SWAT team raids mayor's home, kills pet dogs

[seamusTX]

A SWAT team raided the home of the mayor of a small town in Maryland, shot the family's pet dogs, and handcuffed the occupants for about an hour.

The raid was triggered by a seized parcel of mail containing marijuana and addressed to the house. Apparently the drug smugglers would ship drugs to random addresses and intercept the parcels. (I would like to see a better explanation of that.)

The raid was conducted by the county sheriff's office and not coordinated with town police.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... 3211.story

This is scary stuff, people. It could happen to anyone.

- Jim

[SCone]

Doesn't appear they even bothered to check out who lived at the address prior to the raid. They certainly have access to the info & then not even contact local police... this could have been very bad. SWAT officers could have been met with an armed home owner responding to a break-in. Much more than two dogs could have been lost.

[boomerang]

Why should the mayor get treated differently than the construction worker or the computer programmer?

[bryang]

This is truly disturbing. Certainly if it could happen to a Mayor, then how much more could it not happen to us. It seems like more and more we read about these kind of raids on innocent people taking place. This is the first time I have heard about drug dealers shipping drugs to unsuspecting homes and then intercepting it.

What if the mayor, who thought his home was being invaded by armed robbers, had a gun and tried to defend his family?

-geo

[The Annoyed Man]

They shot the man's dogs.

It ain't right.

[seamusTX]

Why should the mayor get treated differently than the construction worker or the computer programmer?

He shouldn't, but I would expect law enforcement to know the name of the mayor. His name is Cheye Calvo. That's not quite like being named Fred Smith. Government officials attend a lot of events like emergency planning meetings together, and I'm thinking most of them know each other.

The fact that the sheriff's office did not coordinate with local police opened up the possibility that the resident could call 911 about a violent intrusion, and the local police could respond in a way that would make a lot of people unhappy.

- Jim

[KBCraig]

This is the first time I have heard about drug dealers shipping drugs to unsuspecting homes and then intercepting it.

From Balko:
Since the raid last week, we’ve learned that police have arrested two men in conjunction with a scheme using delivery services to ship marijuana across the country. The plan was for operatives within the companies to intercept the packages before they reached their targets. The destination addresses may have been random, or simply chosen because of their location along routes convenient to the scheme. In fact, the Washington Post reports in the story linked above that some packages were accidentally delivered, at which point operatives went to the houses of the innocent people who’d received them to ask for their return.

In this case, police found (through a drug dog) the package while it was in transit. The police were the ones who actually delivered the package, so obviously the operative couldn't divert it at that point.

This also brings up an interesting question about the validity of the warrant: how can a warrant be legitimate, if police already know the named thing is in the house, because they put it there?

What if the mayor, who thought his home was being invaded by armed robbers, had a gun and tried to defend his family?

He'd either be charged with capital murder like Ryan Frederick, convicted like Cory Maye, or killed on the spot like Kathryn Johnston.

Killing dogs has become almost automatic when SWAT teams are used to serve warrants. The term "puppycide" is used to refer to this practice.

[pbwalker]

He'd either be charged with capital murder like Ryan Frederick...

That kind of stuff makes me angry...

Good thing we're continuing the biggest waste of money war this, or any country, has ever seen...the War on Drugs..

[OverEasy]

Does this part of the story bother anybody?
"SWAT team because its members were wearing street clothes, masks and carrying weapons as they approached the mayor's house."
I would open the door if a uniformed officer knocked and I could confirm his ID.
Howerver, I myself would most likely OPEN FIRE if men in street clothes and masks tried to break into my house. What are these people thinking these days?
I hope the whole SWAT team and all the supervisors end up in jail for this one.
I won't say anymore, OE

[SCone]

Why should the mayor get treated differently than the construction worker or the computer programmer?

It doesn't makes any difference that he's the mayor, but I would have thought someone would check out who lives at the address. If for no othere reason than to know who they are going after. Without knowing, the raid could have been on a heavily armed drug dealer? Or a foster home full of kids?

I would want to know who's house I'm about to burst in on.

[hi-power]

Does this part of the story bother anybody?
"SWAT team because its members were wearing street clothes, masks and carrying weapons as they approached the mayor's house."
I would open the door if a uniformed officer knocked and I could confirm his ID.
Howerver, I myself would most likely OPEN FIRE if men in street clothes and masks tried to break into my house. What are these people thinking these days?
I hope the whole SWAT team and all the supervisors end up in jail for this one.
I won't say anymore, OE

Of course we'll have to wait until the real truth comes out, (since the first few news stories concerning something like this are sometimes wildly inaccurate), but if this part proves to be true, it would have been a very stupid thing for the SWAT team to do, especially in light of recent stories of home invasion robberies and murders around the country.

Not being in Law Enforcement, I don't know if they had a duty to inform the local department of their impending actions, but it seems to me the prudent thing to do in case the local department has any useful information on the occupants that may help with SWAT team safety. That's when they would have found out who lived there, and they might not have gone rushing in expecting a fire-fight. Not saying they should give the mayor special treatment, but they might have done things differently had they known he wasn't the usual scumbag drug dealer with attack dogs.

And the dogs...there's got to be a better way to handle them. How about lobbing a flash-bang grenade as soon as the door is breached in every case? I'd bet even the biggest, toughest dog would be found afterwards trying to dial 911 from under the bed! Even in the small town I live, the SWAT team goes out of their way to NOT shoot dogs. They formulate a plan ahead of time to deal with dogs that they believe to be a threat.

Sounds like these SWAT guys were in too much of a hurry and at the very least they put their own safety at risk. Now they've got to deal with all the mistakes that were made because of it. What was this guy going to do with 32 lbs. of pot in a couple of hours? Smoke it all? As long as he didn't leave the house, it wasn't going anywhere. He might have had time to open it up by then and call the local police when he found out what was in it.

[Liberty]

Sounds like these SWAT guys were in too much of a hurry and at the very least they put their own safety at risk. Now they've got to deal with all the mistakes that were made because of it. What was this guy going to do with 32 lbs. of pot in a couple of hours? Smoke it all? As long as he didn't leave the house, it wasn't going anywhere. He might have had time to open it up by then and call the local police when he found out what was in it.

He probably would have called the cops when he finally got around to opening it. The shame of this is that this is becoming so commonplace that it isn't even news anymore. Its difficult to tell who is the bad guy anymore. Is it the pot smoker or the dog killing door smasher? These tactics of the SWAT teams seem excessive except in the most extreme of situations.

[WildBill]

These tactics of the SWAT teams seem excessive except in the most extreme of situations.

Sometimes these "raids" could be accomplished by a simple knock on the door. I hope they don't get an award for this.

[bryang]

These tactics of the SWAT teams seem excessive except in the most extreme of situations.

Sometimes these "raids" could be accomplished by a simple knock on the door. I hope they don't get an award for this.

I agree... I don't understand why they have to revert to military tactics and besides, I think the article said that the package was address to the Mayor wife... they had the name of who was in the house before they kicked the door in!...and kill the dogs!

-geo

[MrsFosforos]

One of the things I can't believe is that they didn't run a background check on the name when they saw the address label.How could they not have known it was addressed to the mayor's wife?

It makes it seem like they were running a trot line and planned to catch a big fish.