict, however, if documentation exists. The tenant told me "We will NEVER call the police, I don't care how bad it gets". I apologized and told her I understood just what she was saying. We have more to fear from the police than we do from "criminals".
The worm turns, and it's not looking good for the JBT's: Prince George's County police announced yesterday that they have arrested a deliveryman and another man who they say are involved in a scheme to smuggle marijuana by shipping packages addressed to unsuspecting recipients, including a delivery last week to the wife of the mayor of Berwyn Heights. The county Sheriff's Office SWAT team and narcotics officers raided the home of Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, after intercepting a package addressed to her that was filled with 32 pounds of marijuana. During the raid, officers broke down Calvo's door and fatally shot the family's two black Labrador retrievers. Police said the package was one of about a half-dozen retrieved by authorities in the past week along the route of a deliveryman in northern Prince George's. The packages contained a combined 417 pounds of marijuana valued at about $3.6 million. Police Chief Melvin C. High would not rule out that Calvo and Tomsic had some involvement in the delivery. Asked whether police had cleared them, he said: "From all the indications at the moment, they had an unlikely involvement, but we don't want to draw that definite conclusion at the moment." He later said, "Most likely, they were innocent victims." Neither he nor Sheriff Michael A. Jackson apologized for the raid, which they said was conducted responsibly, given what deputies and officers knew at the time. Calvo declined to comment. Timothy Maloney, an attorney for Calvo and Tomsic, said the arrests confirm that Tomsic was a "random victim of identity theft at the hands of major drug traffickers." "This crime was compounded by law enforcement when it illegally invaded the Calvo home, tied up the mayor and his mother-in-law, and killed the family dogs," he said in an e-mail. "The Calvo family is still waiting for an explanation from law enforcement as to how this could possibly have happened." Police had been tracking the package since a drug-sniffing dog in Arizona drew attention to it. Calvo has said law enforcement officers burst into his home moments after he picked up the package from his porch and brought it in. It had been left on the porch on the instructions of his mother-in-law by police posing as deliverymen. Calvo has said sheriff's deputies entered without knocking and began shooting immediately. High said one of the men arrested was an independent contractor who worked as a package deliveryman. The police chief did not release the name of either man. High and Maj. Mark Magaw, commander of the county's narcotics enforcement division, said the two suspects worked in tandem. The officials said that the deliveryman would drop off the package and that the other man would come by shortly thereafter and retrieve it. At other times, the officials said, the suspects exchanged packages face to face in parking lots. In two instances, Magaw said, the deliveryman mistakenly took drugs to the wrong address, then went to the houses and asked for the packages. He said police investigating the case uncovered a separate and parallel scheme to use the package delivery system to send marijuana. They arrested two other men yesterday in connection with that conspiracy and seized about 100 pounds of marijuana. High and Jackson spent much of a news conference yesterday defending the raid on Calvo's home. They said using a SWAT team was appropriate because guns and violence are often associated with drug rings. "In some quarters, this has been viewed as a flawed police operation and an attack on the mayor, which it is not," High said. "This was about an address, this was about a name on a package . . . and, in fact, our people did not know that this was the home of the mayor and his family until after the fact." High said Jackson's team was responsible for determining how "dynamic" an entry was required. Jackson said that the search warrant authorizing the raid was obtained by the police department and that his team was there only because the police's SWAT team was busy on another assignment. Neither explained why police spokesmen initially said a "no knock" warrant had been authorized, giving law enforcement officers permission from a judge to raid the home without announcing their presence. Magaw said there was no such thing as a no-knock warrant and denied telling public information officers that one exists. Legal experts say a law adopted in 2005 created such a warrant. Police are allowed to enter without announcing themselves even without the authorization, but only if specific circumstances at the scene lead them to reasonably suspect that evidence might be destroyed or officers' lives endangered. Jackson said yesterday that his team was justified in entering the home as forcefully as it did because Calvo's mother-in-law screamed when she saw the officers approaching the house. The noise, he said, could have alerted any armed occupants of the home or allowed time for destruction of any evidence. He also defended the shooting of the dogs. He said his