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More Police Abuse of Civilians - Cops Kill Family Dogs

Cityboy

Banned
Of course the police say it was just "an unfortunate" incident. Whoever ordered this raid should be prosecuted criminally, and forfiet all personal assets to pay for the pain and suffering of this family. These assholes had no reason to bust down the door and kill the dogs. fuc&ing morons. :furious: This kind of shit pisses me off big time. This is nothing more than out of control, macho, door-kicking, civil rights violating jack asses that deserve the highest punishment possible. This sounds a lot like something that you would expect to happen in China or Russia, but not here.

There's a video on this web link:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-mayor0807,0,4563211.story

From Friday's Sun

Prince George's raid prompts call for probe

Berwyn Heights mayor denounces police tactics

By Doug Donovan | Sun reporter 8:18 PM EDT, August 7, 2008

When the shooting stopped, two dogs lay dead. A mayor sat in his boxers, hands bound behind his back. His handcuffed mother-in-law was sprawled on the kitchen floor, lying beside the body of one of the family pets that police had killed before her eyes.

After the raid, Prince George's County police officials who burst into the home of Berwyn Heights' mayor last week seized the same unopened package of marijuana that an undercover officer had delivered an hour earlier.

What police left behind was a house stained with blood and a trail of questions about their conduct. No other evidence of illegal activity was found, and no one was arrested at Mayor Cheye Calvo's home in this small bedroom community near College Park.

This week Prince George's police arrested two men for orchestrating a plot to deliver marijuana to the addresses of unsuspecting recipients -- among them, Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic.



Related links

  • Cheye Calvo, Trinity Tomsic Photo
  • 41489272-07115907.jpg


    In this undated photo provided by Cheye Calvo, he and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, walk their Labradors

Yet neither county Police Chief Melvin C. High nor Sheriff Michael A. Jackson have apologized to him, his wife or her mother, Georgia Porter, for the raid that traumatized the family and killed their black Labrador retrievers, Payton and Chase.

Thursday, Calvo called on the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division to investigate the raid and other similar actions by Prince George's law enforcement. He said officers burst into his house without knocking or announcing themselves, in violation of the warrant they had.

"Trinity was an innocent and random victim of identity theft. Apparently, so were four or five other county residents whose names and addresses were stolen and used as addresses on drug packages," Calvo said at a news conference outside his house, near a garden of tomatoes and strawberries.

"However, Trinity and our family have not been treated as victims of a crime. Instead, our home was invaded. Our two beloved Labrador retrievers are dead. My mother-in-law and I were tied up for nearly two hours," he said. "We were harmed by the very people who took an oath to protect us."

Berwyn Heights police Chief Patrick A. Murphy appeared with the mayor Thursday and said his agency was never informed of the investigation, despite an existing memorandum of understanding to work together on such operations.

He said not knowing about the raid could have led his officers to fire upon the sheriff's SWAT team because its members were wearing street clothes, masks and carrying weapons as they approached the mayor's house.

"What about the safety of my officers?" Murphy said. If consulted, he added, "We could have gotten the mayor to put the dogs away and consent to a search."

Police officials in Arizona first intercepted the package when a drug-sniffing dog alerted them to the presence of marijuana. It was addressed to Tomsic. An undercover officer in Prince George's delivered the package near 6 p.m. and was told by Calvo's mother-in-law to leave it on the porch, according to Calvo's attorney, Timothy Maloney.

Prince George's County police arrested two men involved in a scheme to transport marijuana. Once packages were dropped off by a deliveryman, a suspect would pick them up -- with the addressee oblivious to the plot. Police seized a half-dozen packages that contained about 417 pounds of marijuana, including the 32 pounds delivered to Tomsic, the Associated Press reported.

Last Tuesday, the mayor arrived home from his full-time job as an executive with SEED Foundation, which establishes urban public charter schools. He took the unopened package inside and placed it on a table near the door. He changed clothes and walked the dogs, waving to the men and women sitting in cars near his home. He did not know they were police.

He returned and went upstairs to get dressed for an event. As he changed clothes, SWAT team members darted across the fenced-in lot. Porter, 50, was cooking artichokes in the kitchen and screamed when she saw the approaching masked men with guns.

The door was kicked in and gunshots rang out, Calvo said. Police killed one dog, Payton -- named for football running back Walter Payton -- even though Porter was standing next to him.

Police have said the dogs "engaged" officers. Calvo confirmed that Payton probably moved toward the door but would have ultimately done nothing more than lick them.

"He was an aggressive licker," said Calvo.

Cheryl Compton, a neighbor, said her two sons, 5-year-old Cody and 7-year-old Ty, played with the mayor's dogs all the time, and that everyone but the Prince George's County police knew where Calvo lived.

"I would have let them stay in a yard by themselves with those dogs," Compton said. "It really upsets me to think that I don't feel safe in my home. If they were to shoot our dog, Amber, I would be outraged."
 

DaveNay

Klaatu barada nikto
SUPER Site Supporter
This sounds a lot like something that you would expect to happen in China or Russia, but not here.


