gun point.

Quote :

"A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in a mistaken drug raid. The raid last week was carried out by the Prince George's County Sheriff's Department after a package containing marijuana was mailed to the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo. During the raid, deputies handcuffed Calvo and his mother-in-law and forced them to lie on the floor near one of the slain dogs' carcasses. Calvo was clad only in underwear and socks at the time. But authorities now say the delivered package apparently was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted. "This has been a difficult week and a half for us," Calvo said Thursday. "We lost our family dogs. We did it at the hands of sheriff's deputies who burst through our front door, rifles blazing." The Prince George's County Sheriff's Department expressed sympathy for the loss of Calvo's two Labrador retrievers, but stopped short of apologizing for the incident. "The community is damaged by the continuous drug trafficking," department spokeswoman Sharon Taylor said. "This was not a failed operation, as part of our continuing investigation into drug trafficking." The deputies have said they killed the two animals because they felt threatened. "Of course we understand the pain and suffering by the loss of our beloved pets," Taylor said. "We don't want any of our operations to result in the injury or loss of anybody, and certainly not animals." "

8/7/2008 6:27:02 PM

If anyone did that to my dog, I would give them a reason to arrest me.

8/7/2008 6:28:56 PM

he should be glad he wasn't a UNCW undergrad, they would have killed him for sure then

8/7/2008 6:35:43 PM

I wonder what his legal options are.

8/7/2008 6:37:03 PM

I guess they really will pull that shit on anyone.

Even mayors ain't safe.

8/7/2008 6:41:23 PM

cant a guy hang out with his mother in law in his underwear and socks in peace anymore

8/7/2008 6:44:45 PM

LOL at the crying wife.

A+ effort. Way to give the press a good shot of the anguish.

8/7/2008 6:50:38 PM

another win for the 'war on drugs'

8/7/2008 7:05:14 PM

If we all wore vests and carried guns constantly this wouldn't happen.

(Instead, the cops would call in an airstrike anyone or anything suspected of dealing drugs.)

8/7/2008 7:13:07 PM

actually, if we all had guns, then the drug traffickers proooooobably wouldn't be trying that scheme, but who cares about common sense

8/7/2008 7:28:35 PM

Quote :

"This was not a failed operation, as part of our continuing investigation into drug trafficking."

Yeah, I'm gonna call bullshit here. If you break into the mayor's home and arrest him for nothing, you've failed.

8/7/2008 11:23:33 PM

Quote :

""The community is damaged by the continuous drug trafficking," "

Seems like the community is being damaged by botched drug raids. Her comments are atrocious. What harm could an apology bring?

8/7/2008 11:31:27 PM

This shit finally happens to some white people and it's news worthy? Heh.

8/7/2008 11:35:35 PM

GTFO.

8/8/2008 12:42:32 AM

^^ Honestly that is what I was thinking too. If it had been a house full of immigrants and they cops had destroyed it and found nothing it would not even be on the news.

I hope they mayor uses this opportunity to improve some dangerous policies that are being used.

8/8/2008 12:53:04 AM

Quote :

"During the raid, deputies handcuffed Calvo and his mother-in-law and forced them to lie on the floor near one of the slain dogs' carcasses. Calvo was clad only in underwear and socks at the time."

wtf?

8/8/2008 1:48:49 AM

some lawyers are going to be able to buy a new boat and a beach house when this is all over.

8/8/2008 7:46:25 AM

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/3346862/

8/8/2008 8:12:32 AM

THis reminds me of that Chappele show episode

"shut that fucking dog up!"

8/8/2008 8:35:32 AM

^ i know, me too. I was looking for that video yesterday, but the interwebs seem to be scrubbed pretty clean of Chapelle's Show

8/8/2008 9:33:28 AM

Quote :