deputies were "engaged" by the dogs, by one as they entered the house and by the other as they made their way through it. Neither dog bit a deputy, he said. Calvo maintains that his dogs were peaceful. Maloney said yesterday that it was "demonstrably false" to suggest the dogs were threatening law enforcement, and on the whole called the law enforcement's statement about the raid "defensive" and "outrageous." Neither agency has asked for the family's version of the raid, he said. "It is clear that neither agency can conduct an independent review into the law enforcement misconduct that occurred here, nor are they willing to review their policies involving no-knock entry and the killing of innocent family pets," Maloney said. The family will hold a news conference today to address the issues. Calvo, 37, works part time as the mayor and serves as director of expansion for the SEED Foundation, a national nonprofit group that runs urban public boarding schools. Tomsic is a finance officer for the state. Source: www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080602495.html?hpid=topnews The Mayor and his wife: And we ALL know what vicious, man-eating dogs Black Labs are! They are even more blood thirsty than a Preso Canario! < /sarcasm >
He also defended the shooting of the dogs. He said his deputies were "engaged" by the dogs, by one as they entered the house and by the other as they made their way through it. Neither dog bit a deputy, he said. Police Chief Melvin C. High would not rule out that Calvo and Tomsic had some involvement in the delivery. Asked whether police had cleared them, he said: "From all the indications at the moment, they had an unlikely involvement, but we don't want to draw that definite conclusion at the moment." He later said, "Most likely, they were innocent victims." What a cluster fudge. The Police Chief should just come clean and admit to the screw up being his department's error. Otherwise putting out this contradictory gobblygook hokum at press conferences makes him and his department look evasive and untrustworthy and the Mayor and his wife [and their lawyer] will get angrier and more likely to bring a heavy duty costly lawsuit against the Police department. The jury would only need to look at photos of the Mayor and his wife and the 2 labs who were shot from the back as they were running away for fear of the SWAT team to return a verdict of several millions of dollars against the City. Honestly, the Police Chief should cut his losses and hope the department will get sued for only $25,000-$50,000.
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.
#2. To: winston_smith (#0)
"The real deal is this: the ‘royalty’ controlling the court, the ones with the power, the ones with the ability to make a difference, with the ability to change our course, the ones who will live in infamy if we pass the tipping points, are the captains of industry, CEOs in fossil fuel companies such as EXXON/Mobil, automobile manufacturers, utilities, all of the leaders who have placed short-term profit above the fate of the planet and the well-being of our children." - James Hansen
#3. To: winston_smith (#0)
“The best and first guarantor of our neutrality and our independent existence is the defensive will of the people…and the proverbial marksmanship of the Swiss shooter. Each soldier a good marksman! Each shot a hit!” Schweizerische Schutzenseitunt (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#4. To: winston_smith (#0)
(Edited)
The County's Finest, eh?
What kind of a bunch of sick fuggers are you people? A SWAT team felt threatened by a couple of black labs? Why don't you try hiring some decent men with some testicles instead of the feminized Nazi wannabes that obviously infest your department?
Your department, if the SWAT team is any indicator, is a disgrace to everything that Americans hold near and dear. I hope they all rot in hell.
Jim Crispino
Middleburgh, NY
#5. To: winston_smith, FormerLurker, X-15, Critter, All (#0)
#6. To: scrapper2, All (#5)
“The best and first guarantor of our neutrality and our independent existence is the defensive will of the people…and the proverbial marksmanship of the Swiss shooter. Each soldier a good marksman! Each shot a hit!” Schweizerische Schutzenseitunt (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#7. To: FormerLurker (#2)
If shooting a cop dog is the same as shooing cop, chasing defenseless dogs and shooting them needlessly is the same as chasing down a defenseless person and shooting him needlessly.
#8. To: winston_smith (#0)
#9. To: winston_smith, All (#0)
“The best and first guarantor of our neutrality and our independent existence is the defensive will of the people…and the proverbial marksmanship of the Swiss shooter. Each soldier a good marksman! Each shot a hit!” Schweizerische Schutzenseitunt (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#10. To: scrapper2 (#5)
#11. To: X-15 (#9)
Jackson said yesterday that his team was justified in entering the home as forcefully as it did because Calvo's mother-in-law screamed when she saw the officers approaching the house. The noise, he said, could have alerted any armed occupants of the home or allowed time for destruction of any evidence.
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