A couple of weeks ago, Mayor Cheye Calvo of Berwyn Heights, MD and his family were treated to a lovely visit by Prince George County police.  After tracking a package containing 30 pounds of marijuana to the mayor’s home, SWAT stormed in, shot the mayor’s two black Labradors, and then questioned the handcuffed mayor and his mother-in-law for two hours, surrounded the entire time by the carcasses of their dead dogs.  As it turns out, the marijuana did not belong to the Calvos, and the police have since arrested two FedEx deliverymen who were operating a smuggling operation out of their delivery vans.  Even better, the cops didn’t even have the proper no-knock warrant for their home invasion.  The good news, though, is that the FBI is now investigating the actions of the County police.

The FBI has opened an investigation into how police in Prince Georges County, Maryland, handled a drug raid last month at the home of a small town mayor.

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…

Now, federal authorities say they’re looking into how local law enforcement handled the July 29 raid. FBI Special Agent Rich Wolf said late Thursday that the bureau had opened a civil rights investigation into the case…

The FBI will monitor how effective, fair and professional the law enforcement agency behaved during the incident, Wolf said. A police spokesman declined comment Thursday on the FBI investigation.

I seriously doubt, however, that the FBI will find any fault with the police conduct in this case.  As Radley Balko points out, this story is really only unique in that the victim happened to the city’s mayor.  Shooting the dog is pretty much official policy in police departments these days.  If the FBI comes down on the police in this case, then police the whole country over might have to get over their irrational fear of housepets.  Still, at least there is some hope that the investigation, along with the media coverage, will get some cops to think twice before blasting scared and fleeing Labrador retrievers.  Fido shouldn’t be the victim of our senseless and ineffective war on green, leafy plants.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Civil Liberties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.