" BERWYN HEIGHTS, Maryland (AP) -- The FBI has opened an investigation into how police in Prince Georges County, Maryland, handled a drug raid last month at the home of a small town mayor. In this undated photo, Mayor Cheye Calvo walks with his wife and their two dogs Chase, left and Payton. Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table. Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple's two dogs and seizing the unopened package. In it were 32 pounds of marijuana. But the drugs evidently didn't belong to the couple. Police say the couple appeared to be innocent victims of a scheme by two men to smuggle millions of dollars worth of marijuana by having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients. The two men under arrest include a FedEx deliveryman; investigators said the deliveryman would drop off a package outside a home, and the other man would come by a short time later and pick it up. Now, federal authorities say they're looking into how local law enforcement handled the July 29 raid. FBI Special Agent Rich Wolf said late Thursday that the bureau had opened a civil rights investigation into the case. A furious Calvo said earlier Thursday that he and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, had asked the government to investigate. "Trinity was an innocent victim and random victim," Calvo said outside his two-story, red-brick house in this middle-class Washington suburb of about 3,000 people. "We were harmed by the very people who took an oath to protect us." Reached at his home Thursday night, Calvo said he'd discuss the FBI's investigation the next day. Earlier in the day, Calvo insisted the couple's two black Labradors were gentle creatures and said police apparently killed them "for sport," gunning down one of them as it was running away. "Our dogs were our children," said the 37-year-old Calvo. "They were the reason we bought this house because it had a big yard for them to run in." The mayor, who was changing his clothes when police burst in, also complained that he was handcuffed in his boxer shorts for about two hours along with his mother-in-law, and said the officers didn't believe him when he told them he was the mayor. No charges were brought against Calvo or his wife, who came home in the middle of the raid. Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin High said Wednesday that Calvo and his family were "most likely ... innocent victims," but he would not rule out their involvement, and he defended the way the raid was conducted. He and other officials did not apologize for killing the dogs, saying the officers felt threatened. The FBI will monitor how effective, fair and professional the law enforcement agency behaved during the incident, Wolf said. A police spokesman declined comment Thursday on the FBI investigation. Police announced Wednesday they had arrested two men suspected in a plot to smuggle 417 pounds of marijuana, and seized a total of $3.6 million in pot. Investigators said the package that arrived on Calvo's porch had been sent from Los Angeles via FedEx, and they had been tracking it ever since it drew the attention of a drug-sniffing dog in Arizona. Police intercepted it in Maryland, and an undercover detective posing as a deliveryman took it to the Calvo home. Calvo's defenders -- including the Berwyn Heights police chief, who said his department should have been alerted ahead of time -- said police had no right to enter the home without knocking. But officials insisted they acted within the law, saying the operation was compromised when Calvo's mother-in-law saw officers approaching the house and screamed. That could have given someone time to grab a gun or destroy evidence, authorities said. Neighbors in Berwyn Heights, which Calvo described as "Mayberry inside the Capital Beltway," have rallied around the couple. On Sunday night, supporters gathered on a ball field to pay tribute to the family and the dogs. A banner on the wooden fence around Calvo's yard read, "Cheye and Trinity, We support you, Friends and Citizens of Berwyn Heights." Around it were dozens of handwritten messages from supporters. In addition to being the part-time mayor, Calvo works at a nonprofit foundation that runs boarding schools. His wife is a state finance officer. "When all of this happened I was flabbergasted," said next-door neighbor Edward Alexander. "I was completely stunned because those dogs didn't hurt anybody. They barely bark." The case is the latest embarrassment for Prince George's County officials. A former police officer was sentenced in May to 45 years in prison for shooting two furniture deliverymen at his home last year, one of them fatally. He claimed that they attacked him. In June, a suspect jailed in the death of a police officer was found strangled in his cell. Calvo said he was astonished that police have not only failed to apologize, but declined to clear the couple's names. His wife spoke through tears as she described an encounter with a girl who used to see the couple walking their dogs. "She gave me a big hug and she said, `If the police shot your dogs dead and did this to you, how can I trust them?"' Tomsic said. "I don't want people to feel like that. I just want them to be proud of our police and proud to live in Prince George's County." "

8/8/2008 12:03:57 PM

You can't trust them, kid. The sooner you learn that, the better.

8/8/2008 12:07:01 PM

The way warrants are served now is crazy. Militarization of the police is bad, m'kay.

8/8/2008 12:54:06 PM

I've got a very territorial great dane and one of my biggest fears is some gung ho cop knocking on my door or pulling me over and my dog ultimately getting shot.

8/8/2008 12:59:14 PM

Quote :

"This shit finally happens to some white people and it's news worthy? Heh."

Its a news story because it happened to the MAYOR OF THE CITY you stupid fuck

8/8/2008 1:01:20 PM

Quote :

"This shit finally happens to some white people and it's news worthy? Heh."

I don't know, it seems like every time a no knock raid goes bad it's all over the news. That said, maybe now that government officials are being hit, we'll see this sort of shit get regulated back to extreme cases.

8/8/2008 1:20:38 PM

Quote :

"Its a news story because it happened to the MAYOR OF THE CITY you stupid fuck"

u mad?

8/8/2008 1:32:52 PM

I saw this on the news last night, and what really really bothers me about this incident is the death of the dogs. There better be repercussions for their deaths. I find it extremely hard to believe those dogs acted threatening. Laboradors are pretty calm and friendly dogs, and I doubt the mayor of that town would teach them to be mean and aggressive.

8/8/2008 2:28:02 PM

^^no i'm just pointing out how stupid you are for trying to make this a race issue

8/8/2008 3:21:15 PM

^^ I'd expect any dog to growl when screaming masked men in black storm your house with guns out.

8/8/2008 3:24:46 PM

Quote :

"^^no i'm just pointing out how stupid you are for trying to make this a race issue"

Shit that's been happening to ethnic minorities for years and years happens to white people at long last! News at 11!

Reminds me of how pretty white girls are plastered on the news whenever they stub their toes.

8/8/2008 3:26:40 PM

its been happening to white people for years too...just not to mayors of cities...your white guilt is unhealthy

8/8/2008 3:36:08 PM

^^Dude, if this happened to a black family, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson would already be down there protesting, and it would be front-page news in the media.

