The "War on Drugs" ruins another family...and kills their dogs
The five-page Washington Post article linked above ran on February 1, 2009, and I saw a link to it today. In summary, the cops in Prince George County were tracking some drug trafficking that was being run as blind shipments to innocent people, with the drug runners watching the houses and grabbing the package before the people got home. The cops intercepted a package at the delivery depot, and delivered it themselves as part of a sting operation. They decided the best method of dealing with the situation they created was to send in a 20+ person SWAT team, terrorizing the man living there, his mother-in-law, and killing his two black labs, all before the man's wife got home from work. Needless to say, there was no warrant issued (let alone a surprise warrant), nothing was found in the home except the box delivered by the cops themselves, and they are of course not apologizing or even offering to exonerate Cheye and Trinity Calvo in the media.
And people wonder why I am terrified of the police. The fact that this sort of event can happen with no repercussions at all to the cops involved is a heinous crime, far higher than just about anything the cops could possibly have been investigating. This man's dogs were shot multiple times, one four times in the face and the other twice in the behind as it tried to run away up the stairs. They never had a chance, and they never showed threat - except in the minds of the adrenaline-addled SWAT team members who were super excited that they got to hold people down at gunpoint to look for drugs they themselves had delivered earlier in the day. Their blood was all over the house, as they both bled to death in different locations. The cops' response after killing the dogs? To call Animal Control for the disposal of "two canine corpses."
My biggest fears at this time in my life are for something to happen to my dogs that I cannot protect them from, and this is a prime example of that sort of nightmare. I worry about Chris as well sometimes, but he is a human who can understand situations and handle himself should such a crazy event happen - but my dogs are not. I really don't know what I would do in the position of Cheye and Trinity, but it would not be pretty. Every member of that SWAT team should be pulled from active duty for at least a year, and the leaders who decided on the drug delivery followed by the raid should be ejected from the police force and brought up on charges of entrapment and slaughter. Somehow, I don't think it will ever happen, and this scenario will continue to repeat itself until one day this ridiculous "War on Drugs" finds a rationality that is sadly lacking today.
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