Cops raid home, kill two dogs (labs)

And, yet another update:

http://www.theagitator.com/2008/08/08/the-berwyn-heights-drug-raid-the-police-keep-digging/


I'll be following this story.

Dead dogs aside, this practice either has to be curbed with reasonable restrictions (which are enforced) or banned. Its not only a huge violation of people's civil rights; when combined with the brutality of the police in some of the raids and the "blame the victim" mentality of the police force and the public goes beyond the realm of "tough policing" into police state thuggery.

This may be the end of this kind of raid . .. we can only hope . . . because this time they raided a white, upper-middle class elected offical who, better yet, is almost certainly innocent.

The commentary's worth a read . . . this guy summed it up pretty well:

The FBI will be investigating:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/07/AR2008080702161.html

opcorn:opcorn:opcorn:

No one cares until it happens to an upper middle class caucasian politician . . .

Isn't that true.

Well, yes and no. You care, I care, Renee cares. Many dog owners care. Many activists for minorities care.

But does the mainstream press care? (generally its libertarian or dog bloggers who notice, I suspect some minority sites, but I can't confirm that) Does Mr. Jones down the street care (does he even know)? Does your Congressman care? Does the police force care? Does the mayor care? (Unless he's the victim).

Of course people care or I couldn't have posted that earlier link barrage . . . but does SOCIETY care? Nope, pretty much not until this, at least with the dogs. Kathryn Johnson made national news, but most of these make the local press, if that, EVEN when a human dies. The couple in the same county who had their boxer killed on a wrong door raid last year? Brief note in the WaPo, no updates. They were white, but lower middle class. If they'd been black and poor, I doubt we would have heard about it at all. I'm generally not one of the "society is racist" people . . . I think its more class than race. But its true . . . when this was happening mostly to poor people, and most of those people were brown or black, there was little outcry . . . let it happen to a nice white suburbanite, and suddenly the public wakes up . . . because they realize . . . IT CAN HAPPEN TO THEM. To Mayor Calvo's immense credit, he is aware of this and has made a point of saying so.