Every time a cop raid goes bad in a black neighborhood, we hear about it and how the cops are all racists. Have you not been paying attention?

8/8/2008 3:38:52 PM

Quote :

"I'd expect any dog to growl when screaming masked men in black storm your house with guns out."

as an owner of a full bred chocolate lab, let me tell you that damn near nothing will get them to growl unless you are playing tug o war or a cat swipes them in the face. they are the worst guard dog ever, size notwithstanding.

If someone came busting into my house screaming, my dog would turn tail and run no doubt about it. I don't see what the accounts of what happened here were that different. Fucking cops...I hope they get taken for all they're worth.

[Edited on August 8, 2008 at 3:45 PM. Reason : poor doggie]

8/8/2008 3:44:14 PM

^ I stand corrected.

8/8/2008 3:45:21 PM

I'm fairly certain the cops are as good as fired.

BOSS CALVO WILL SEE TO IT

8/8/2008 3:47:12 PM

i think suburban cops are the worst, and the most dangerous to the public they serve.

big city cops seem to have their sense about them, and understand the concepts of law enforcement priorities. suburban cops get out of college and are all like "oooooh, guns! i get to shoot it next!"

the per capita property value ratio of suburbs allows the police force bigger relative budgets to waste on "accessories" ... the militarized kind.

since departmental oversight is small, and community activists are virtually non-existent ... you have one or two key failures at the top, and the whole damn force gets crooked and/or power-mad.

8/8/2008 5:13:21 PM

Quote :

"big city cops seem to have their sense about them, and understand the concepts of law enforcement priorities"

agree, but they also live in generally more violent places (big cities generally more violent than small towns / suburban areas) so they might be more likely to resort to violence, who knows

8/8/2008 5:54:48 PM

Quote :

"as an owner of a full bred chocolate lab, let me tell you that damn near nothing will get them to growl unless you are playing tug o war or a cat swipes them in the face. they are the worst guard dog ever, size notwithstanding. If someone came busting into my house screaming, my dog would turn tail and run no doubt about it. I don't see what the accounts of what happened here were that different. Fucking cops...I hope they get taken for all they're worth. "

This is why the plural of anecdote isn't data. As the owner of a dog who has only ever barked or growled twice in her entire life (11 years), let me tell you that dogs are damn good at figuring out when things aren't right and tapping into their inner beast. If I let someone into my house, my dog will roll over and wait for a belly scratch. She is the most laid back mutt I've ever known. But the last time she barked, someone unknown was coming in our house uninvited and you would have thought that she was the offspring of Cerberus. That isn't to say that these dogs were or weren't a threat, but just because your dog is normally calm and quiet or jittery doesn't mean when the shit hits the fan they won't defend their family.

8/8/2008 6:16:48 PM

Quote :

"i think suburban cops are the worst, and the most dangerous to the public they serve."

While that may be true, these are not "suburban cops" at least to me. I've been to Berwyn Heights many many times (one of my best friends lives there) and that place is shady. Lots of crime, not a fantastic place at all. I dunno, when I think of suburban, I think of not a lot of crime.

The fact that someone in that article referred to Berwin Heights as "The Mayberry Of the Beltline" made me want to laugh out loud.

8/8/2008 6:27:45 PM

^Exactly. PG county might as well be D.C.

8/8/2008 6:36:14 PM

If somebody shot my dog like this, cop or not, I'd probably want to murder them.

8/8/2008 8:14:00 PM

us big department cops rock out with our socks out

8/8/2008 8:20:48 PM

Who-ever was in charge of this raid should be fired.

The cops who shot the dogs should be fired.

The Sheriff should immediately clear the couple'sr names and publicly apologize...and then lose his next re-election bid.

And this insane 'War on Drugs' should end.

8/8/2008 10:19:04 PM

Fire them and black list them so that they can't just be transferred to some other station and be given cushy desk jobs.

But ultimately, punishing them is just treating the symptoms, not the disease. End this ever-retarded "War on Drugs."

[Edited on August 8, 2008 at 10:59 PM. Reason : blah]

8/8/2008 10:59:27 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/08/maryland.mayor/index.html

Quote :

"In a statement released Friday, Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin High said he called Calvo on Thursday to tell him that in screening the case with the state's attorney's office, "it was concluded that Ms. Tomsic and the Calvo family were innocent victims of drug traffickers.""

8/8/2008 11:20:03 PM

Quote :

"If somebody shot my dog like this, cop or not, I'd probably want to murder them."

Why yes a dog's life is worth a human's life.

8/9/2008 12:07:17 AM

^
It might depend.

If you had to choose who to save.. your dog or Charles Manson. ..who would you choose?

8/9/2008 1:56:21 AM

I'd like to think human lives are worth more than animals.

8/9/2008 2:05:26 AM

lol

[Edited on August 9, 2008 at 4:23 AM. Reason : not loling at you, but loling with you....stepdad tought me that shit forever ago]

8/9/2008 4:23:24 AM