Residents honor mayor, slain dogs at rally.

[KayLaw]

Source: Washington Post

"I never imagined when I set out to protect people from the crooks and the criminals, that I would have to protect them from my fellow officers." Quote from Chief of Police, Patrick Murphy.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/03/AR2008080301636.html

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This was discussed over the weekend. Pot-sniffing dogs detected marijuana in a box in Arizona and the police intercepted it and delivered it to the address marked on the box in Maryland. They posed as delivery men and waited until the homeowner took it into his house. Soon after they raided the house, which happened to belong to the town's mayor, immediately shot his black lab, and then shot his other lab, who was running away, in the back.

Now, these same cops are changing the investigation and focusing on the possibility that the box was meant to be intercepted by a drug dealer. The drug smugglers use this technique and the cops knew, all too well.
I guess they can't figure out how to track the boxes to catch the dealers so they decided to intercept the box, deliver it to the address marked on the box, then bust the recipient!

Had they bothered to contact the local police, they would have known the person the box was addressed to was the mayor's wife. This could easily happen to anyone. Anyone can mail anything to your house and there's nothing you can do about it.

[hlthe2b]

1. I remain as angry about this as if they'd killed my own dogs...

Labs, for God's sakes.... They are not aggressive dogs!

Let alone the whole ridiculous premise behind the swat visit....

[pattmarty]

2. Sue the fucking shit out of them!!!! That is the only way this type of crap will stop.

[yellowcanine]

10. Guess who gets to pay if they do sue? Not the Swat team members. Prince George's County residents.

Of which I am one. I am getting sick and tired of my tax dollars being used to pay for the excesses of the sheriff's department and the police.

[High Plains]

12. And speaking of PG, who killed Ronnie White?

Remember from about a month ago, the guy who ran over and killed a cop, then was murdered in his secure, solitary jail cell? Any arrests on that one yet? I didn't think so.

You're right, PG has had a serious law enforcement problem for years. Why don't the good citizens do something about it?

[pattmarty]

15. Then, get together with other "good" people there and vote the fuckheads out.

[yellowcanine]

20. See my discussion of this in post # 16. It is not that easy. Militarized policing is popular.

No politician would get elected on a platform of "Let's get rid of the SWAT teams" and hire guidance counselors and school nurses with the money we save.

[Faygo Kid]

3. Chilling. An outrage. Heads must roll.

No decent person in Maryland should rest until people are fired and/or jailed because of this. Whoever shot those dogs is a sadistic killer who should in no way wear a uniform.

And I say that as a Maryland resident. We are not going to let this one go.

[DS1]

4. I'd have to leave town and go far away if someone shot my dogs like that

Series.

[bahrbearian]

5. So they Busted in and Killed a Republicans Dogs

Now we get headlines. Maybe now we can review how swat teams should be used. No Knock warrants, kill many Innocent People every year. I wonder why they didn't wait till 3a.m.?

[AndyTiedye]

6. If They Had Done This to Anyone Except the Mayor, We Never Would Have Heard About It

[KayLaw]

9. True

And the mayor made that point.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. Prince Georges County.

Law Enforcement down there is off the rails.

[hedgehog]

8. I have a question for you:

Law enforcement there is off the rails?


This so-called war on drugs has been a waste of time, money and lives.

[High Plains]

13. PG is especially ugly. It has been for years.

[yellowcanine]

16. It is not just PG County. PG County is a large urban county. Police forces have been "militarized"

to a large extent. It is no longer just public safety. It is how big and bad assed a police force can we have? SWAT teams, with the encouragement of the Dept of Homeland Security get equipment and training that is more appropriate for a war zone than for domestic police work. It is easy to say, "Why don't the good citizens do something about it?" but the truth is a lot of the "good citizens" support this kind of crap. No they don't like to see pets get killed, in fact they probably get more upset about a couple of dogs getting killed than an innocent person. But in fact there is a lot of public support for this kind of policing. As long as our society in general continues to think that more firepower and aggressive policing can pacify our neighborhoods this shit will continue to occur.

[High Plains]

19. No argument here.

[pattmarty]

22. Yeah, unfortunately you are right in these times.

[L0oniX]

11. In that case let's all send crack to Bush and Cheney.

[wordpix]

14. the war on drugs must end! WTF? Swat team says Labs were threatening---with their wagging tails?

:shrug: :wtf:

[yellowcanine]

17. My lab/Aussie cross gets pretty aggressive emptying out his water bucket.

Could be seen as a threat to a police officer.

[Trillo]

18. First they came for the Pit Bulls, Rotweillers, and Dobermans,

then they came for the Labradors and Poodles.

[yellowcanine]

21. Don't forget the wiener dogs. And OMG the Jack Russels.

A Jack Russel will make a eunuch out of you before you know what has happened.

[Vidar]

23. The thugs that did this should be fired from the force & then quietly

beaten to a pulp by concerned citizens.