Thursday, August 7, 2008

Local Mayor´s Dogs are Murdered!! WHAT IS HAPPENING TO AMERICA? ARE WE ALL LOSING OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES?

What is Happening??? Why are we ALL losing our Civil Liberties? Can the "powers that be" storm in and shoot up your dogs? Your Family? What is happening in America?!?!? Are we willingly allowing our Civil Liberties to be stolen from us?? This reminds me of Arpaio´s Racial Profiling Sweeps happening now in Maricopa County!!
Mayor wants federal probe after SWAT raids house, kills dogs (CNN) -- 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 an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme. "This has been a difficult week and a half for us," Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, 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 raid last week was led by the Prince George's County Police Department, with the sheriff's special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo's home. Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.
Calvo said he had just returned home from walking his two Labrador retrievers, Chase and Payton, when his mother-in-law told him a package had arrived for his wife, Trinity Tomsic. Moments later, Calvo was in his room changing for a meeting when he heard commotion downstairs.
"The door flew open," he said. "I heard gunfire shoot off. There was a brief pause and more gunfire."
Calvo said he was brought downstairs at gunpoint in his boxer shorts, handcuffed and forced onto the floor with his mother-in-law near the carcass of one of dead dogs.
"I noticed my two dead dogs lying in pools of their own blood," Calvo said. Calvo said his mother-in-law is still recovering from the incident.
"She got the worst of it," Calvo said. "She was literally in the kitchen, cooking a lovely pasta dish, and they brought down the door and shot our dogs." While he was being held, Calvo said, he told police he is the town's mayor, but they didn't believe him. Berwyn Heights has its own
police force, he said, but Prince George's County police did not notify the municipal authorities of their interest in his home or the package.
"They didn't know my name. All they knew was my wife's name. They matched that to the registration of the car," Calvo said. "It was that lack of communication that really led to what has really been the most traumatic experience of our lives." After the raid, arrests were made in the package interception scheme.
The incident has prompted the couple to call for a federal investigation because, they say, they don't believe police are capable of conducting an internal investigation. "They've said they've done nothing wrong," Calvo said. "I didn't sign up for this fight, but I think what we have to do now is make changes to how Prince George's County police and Prince George's County sheriff's department operate." Calvo said authorities entered his home without knocking and refused to show him a warrant when he requested one. But Prince George's County Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Taylor said legal counsel had informed her that "no-knock" warrants do not exist in
Maryland. Taylor said authorities were acting on a warrant issued based on information available to them at the time. "This warrant was for permission to search the premises," she said. "The special operations team that supported us made a decision about the necessity of entry at the point of being on the scene." "No-knock" warrants have drawn criticism before. In Atlanta, Georgia, Kathryn Johnston, 92, was shot to death by police in a botched drug raid involving such a warrant in November. Taylor, a self-described dog lover, expressed sympathy for the loss of Calvo's dogs, but stopped short of apologizing for the incident.
"We've done these similar kinds of operations over and over again, to the tune of removing billions of dollars of drugs from the community and without people or animals being harmed," she said. "We don't want any of our operations to result in the injury or loss of anybody, and certainly not animals." The deputies have said they killed the two animals because they felt threatened. "I would say that the dogs presented a threat, I would imagine, to the special operations situation," Taylor said. Meanwhile, Calvo and his wife said members of the community have expressed sympathy and concern about the incident.
At a news conference Thursday, Tomsic tearfully recalled a recent encounter with a neighbor who used to wave at the couple as they walked Payton and Chase. "She gave me a big hug," Tomsic said. "She said, 'If the police shot your dogs dead and did this to you, how can I trust them?' "

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the dogs were threatening to attack the officers then I would say they had every right to defend themselves.

Anonymous said...

Patriot, you don't know the PG police very well. They are incompetent scumbags. Go to www.wtopnews.com - our local news channel - and read the comments on this story. You'll see what PG citizens have to live with. Try searching for stories about PG county law enforcement in general. Every other week they commit a new outrage. I hope the Mayor succeeds in getting a Federal investigation, and I hope the Feds clean out that cesspool one and for all.

Dee said...

Bugs, Welcome to my blog. I hope you come back often. I plan on keeping track of this story!! What the heck is happening to our Civil Liberties in America!?!

Anonymous said...

