Let’s face it, the war on Marijuana in this country is a bloody war on the citizens of the United States, many of whom have nothing to do with Marijuana. They are simply caught in the cross fire of oppression and heavy handed tactics by unscrupulous law enforcement and run-away policies fueled by ignorant politicians who don’t really care about their own constituents.

On July 22, 2008 in Berwyn Heights, MD, the mayor of Berwyn Heights and his family were attacked by armed assailants, salaried by the sheriff’s office. They burst into their home, shot their two Labrador retrievers, Chase and Payton, even though these agents of the law knew this family had nothing to do with the Marijuana that was just delivered to their house by an overnight express company. It was part of a larger elaborate scheme they had been aware of for quite some time.

After the incident, the department investigated itself and not surprisingly, had found nothing wrong with breaking in a home that was not complicit with the marijuana deal, with guns drawn and shooting innocent family members. From their paradigm, it’s ethical, moral, and legal to break into someone’s home and shoot them.

On Monday, June 22, the mayor held a press conference and asked the federal government to intervene.

“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.”

What happens when you catch a criminal outside of a TV store holding a television in his hand and a gun in his back pocket? He is going to say, “I didn’t do anything wrong”. These agents of the law are nothing more than a bunch of armed redneck wannabe criminals who enjoy busting into people’s houses and shooting their family members for the simple sake of a killer adrenaline rush.

Ronald Reagan said in a speech, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” It’s unfortunate but the Mayor has learned a lesson; We live in a police state where our government, state & federal, are at war with American Citizens.

We live in a country where more than 800,000 citizens were arrested for simple Marijuana possession and more than 20,000,000 Americans toked up last year, and 60,000 people are in prisons in America on marijuana violations only. Politically speaking, more than 70% of the United States is in favor of legalized Medical Marijuana, while outright legalization is supported by more than 40% of the population!! One would believe the United States Government would be more responsive to the wants and needs of the American People and draft legislation approving and regulating a medical Marijuana program on the federal level. I suppose this would be the case if we lived in a free country.

Many of you may very well live in an area like me where the community leaders are adamantly against Marijuana in any form, including conversation. Last August, I wrote my congressman only to have three belligerent police officers knock on my door and threaten me with incarceration for writing his office. What would you do if three armed soldiers came to your door and ordered you to stop writing to your congressman asking for his support on a bill? [If you live in Texas like me, you comply or die; complaints aren't acknowledged.]

The oppression and condemnation against Cannabis users in the United States is based on bigotry and ignorance, at such a level that we generally only see in dictatorships or developing countries. For instance, look across the great pond of the Atlantic Ocean for a moment at Persia (Iran). The citizens of Iran had their election stolen by an tyrant, and when they take the streets to complain, they are beaten and shot by police. Doesn’t their plight sound similar to the plight of American cannabis users in this country? [When I typed the first draft of this blog, I gave it to a friend of mine who sits on the bench of a family court in Texas. He scoffed at my reference to the similarities between Iran and the United States, until I gave him the second draft; he is no longer laughing.]

In this long list below are just a few of the victims of the war on Cannabis, or rather, the War against American Citizens. I hope that you take the time to read each story, note the age and similarities between these people and you and your family. Anyone of these cases could have your name in them. If we, as a nation, don’t take action, then Armed American soldiers will come to your home, beat you, murder your children, lock you up in a cage, and then it will be too late.

Let’s do something about this right now. Take Action by Supporting NORML.

Support ANY organization that helps to stop the systematic murder and incarceration of Cannabis Users! Be brave, be bold, write your congressman, write your senator, write our nation’s new drug Czar, write your Governor, write the president, and most importantly, be safe. There are a number of ways that you can directly support NORML’s effective and longstanding law reform activities:

1.) Join and Support NORML/NORML Foundation
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4.) Tired of anti-marijuana politicians? Consider donating to NORML’s Political Action Committee!

“We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can fly only by embracing each other.” -lucian de crescenzo

Derek Copp - shot by a cop serving a warrant for simple possession. Only little bit of Marijuana was found and Derek was lucky to survive.