It's a good thing we haven't lost the right of protection from unreasonable search and seizure that the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution provides in this country.
 

thcri

Gone But Not Forgotten
Yeah, well, shit happens, sorry. But the OP did not have my colorful and entertaining commentary.

You don't need to be sorry. I do it all the time and so do others. I just thought you would like to read all of the comments in the other one. :thumb:
 

thcri

Gone But Not Forgotten
Maybe you can combine them with my superior thread title? :whistling:


I will have to see what I can do. But I kind of like the other title to because it is not just an average civilian, it is the mayor as listed in the other thread. Now I think that is cool that they hit their own mayor.
 

thcri

Gone But Not Forgotten
CB,

Do you remember our governor before. Jessie the Body Ventura, he was mayor of Brooklyn Park or Brooklyn Center before Governor, could you imagine what this guy would have done if his house was bashed in and his dogs killed. Some of them so called police I don't think would be alive today.
 

Cityboy

Banned
I will have to see what I can do. But I kind of like the other title to because it is not just an average civilian, it is the mayor as listed in the other thread. Now I think that is cool that they hit their own mayor.

Well, what is the mayor, if not an ordinary citizen who ran for and won elective office? No matter how you slice it, this is a clear case of abuse of police power and a demonstration of macho SWAT bullshit.
 

thcri

Gone But Not Forgotten
Well, what is the mayor, if not an ordinary citizen who ran for and won elective office? No matter how you slice it, this is a clear case of abuse of police power and a demonstration of macho SWAT bullshit.

Not disagreeing with you one bit, but I think the fact that it was a mayor it got a lot more publicity.
 

Cityboy

Banned
Not disagreeing with you one bit, but I think the fact that it was a mayor it got a lot more publicity.

Agreed. This will get a lot more attention than Joe Smith getting abused. These morons stepped in it this time. At least maybe the ball will get rolling to reign in these door kicking asses.
 

dzalphakilo

Banned
He said not knowing about the raid could have led his officers to fire upon the sheriff's SWAT team because its members were wearing street clothes, masks and carrying weapons as they approached the mayor's house.

People wearing masks, with no police markings on their clothes, carrying guns approaching a house?

Lets see, two white, middle aged (appearing to be) man and wife with two labs in a middle class house?

Personally, I would of loved to see the mayor kill everyone of those misinformed bastards as they came into his house.

That said, I'd be very surprised if a lawsuit wasn't coming with a big dollar sign attached to it. Think it would be hard for jury not to say "skip the trial, pay them the money, whatever they ask for".
 

Big Dog

Large Member
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
MD LEO's sure are quick on the trigger even though it's a nice safe place because no law abiding person can carry a gun in the state but the special people (ex-LEO and the like).

It's virtually impossible for the common resident to get a permit in MD but yet it always appears these liberal, gun-restricting states (MD, IL, NY, CA) have the most aggressive LEO organizations. Communism at it's best!

I guess, "better to ask forgiveness than a get a warrant" is their motto!
 

Jim_S

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
WJLA Channel 7 in DC

The reporter mentions Accokeek in the last couple of paragraphs. Anyone want to guess what County in Maryland this is?

Mayor and Wife Exonerated in Drug Smuggling Scheme
posted 8:21 pm Fri August 08, 2008 - BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md.


The Prince George's County Police Department officially exonerated Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife Trinity Tomsic in the investigation of a major marijuana smuggling scheme.

According to a statement, police and the State's Attorney's office "concluded that Ms. Tomsic and the Calvo family were innocent victims of drug traffickers."
"We've known it all along," said Cheye Calvo. "Our community and the people who have known us knew that all along. So it's not news to us - but we clearly want our names cleared. But this issue goes so much deeper than that now."

County narcotics detectives and the Sheriff's Department's SWAT team raided the mayor's home July 29, breaking down the door and fatally shooting the mayor's two black Labrador retrievers.

Investigators had been watching as Calvo brought a box with 32 pounds of marijuana into his home. The FedEx box was addressed to Tomsic and had been intercepted by law enforcement. Investigators believe a smuggling ring was using the addresses of unsuspecting people to smuggle marijuana into the country. Investigators have arrested two people in connection with the alleged ring, including a contract deliveryman for FedEx. Police say several other county residents received similar shipments.

But while Calvo is glad to be officially exonerated in the matter, he remains convinced the police and sheriff's deputies who raided his home and killed his dogs did so without the proper authority.

"We need an impartial, thorough investigation of this case," said Calvo. "And we believe the facts will spell out a lot of information that can then be used to move our county's law enforcement agencies in a constructive direction."

The FBI has launched an investigation of the raid. Agents are likely to look at other examples of law enforcement raids that resulted in the deaths of pets.

Last November, ABC 7/NewsChannel 8 brought you an exclusive story about a sheriff's department raid on a home in Accokeek.

Deputies raided the wrong address, and, even after learning of the mistake, shot and killed the family dog, a boxer named Pearl.
The Human Society of the United States on Friday called on law enforcement nationwide to review training and equipment for dealing with pets encountered in the line of duty.
 
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