"Patriot"-you should not use big words you do not understand-

Patriot:
"a person who regards himself or herself as a defender, esp. of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government"
How dare you call yourself a patriot while defending actions such as these? Perhaps if it were your home, your pets, your family you would feel differently. Anonymous is right, our civil rights are being taken right from under our noses with nary a whimper. Wake up people.

Anonymous said...

If a public official is open to this kind of travesty, we common folk don't have a prayer. Living your life as a law-abiding citizen is not a guarantee of anything anymore. I find this really frightening. I don't know if I'm more afraid of criminals or our government anymore. It reminds me too much of what my Great-Grandparents endured in Germany, pre-WWII.

Anonymous said...

read the story Patriot... one of the dogs was RUNNING AWAY FROM THE COPS. They opened fire not only for no reason, but without even a warrant to enter the house and BAD info to boot that would have had any warrant the gotten torn up in from of court. They broke at least 9 local state and federal laws in conducting the investigation and raid. They didnt even have proper jurisdiction... they where denied access to the area by the town police TWICE and violated their restrictions (which county cops are known to do all over the country)

The swat team should be reprimanded and the country sherif tried for animal cruelty since thats about the only thing they could try him for that will produce jail time.

Pro Immigrant said...

Patriot has water from his own Chocolate.!!!!!
Another clearly violation of Moral, Humane and Civil rights Liberties ? Pat; Are you blind or this is another way to demonstrated your narrow minded personality? I am totally condemned this violation of the Humane, Moral and Constitutionals rights for any Human being.

Pro Immigrant said...

Patriot has water from his own Chocolate.!!!!!
Another clearly violation of Moral, Humane and Civil rights Liberties ? Pat; Are you blind or this is another way to demonstrated your narrow minded personality? I am totally condemned this violation of the Humane, Moral and Constitutionals rights for any Human being.

Anonymous said...

These violations of civil rights need to come to an end. A similar event happened to me. I was ushered from my home at gun point (three guns to be exact). My home was searched. I committed no crime, and I was never charged with any thing. When I publicly complained, I was told by the police that I should be quit or "bad things" will happen to me. Was that a death threat by the police?

Within the last month a man was tasered seven time, and he died at the hands of a police officer. The police tactics are out of line! A traffic stop is not suppose to be a life and death issue. One false move at a traffic stop and you are dead! What is going on? That is not acceptable conduct. That is conduct that I expect in Iraq not the United States.

I think it is time that people protest the excessive use of force by the police! Publicly send a message.

Anonymous said...

dee, if I had called someone an idiot in here you would have deleted my post but because anon is a pro-illegal you let their post stand. What is with this double standard?

It is not commonplace for an incident such as this one to occur. Claiming that all of America is losing it's civil liberties because of this one is a hube stretch. Guess we should be use to it in this blog though.

Anonymous said...

outraged, I didn't defend these officers per se. What I said is "IF" the dogs were threatening to attack the officers they had every right to defend themselves. Try working on your reading comprehension abilities.

Anonymous said...

dee, allowing anon's posts to stay while calling me an idiot without even a warning from you, shows you up for the hypocrite that you are!

Anonymous said...

It's hard to believe this is happening in America. What the hell is wrong with the authorities? Why can't they just knock at the door like civilized people and announce that they are the police? I'm so sick of people being terrorized by this insane drug war. It's turning this country into Nazi Germany complete with S.S. squads busting down doors and shooting innocent people and their pets. It can't be too much longer before we fire up the furnaces at the death camps. Just look at what happened in Ohio where some Nazi cop shot a mother holding her child during a drug raid. And this scum got acquitted. This crap is out of control.

Anonymous said...

This is exactly why we need to secure our borders with a fence and every other method available to stop the drug runners, illegal aliens and terrorists. Those who complain about so-called Nazi tactics on the part of law enforcement have no reason to complain if they don't support border security to the fullest.

Dee said...

Pat, I just came on. Havent been on since last night at 9. It appears a number of new viewers are commenting on this post, many neither pro nor anti.
This is an important issue. I am going to give this blog just a little more leeway.

Anonymous said...

dee, anon is obviously a pro-illegal. You said you wanted civil debate. Calling someone an idiot over and over is not civil debate. Why should they be given extra leeway on this particular topic? You certainly don't give me any leeway on those kinds of remarks at least not without a warning. I will be waiting.

Dee said...

Pat, I will ask ALL participants remain civil going forward. Now back to the topic.

Anonymous said...