John Adams - 64yrs – Shot to death during a SWAT drug raid while watching TV. The house didn’t match the description on the warrant.

Xavier Bennett - 8yrs old – Xavier was accidentally shot to death by officers in a pre-dawn drug raid during a gunfight with one of Xavier’s relatives.

Delbert Bonnar - 57yrs – Shot 8 times by police in drug raid. They were looking for his son.

Rudolfo “Rudy” Cardenas - 43yrs – Rudy was a father of five who was passing by a house targeted by narcotics officers attempting to serve a parole violation warrant and the police mistakenly thought he was the one they were there to arrest. They chased Cardenas, and he fled, apparently afraid of them (they were not uniformed). Cardenas was shot multiple times in the back. Dorothy Duckett, 78, told the Mercury News she looked out her fifth-floor window after hearing one gunshot and saw Cardenas pleading for his life. “I watched him running with his hands in the air. He kept saying, ‘Don’t shoot. Don’t shoot,’” Duckett said. “He had absolutely nothing in his hands.”

Jose Colon - 20yrs – Jose was outside the house where he had come to repay a $20 debt, when a drug raid on the house commenced. He was shot in the head by SWAT.

Troy Davis - 25yrs – During a no-knock raid to find some marijuana plants he was growing, he was shot to death in his living room. There are disputed accounts regarding whether he had a gun.

Anthony Andrew Diotaiuto - 23yrs – Anthony worked two jobs to help pay for the house he lived in with his mother. He had permit for a concealed weapon because of the areas he traveled through for his night job. Sunrise police claimed that he had sold some marijuana, and because they knew he had a legal gun, decided to use SWAT. Neighbors claim that the police did not identify themselves. Police first claimed that Anthony pointed his gun at them, and later changed their story. Regardless, Anthony was dead with 10 bullets in him, and the police found 2 ounces of marijuana.

Annie Rae Dixon - 84yrs – Bedridden with pneumonia during a drug raid. Officer kicked open her bedroom door and accidentally shot her.

Patrick Dorismond - Patrick was a security guard who wanted to become a policeman. He was off-duty and unarmed when he went out with friends. Standing on the street looking for a taxi, he was approached by undercover police who asked to buy some marijuana from him. Patrick was offended by the request (he didn’t use drugs), and a scuffle ensued. Dorismond was then shot to death by the police.

Shirley Dorsey - 56yrs – Rather than being compelled to testify against her 70-year-old boyfriend (Byron Stamate) for cultivating the medicinal cannabis she depended upon to help control her crippling back pain, Shirley Dorsey committed suicide. She saw it as the only way to prevent the forfeiture of their home and property. Despite her suicide, Stamate was sentenced to 9 months prison, and his home, cottage, and $177,000 life savings were seized.

Juan Mendoza Fernandez - 60yrs – Police found a variety of drugs when they raided the Fernandez’ home. However, Juan apparently believed he was the victim of burglars during the raid, and was shot while trying to protect his 11-year-old granddaughter. He and his wife had been married 36 years and had four children and 13 grandchildren.

Curt Ferryman - 24yrs – Undercover agents were attempting to arrest Ferryman, who was in his car and unarmed. A DEA agent walked up to his car and shot him in the head execution style as he sat in the car. No charges were ever filed.

Derek Hale - 25yrs – A medically retired (disabled) Marine Sergeant who served two tours in Iraq, was peacefully sitting on the front stoop of a house, when police in unmarked cars who had him under surveillance (believing based on his acquaintances that he might be part of a narcotics ring) pulled up and tasered him three times, causing him to go into convulsions and throw up. Because he had not gotten his hand free from his jacket quickly enough (while convulsing) an officer then shot him point blank in the chest with three .40 caliber rounds. Hale’s widow has filed a civil lawsuit.

Willie Heard - 46yrs – SWAT conducted a no-knock drug raid, complete with flash-bang grenades. Heard was shot to death in front of his wife and 16-year-old daughter who had cried for help. Fearing home invasion, he was holding an empty rifle. The raid was at the wrong house.

