Go hug your pet!

I want everyone here to go hug their dog/cat/bird/lizard/large fuzzy spider when they get home today.

Via Reason's Hit&Run Blog which is via an article from the Washington Post.

Internal Investigation: Slaughter of Mayor's Dogs During Botched Drug Raid Justified
The dogs ... were running away from the cops! RUNNING AWAY.

It should be noted for those of you not familiar with the case that one officer remarked the raid was "very exciting" and she "looked forward to more in the future" according to reports from the Mayor.

When was the last time anyone ever saw an aggressive Lab? Hmmm? Those dogs will bark their heads off until they get close enough ... to lick you to death.

This shit makes me fucking sick. Of COURSE the "internal review" found nothing wrong. That, ladies and gentlemen is nothing but cronyism. Gotta protect your brother and sister cops because they can't do any wrong, the system can't appear to be broken so bullshit like this and corruption gets covered up all the time.

So ... Fuck the Prince George Police Dept., fuck their supposed "internal investigation, fuck the war on drugs, and please ... go home and hug your pets.

*takes a deep breath* Okay ... I'm better now, still furious, but better.

That's just sick.

If that were true, I'd still be here.

It's just lame and a sorry excuse to say they shot the dogs because they felt threatened when proof shows that one of them was running away. That is not aggression by any means on the part of the dog, just those particular police officers involved. Sounds like that PD didn't do a complete and thorough job of and internal investigation. I wonder what they would have done had that been a person running away!!

I don't ever expect cops to do a real investigation of their own actions. The thin blue line exists and they will protect each other through thick and thin because ... well they're the arbiters of justice after all.

The problem is that these raids, these 'no-knock' SWAT style raids are being used more and more and are often and are killing innocent people, harming innocent people, and damaging their property (Including peaceable pets!).

I become more and more convinced that the idea of a 'good cop' is a myth.

Re-reading the article, and this was the MAYOR's house & dogs?!? What the hell?

If that were true, I'd still be here.

Yup. Of course my response is, why does it make any difference whether it was the mayor or a local mechanic?

Oh and for the record, the case involved someone trying to ship 32 lbs of pot via ... wait for it ... FedEx.

You'd think the cops could figure this one out or at least have the decency to ASK what the hell was going on.

It doesn't and shouldn't matter. But one would think the Mayor would have the power to make their lives miserable for their actions, unlike Joe Blow local mechanic.

If that were true, I'd still be here.

Sure, until he "accidentally" gets shot for answering his cell phone and the cop thought it was a gun....

Sick cops. They should be in jail with Michael Vick.

We shouldn't arm ourself for war, arms are for hugging

This is FUCKED UP! My eyes won't stop dripping with tears, because that's so fucking sick. If I had pets, I'd hug them. My childhood pet, which still is alive and happy is at my parent's house-a lab-the sweetest dog ever! :'(

Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Yup. I went and gave my pooch a big hug. Jackbooted, trigger-happy thugs!

People that are not smart enough or caring to properly wield lethal force should not be allowed to. This was over marihuana…

The use of lethal force on retreating animals? wow

There are ACTUAL REAL reasons why the founding fathers believed in the things they did regarding government and citizen protection.

Some people are only alive because you are not allowed to kill them.

Found this from the mayor;

While in my bedroom upstairs, while changing and only in boxer shorts, I heard my mother-in-law scream and then heard our front door being broken open and gunshots being fired. I thought our home was being invaded. I feared for my life and fell to the floor. No one announced themselves as law enforcement.

Downstairs, the officers shot Payton immediately upon entering the house. Payton's body was located on the floor near the entry to the kitchen where he was hot some distance from the front door. Chase, our four-year-old Lab, was shot in the back by the officers in the rear of the house while running away. Neither dog attacked or "engaged" law enforcement, as claimed by the county sheriff.

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 and I then were interrogated by police. 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. Finally, after nearly two hours, the officers released the restraints on my mother-in-law and me after I complained about losing feeling in my right hand. The officers ultimately decided not to arrest me or any member of my family and indeed found no evidence linking any of us to the box's contents.

Yesterday, Melvin High, the outgoing chief of the Prince George's County Police Department, announced the arrest of two men, including a Federal Express delivery man, who participated in a scheme to use the overnight service to ship as much as 417 pounds of marijuana using the addresses of innocent and unsuspecting residents to ship the contraband. Chief High said that, in addition to Trinity Tomsic, five or six other innocent county residents had been subject to such ficticious deliveries.

Although they were listed as addresses, the deliveries never reached them because they were intercepted by the Federal Express employee. Like my wife, they were victims of identity theft. Their names were used to allow drug traffickers to ship marijuana through the Federal Express overnight delivery service.

The law enforcement officers who entered our home did so without knocking and broke through the door. Since 2005, Maryland law has required a no-knock warrant. Last Saturday, the spokesperson for the county police stated that the court had issued a no-knock warrant. This is untrue. Law enforcement neither sought nor obtained a no-knock warrant. Indeed, no warrant was ever presented to us during the evening of the police raid.

Yesterday, the county sheriff justified the killing of our dogs because they had engaged the deputies. This is false. The officers were aware of the presence of dogs in our house before they entered. They had seen me walking the dogs, both black Labs, moments earlier. They opened fire on our dogs as soon as they broke our door down. One dog, Payton, was shot near where he was found near the entrance to our kitchen some distance from the front door. The second dog, Chase was shot in the back while running away and was found in the rear of the house, where he had been shot.

Without ever investigating what happened or speaking to us, both the sheriff and the county police chief have announced public conclusions in this case defending the raid. More disturbing, we now have received reports of similar misconduct involving other innocent homeowners, including invasion of the homes of other innocent country residents and killing of other innocent family pets. This appears to be a pattern and practice in our law law enforcement agencies where a lack of training and supervision is apparent. There are also significant questions as to why our county's sheriff's department, whose statutory mission does not involve drug enforcement, should be executing drug raids.

It is clear that our local law enforcement agencies have a culture of disregarding Maryland's no-knock statute and ignoring the rights of innocent occupants and their pets. It is also clear that our county law enforcement agencies cannot discipline or investigate themselves.

On behalf of my wife, Trinity Tomsic, my mother-in-law, Georgia Porter, and myself, I request that the Civil Rights Division investigate the circumstances surrounding the invasion of our home and killing of our dogs on July 29, 2008. I also request the division to investigate the pattern and practices associated with search warrant executions by the Prince George's County Police Department and Sheriff's Department.

An obsession is a terrible thing to waist.
Passion once put in motion ....

There is a problem in this country when people don't trust police officers or their federal counterparts.

Hint: The problem isn't with the citizenry.