On the face of it, this looks like police brutality. This is the first I've read of the story. So, what is the story with the drugs? Is the mayor's wife dealing or using drugs? Or was this mistaken identity?

Anonymous said...

why not just delete the comments by those who were not civil just like you delete pat's? with a click all those comments are gone.
sounds like this would be fair to pat, one of your regular posters.

Anonymous said...

Dee, I really like your profile and description of your goals.

Patriot, I respect your patriotic spirit a lot and I agree that the officers have a right to defend themselves. I do, however, believe that they highly over-reacted by pulling the trigger on the lab dogs, one that was running away.

The government, police and every other such entity is made BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE - and not AGAINST the people.

Dee said...

Dianne, What is weird about this story is the police sent a marijuana package to the home as a type of sting operation. The package was recieved that same day that they storm trooped the home. The poor mother in law took the brunt of the assault by the SWAT team. Poor lady. And the dogs. I cannot image what I would do if my dog were shot like that! I am going to look at the website Bugs provided and see what else the swat teams are doing in the area.

Dee said...

Readers, I am checking with eBlogger to see if I can edit words in a comment without deleting a comment.
Now back to topic.

Anonymous said...

just delete the comment like you delete comments by pat and others that you don't like.

Dee said...

Update to the story: BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. (AP) - 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 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.

Dee said...

I dont get it. If the police knew this, "Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted."

Then why on earth did they storm troop in?

Dee said...

Can you believe this part:
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.
---
The poor little grandma. They said she COMPROMISED the operation when she screamed. Yikes!! I know I would scream in the same situation!!

Dee said...

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.

Anonymous said...

wow pat, i started reading the comments from this blog, I didn't realize you made this much impact on so many ppl's lives, you've got quite a fan-base

Dee said...

Dear New Anonymous Commenter, Ive been thinking about your comments. I appreciate your passion and I want you to share them with us and keep coming back. However we do not allow name calling (eg: idiot). I tried to figure out a way to keep your comment by just taking out the one word, but I cannot find an edit in eBlogger that allows this. Therefore I found it necessary to delete your comments when you called someone by that name. (Same Rules for ALL) Please continue to visit and comment, just no name calling, ok?

Dee said...

The Mayor is on MSNBC right now. He has been exonerated. The FBI is investigating. He is calling for systematic change so citizens´ Civil Liberties are NOT violated again. (I like the Mayor!!)

Dee said...

I posted a youtube of an earlier interview the mayor did with a local news station. It is in the upper right hand corner of my Home page.

Just another Guy said...

Under the guise of justice and In the interest of saving us from ourselves the "system's" impetus has become predominately hysteria. This fear driven system now takes hostages, shoots first, and asks questions later with little or no visible signs of remorse upon discovery of their own misreading and ultimately atrocious mishandling of this traumatizing debacle.

Adding insult to injury the primary mentality within the system is to clamor tenaciously for the "Ain't no flies on us zone" and on into covering spin mode with thier press.

Where is the accountability in this? Or has the definition for accountability changed to include "when cameras are rolling?"

Fortunately for the Mayor, his wife and mother in law they may yet possess the substantial "juice" it would seem one needs, at alarmingly increased incidence, to get sufficient exposure it would seem necessary these days for justice to prevail (i.e. at very least: = "Trigger Happy" needs a new m.o.) in these situations

When did: Reaction trumps response, become our public servants modus operandi? We need better heads with a deeper understanding, appreciation and sense for the concept of community service at the heart of "law enforcement" it is not simply about authority people! Some appreciable level of sensitivity and logical rational must be a prerequisite for stewardship of this public trust.

It is not you against us! We are you! You are us! This is OUR community!

This system needs to be overhauled, these people need to be retrained.

Just another Guy said...

Sorry about the repetition. First time responding in this forum.


Cheers, Just another guy

Dee said...

Just Another Guy, Thank you! I appreciate your thoughtful response. (I will delete your duplicates for you.) Please come back often.
I have been reading the comments on YouTube about this event. You are absolutely right. We are losing our civil liberties and maybe it is good that someone with the "creds" the Mayor and his family have were subject to this event. This has been happening a number of times to just regular people in our country. No one cares if their civil liberties were violated. Perhaps now that it is someone as credible as the mayor that was violated we will see correction in the system. I certainly hope so!!

Anonymous said...

dee, i have to commend you for deleting the insults to pat.

Anonymous said...