Clayton Helriggle - 23yrs – Clayton was shot to death while coming down the stairs during a surprise raid. He was carrying either a gun or a plastic cup, depending on the report. Less than an ounce of marijuana was found.

Esequiel Hernandez - 18yrs – Hernandez was shot and killed by a Marine sniper in camouflage who was part of a military unit conducting drug interdiction activities near the Mexican border. Esequiel was out herding his family’s goats and had taken a break to shoot at some tin cans with his antique rifle.

John Hirko - 21yrs – An unarmed man with no prior offenses was shot to death in his house by a squad of masked police. In a no-knock raid, they tossed a smoke grenade in through a window, setting the house on fire. Hirko, suspected of dealing small amounts of marijuana and cocaine, was found face down on his stairway, shot in the back while fleeing the burning building. When the fire was finally put out, officers found some marijuana seeds in an unsinged plastic bag. The Town of Bethlehem settled the resulting lawsuit for $7 million+ and an agreement to reform police department procedures and training.

Lynette Gayle Jackson - 29yrs – Shot to death in her bed by SWAT team.

Kathyrn Johnston - 88yrs – Kathryn lived in a rough neighborhood and a relative gave her a gun for protection. When she noticed men breaking through her security bars into her house she fired a shot into the ceiling. They were narcotics officers and fired 39 shots back, killing her. The police had falsified information in order to obtain a no-knock search warrant based on incorrect information from a dealer they had framed. After killing Johnson and realizing that she was completely innocent, they planted some marijuana in the basement. Eventually their stories fell apart federal and state investigations learned the truth. Additional facts have come to light that this was not an isolated incident in the Atlanta police department.

Officer Ron Jones - 29yrs – Officer Jones was in the process of serving a drug warrant, based on an informant tip. While trying to enter the rear of a duplex, he broke into the wrong apartment and was shot by the resident, Corey Maye, who had no prior record and was protecting his daughter. No drugs were found. Maye was charged with capital murder, and sentenced to death. Corey Maye was a Drug War Victim waiting to happen. Fortunately, his death sentence was eventually overturned and he is now serving life in prison.

Tony Martinez - 19yrs – Officers conducted a drug raid on a mobile home in De Valle. Martinez, who was not the target of the raid, was asleep on the couch when the raid commenced. Hearing the front door smashed open, he sat up, and was shot to death in the chest.

Peter McWilliams - 50yrs – Peter was a world-famous author and an advocate of medical marijuana, not only because he believed in it in principle, but because it was keeping him alive (he had AIDS and non-Hodgkins lymphoma). After California passed a law legalizing medical marijuana, Peter helped finance the efforts of Todd McCormick to cultivate marijuana for distribution to those who needed it for medical reasons. Federal agents got wind of his involvement, and Peter was a target for his advocacy. He was arrested, and in federal court was prevented from mentioning his medical condition or California’s law. While he was on bail awaiting sentencing, the prosecutors threatened to take away his mother’s house (used for bail) if he failed a drug test, so he stopped using the marijuana which controlled his nausea from the medications and allowed him to keep them down. He was found dead on the bathroom floor, choked to death on his own vomit.

Ismael Men a – 45yrs – Mena was killed when police barged into his house looking for drugs. They had the wrong address.

Pedro Oregon Navarro - 22yrs – Following up on a tip from a drug suspect, 6 officers crowded into a hallway outside Navarro’s bedroom. When the door opened, one officer shouted that he had a gun. Navarro’s gun was never fired, but officers fired 30 rounds, with 12 of them hitting Pedro. No drugs were found.

Cheryl Noel - 44yrs – Substitute Sunday School Teacher Cheryl Noel possessed a registered handgun, which she kept in her bedroom (9 years earlier, Cheryl has lost her 16-year-old stepdaughter in a shooting murder). On January 19, just before 5 am, police burst into her home using flash-bang grenade and battering ram looking for drugs. Both Cheryl and her husband were asleep in the master bedroom. Suddenly awake and fearing an armed intrusion, Cheryl grabbed her gun. Police kicked in the bedroom door and shot her 3 times.

Mario Paz - 65yrs – Mario was shot twice in the back in his bedroom during a SWAT raid looking for marijuana. No drugs were found.

Charmene Pickering - 27yrs – Charmene was a passenger in a car driven by a drug suspect. State troopers and DEA agents were in the process of arresting the driver when the trooper’s gun went off and hit Charmene in the neck, killing her. Both passenger and driver were unarmed.

Manuel Ramirez - and Officer Arthur P. Parga – At 2 am, police smashed down the door and rushed into the home of Manuel Ramirez, a retired golf course groundskeeper. Ramirez awoke, grabbed a pistol and shot and killed officer Arthur Parga before other officers killed him. Police were raiding the house based on a tip that drugs were on the premises, but they found no drugs.

Deputy Keith Ruiz - 36yrs – Ruiz was a husband and father who was a veteran of numerous SWAT raids. In the process of serving a drug warrant, he was trying to break down the door to a mobile home occupied by painter Edwin Delamora, his wife, and two young children. Confused by the raid at night, Delamora yelled to his wife that they were being robbed and shot through the door, killing Ruiz.

Donald P. Scott - 61yrs – Government agencies were interested in the property of this reclusive millionaire. A warrant was issued based on concocted “evidence” of supposed marijuana plantings, and a major raid was conducted with a 32-man assault team. Scott was shot to death in front of his wife. No drugs were found. A later official report found: “It is the District Attorney’s opinion that the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department was motivated, at least in part, by a desire to seize and forfeit the ranch for the government. Based in part upon the possibility of forfeiture, Spencer obtained a search warrant that was not supported by probable cause. This search warrant became Donald Scott’s death warrant.”

Alberto Sepulveda - 11yrs – Alberto was killed by a shotgun blast to the back while following police orders and lying face down on the floor during a SWAT raid. He was a seventh-grader at Prescott Senior Elementary School.

Isaac Singletary - 80yrs – Isaac lived in a rough neighborhood and often brought out his gun to chase off drug dealers. So when he saw a couple of low-lifes conducting transactions on his lawn, he came out with it again and told them to get off his property. Except they were undercover narcotics officers so they shot him. Isaac managed to get a shot or two off in response, but the officers were able to finish him off.

Gary Shepherd - 45yrs – When a Kentucky drug task force came to uproot his marijuana plants in August 1993, pot-grower and Vietnam vet Gary Shepherd told them, “You will have to kill me first,” took out his rifle and sat down on his front porch. That evening he was shot dead in front of his infant son. Despite the fact that Shepherd never fired a shot and his family was pleading with authorities for negotiations, state police sharpshooters appeared from the brush without warning and opened fire when he refused to drop his rifle.

Alberta Spruill - 57yrs – Police, acting on a tip, forced their way into Spruill’s home, setting off flash grenades. She suffered a heart attack and died. It was the wrong address.

Ashley Villareal - 14yrs – Ashley went outside at night with a family friend to move their freshly washed car under shelter. DEA agents, interested in her father, were staking out the house, and believing that her father was driving, shot and killed Ashley. The agents did not have a warrant for her father. Read The Murder of Ashley.

Kenneth B. Walker  - 39yrs – Walker and three companions were pulled over in an SUV by police in a drug investigation. No drugs or weapons were found, but Walker was shot in the head. Walker was a devoted husband and father, a respected member of his church, and a 15-year middle-management employee of Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Deputy David Glisson, who killed Walker, was fired three months later for failing to cooperate in an investigation into the assassination, but was never charged.

Accelyne Williams - 75yrs – Accelyne was a retired Methodist Minister and substance abuse counselor. After an informant gave police a bad address, a SWAT raid was conducted on the minster’s home. The door was battered down, Williams was tackled to the floor and his hands tied behind his back. He died of a heart attack.

Tarika Wilson - 26yrs – Tarika was a single mother of six. Lima police executed a SWAT raid with guns drawn to arrest her boyfriend on small-time drug dealing charges. Officer Joseph Chavalia was upstairs when the sound of the other officers shooting Wilson’s dogs downstairs startled him. He killed Tarika in an execution style shooting, who was unarmed, on her knees, holding her 14-month-old son and complying with orders to get down on the floor (her son was shot twice but survived). Chavalia was cleared of any wrong-doing.