I agree and it was the fair and right thing to do. The rules should apply to everyone no matter what their political views are.

Just another Guy said...

It stands to reason that all subsequent damages resulting from initial inappropriate actions would not be justifiable If: charged as resident authority you are malicious or negligent in the commission of your duties or responsibilities, i.e. sleeping while charged with keeping a post could get you a court martial in the military and you could be held responsible for say the deaths of the members of your team were death to come to one or more members of the unit that you were charged with responsibility to keep sentry for. Another example is when robbery "accidentally" becomes homicide, whether one acted with prior explicit intent to rob and not murder would become irrelevant. If death of a victim occurs during the commission of robbery it becomes homicide and one would be charged accordingly.

This specific incident has the appearance of overzealous Gestapo like arrogance, replete with hastily gathered, virtually nonexistent intelligence.

Hello ... uh ... this is the Mayors house!!

How hard could it have been to find that out? If only they would have contacted the local authorities.

Was it absolutely necessary to deliver the "package" to a house where so little was known of whom it was to likely be found in residence? Ever heard of Google? Weren't the planners of this sting responsible for the performance of reasonable levels of reconnaissance for the sake of safety for members of their own team? Is there any one who feels as if reasonable intelligence gathering standards were met? Care to come forward and stake your career on it?

I gotta tell ya this looks like the orchestration of a big overblown, egocentric, chest thumper of a production and It begs the question: Was this supposed to turn out to be some inflation device for a department consisting of already overstuffed egos looking for another boost ... another ..."fix?"

It's not like this couldn't possibly occur. This "syndrome" occurs a lot more than society might care to recognize or admit within male dominated groups. Been there before! On multiple occasions. it's real! We are known to incite one another toward brazen feats at times.

It will be interesting to find out if intelligence existed confirming the dogs residence and if so what prior contingencies were made to shoot them upon entry.

Oh and the job of handling the old lady ... guys I'm sure that you didn't shoot the dogs right there in front of her ... ... ... but if you did hey ... that's what Saint Johns Wort is for right!?

A mention to the commendably high bar you've set here Dee regarding name calling. I agree that there is no viable place for name calling in such a forum. It is a testament to your integrity deleting the foul.

Having said that, Patriot while I would defend your right to your opinion and have a U.S. Marine Corps service record to that effect. I do not agree with your assessment of this matter. it appears that "every right" may not have been within the officers providence as it pertains to the initiative of this matter. Looks like they screwed this up pretty badly from the very beginning. It would seem at very least that they botched their intelligence quite badly and intelligence is very much their providence. They are supposed to be the resident experts. They acted as the resident experts. It would stand to reason that they would be accountable as the resident experts. This incident was a failure and a miscarriage of justice. I am far from alone in the failing marks that I am assigning to the "authorities" conduct.

I will also say that given the breadth of your comment with all that you could have said, with all that you had the opportunity to illuminate, that your choice of comments showed your indifference to the anguish of the bereaved here. You struck me as insensitive and unsympathetic as well and I feel that I would generally choose not to associate with your likes.

Getting back to the issue at hand as to wether these "law enforcers" were justified in any shooting in this case goes back to due diligence or the lack thereof. Everything that occurred beyond their initial mishandling is damages that they are responsible for in my opinion. This incident, at least the killing part of it, could have and should have been avoided. The level of tyrannical incompetence displayed by "authorities" in this incidence is intolerable and must be selected out by society's logical trends in evolutionary aspirations.

Dee said...

JustAnotherGuy, I like your thinking! Very detailed and interesting to read.

Probably the saddest thing about this event is it is not isolated. It happens all the time.

The biggest difference is, this time they did this to a Mayor. Hopefully the authorities will be more careful of innocent citizens going forward.

Anonymous said...

just another guy,

quit being such a drama king as far as patriot is concerned. you stated your case about the attack and how it was wrong, but to try and tell another person to think and speak like you is wrong. as far as associating with patriot, I am sure he feels the same way about you.

Dee said...

news update on this story: A small-town mayor whose dogs were killed in a drug raid was cleared of any wrongdoing. Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin High said Friday he called Berwyn Heights, Md., Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, on Thursday to say they were no longer suspected in a drug smuggling scheme. A SWAT team raided their home July 29 after intercepting a package of marijuana shipped to Tomsic. Officers shot the two dogs and kept Calvo and his mother-in-law bound for nearly two hours.

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