The two black labrador retrievers murdered by police - click picture to learn the full story of the raid

(Washington Times) A small-town mayor whose two black Labradors were killed by Prince George’s County authorities during a raid at his home last summer complained Monday of a “paramilitary culture” within the sheriff’s department as he announced a lawsuit.

Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo said he filed a lawsuit Monday in Prince George’s County Circuit Court against the state of Maryland and officials at the county sheriff’s office and police department. Mr. Calvo is seeking unspecified damages and a court order forcing the county to revise how authorities execute warrants, treat animals and detain individuals.

“We had hoped that the sheriff’s office and county police department could exercise internal leadership to acknowledge wrongdoing and make these changes on their own,” Mr. Calvo said in a statement. “But their comments and actions over the last year made clear that they lack the will and credibility to do so.”

The lawsuit claims that authorities’ failure to knock or announce their entry, the “cold-blooded” killing of the dogs and the “degrading detention” of Mr. Calvo and his mother-in-law, were the “direct and proximate result of a rogue, paramilitary culture” within the sheriff’s department.

The defendants acted “intentionally, with an evil and rancorous and improper motive, with ill will and actual malice,” the lawsuit states.

Of course the sheriff’s office didn’t make any changes to their dog-murdering and citizen-degrading policies… what, you want them to take all the fun out of police work?

Mayor Calvo is right about the “paramilitary culture”; it’s the psychology all soldiers must employ in war.  The enemy (we pot smokers) is dehumanized and attacks on the enemy must be engaged with enough “shock and awe” that the enemy is overwhelmed physicially and psychologically.  A bullet or two in your beloved canine best friend shows you who’s in charge and how serious they are and if you dare oppose them, you’ll get a bullet as well.  Sitting you handcuffed on the floor in your dead dog’s pool of blood further dehumanizes you and asserts allied forces’ dominance over the battlefield.

Sadly, this is a story so very common (see my collection of dog shooting stories) that it usually doesn’t even make the news unless, like Mayor Calvo, the victims are white and well-connected, the dogs aren’t Rottweilers or pit bulls, and no marijuana is found in the raid.

These police canicides are nothing short of domestic terrorism.  I live in Oregon.  My wife is a medical marijuana patient and I am her caregiver.  I would really like to grow our own marijuana plants.  When I mentioned this to my wife, she said, “No, no, no!  What if there is some big mistake and the cops raid our house and shoot Roscoe?”  We’re a continent away from Berwyn Heights, we’re protected by a medical marijuana law, and we live in the most pot-friendly county in Oregon, and yet this incident and others like it still has terrorized my wife into thinking a pot plant will lead to our dog’s murder.

Killing of Mayor’s 2 Dogs Justified, Pr. George’s Finds – washingtonpost.com
The Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Office has concluded in an internal review that its deputies were justified when they shot and killed two dogs belonging to the mayor of Berwyn Heights during a July drug raid, Sheriff Michael Jackson said yesterday.

The sheriff said that one dog was engaging an officer and that the other was running toward a second officer at the time the black Labs were shot, but the ruling did not satisfy the mayor, who said the inquiry was incomplete and misleading.

According to the necropsy, 7-year-old Payton was shot four times, twice in the chest and twice in the head. One of the shots entered through his mouth and lodged in the back of his neck.

Four-year-old Chase was shot twice. One bullet entered the dog’s back left leg, then lodged in his right back leg. The other entered his side and passed through his chest.

“The report confirms what me and my family saw, heard and lived and makes it clear the sheriff was not telling the truth,” Calvo said.

He said the number of gunshot wounds to the two dogs indicates that the violence used in the raid was “unbelievably excessive.”

Jackson said the department looked at each shooting in detail. The first dog was engaging officers near the front door, he said. The second was shot, he said, as it ran away from the deputy who fired and toward an officer standing in an adjacent hallway with his back turned.

Calvo said there was no way a deputy shooting from the kitchen could have seen another officer in the hallway as Jackson described. He called on the sheriff’s department to release photos taken of the dogs the night of the raid, which he said will prove the point.

The Sheriff’s Office did this internal review without interviewing Mayor Calvo or his mother-in-law, both of whom sat in handcuffs near the collecting pool of blood from the first shot dog.  What did they expect the officers involved in the raid to say, that the dogs were not threatening and the second dog was actually running away, as Mayor Calvo asserts?  Of course the cops are going to say the dogs were attacking, because part of the standard operating procedure in these drug raids is to kill the dogs as a “shock and awe” means of pacifying the victims of the raid.

Questioning the killing of the dogs misses the larger point: are the police ever justified in breaking in and terrorizing citizens over marijuana?  There was more violence committed by cops in that drug raid than is committed by a thousand stoners in a year!

US MD: FBI to Review Raid That Killed Mayor’s Dogs
An attorney came forward yesterday to allege a possible pattern of animal abuse by the sheriff’s department. Michael Winkleman said he is representing another family whose dog was shot by sheriff’s deputies in November, along with a woman who is suing the department for searching her home without a warrant and threatening to shoot her dog.

In the first case, Winkleman said, sheriff’s deputies arrived at the Accokeek home of Frank and Pamela Myers with a warrant for another house on their street. After the couple informed the deputies of their error, they continued to question the couple and looked around their home.

As they spoke, the couple’s 5-year-old German boxer began barking in a yard, out of sight. Soon after, according to Winkleman, the couple heard gunshots, and they found the dog shot to death. He said the family is preparing to file suit.

In another case, Upper Marlboro resident Amber James has filed a $4 million lawsuit accusing sheriff’s deputies of searching her home without a warrant in May 2007 while looking for her sister, who lived in Capitol Heights. According to the suit, deputies falsely claimed to have a warrant and searched every room of the home. When they did not find the sister, the suit alleges, they threatened to return the next day and search again, saying that if they did, James’s dog would be dead.

Some lawyers and leading law enforcement groups said deputies should have known to do everything possible to avoid killing Calvo’s dogs.

Courts across the country in recent years have ruled that it is almost always unacceptable for police to kill pets in the course of searching a home. Cases in three federal circuits have found that killing pets amounts to unreasonable seizure.

Killing dogs is considered a “last resort,” said John Gnagey, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, a group that provides tactical training for police departments and is advocating a national accreditation system for SWAT programs.

Uh-huh, sure it is.  A commenter on the story at DailyKos points out:

Killing the dogs is standard operating procedure in SWAT raids. It is intended to terrorize the “perps”, SHOCK and AWE them into absolute and immediate submission. The message is, “Yeah, that’s right, I killed your dog, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. We have the authority and power to do this and if you don’t STFU and do exactly as I say then you’re next.”

Any claims to the contrary are bullshit.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pr. George’s Police Arrest 2 In Marijuana-Shipping Plot – washingtonpost.com
Prince George’s County police announced yesterday that they have arrested a deliveryman and another man who they say are involved in a scheme to smuggle marijuana by shipping packages addressed to unsuspecting recipients, including a delivery last week to the wife of the mayor of Berwyn Heights.

The county Sheriff’s Office SWAT team and narcotics officers raided the home of Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, after intercepting a package addressed to her that was filled with 32 pounds of marijuana. During the raid, officers broke down Calvo’s door and fatally shot the family’s two black Labrador retrievers.

Police said the package was one of about a half-dozen retrieved by authorities in the past week along the route of a deliveryman in northern Prince George’s. The packages contained a combined 417 pounds of marijuana valued at about $3.6 million.

So the mayor and his wife may be the completely innocent victims of a large-scale marijuana shipping plot?  You’ve rounded up six packages on this guy’s delivery route, but you just couldn’t wait to put the pieces together without dressing up like Rambo and terrorizing who you thought was an “evil doper”?

The Washington Post wrote an editorial on this case called “Shoot First, Ask Later”:

…[T]he deputies, guns drawn, kicked in the door, stormed the house and shot to death the Calvos’ two Labrador retrievers, one of them, apparently, as it attempted to flee. The canine threat thus dispatched, the mayor — in his briefs — and his mother-in-law were handcuffed and interrogated in close proximity to the bloodied corpses of their dogs.

Wihin an hour, it seems, the police concluded that something was seriously wrong and that there was at least a strong possibility that the Calvos — whose home contained not the slightest evidence of involvement in the drug trade — were unsuspecting victims.

Unfortunately, these drug busts run amok are not an uncommon occurrence.  Drug War Victims tells many stories of people not as lucky as the Calvos – people shot to death during drug raids, many of whom either weren’t the intended suspect or just happened to be home when SWAT teams served a warrant at the wrong address.

The purpose of a no-knock warrant (which these police didn’t have) is so police can have the element of surprise when busting violent bad guys with guns, before they can destroy the evidence of their crime.  Think of a cocaine dealer with a handgun and the ability to easily flush powder down the toilet.

Did the police think that 32 pounds of marijuana could easily be flushed down a toilet?  Did the home have a fireplace where it could be easily burned?  And why does any of that matter when you’ve already tracked a 32 pound package with the man’s address on it and it’s tested positive for weed?  And did they really think that the mayor of this suburban bedroom community was a thug-4-life brandishing a TEC-9 in his home to protect his weed dealing?

Turns out, they really didn’t have a “no-knock” warrant.

Pr. George’s Officers Lacked ‘No-Knock’ Warrant in Raid – washingtonpost.com
Prince George’s County authorities did not have a “no-knock” warrant when they burst into the home of a mayor July 29, shooting and killing his two dogs — contrary to what police said after the incident.

Judges in Maryland can grant police the right to enter a building and serve a search warrant without knocking if the judge finds there is reasonable suspicion to think evidence might be destroyed or the officers’ safety might be endangered in announcing themselves.

A Prince George’s police spokesman said last week that a Sheriff’s Office SWAT team and county police narcotics officers were operating under such a warrant when they broke down the door of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo, shooting and killing his black Labrador retrievers.

But a review of the warrant indicates that police neither sought nor received permission from Circuit Court Judge Albert W. Northrup to enter without knocking. Northrup found probable cause to suspect that drugs might be in the house and granted police a standard search warrant.

After the raid, police found the unopened package, containing 32 pounds of marijuana, in the house.

Calvo has said that sheriff’s deputies entered without knocking and began shooting immediately, killing 7-year-old Payton first, then shooting 4-year-old Chase as he ran to another room.

The warrant issue will probably only heighten anger in the community over the incident. Even when a search warrant has been issued, courts have held that police must generally knock to announce their presence, preserve the privacy of a homeowner and let occupants know they are not experiencing an illegal home invasion.

Police officers are sometimes allowed to search without knocking, even without getting authority in advance, but courts have ruled they can do so only if there are specific circumstances at the time of the search that lead officers to conclude evidence might be destroyed or law enforcement could be endangered, said lawyer William C. Brennan, who is not involved with the case.

I don’t really see how a man who received a 32 lb. package could take that into his home, hear police knock and say “open up, we have a warrant,” and be able to destroy all 32 lbs. of evidence (and the box) before they could take him into custody.

The Associated Press: SWAT team kills 2 dogs in raid on Md. mayor’s home
BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. — A SWAT team raided the home of a Washington, D.C.-area mayor, killing his two black Labrador retrievers and seizing an unopened package of marijuana delivered there.

Prince George’s County Police said Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo brought a 32-pound package of marijuana into his home that had been delivered by officers posing as delivery men. The Tuesday evening raid was conducted by county police narcotics officers and a sheriff’s office SWAT Team.

Sheriff’s office spokesman Sgt. Mario Ellis says deputies “apparently felt threatened” when they shot the dogs.

Calvo said officers entered about 7:30 p.m., first shooting 7-year-old Payton. They then pursued 4-year-old Chase, who ran away and was shot by police from behind, he said.

It takes a special kind of man to shoot a fleeing dog in the back.  Especially a black lab.  Everybody knows what a vicious reputation that breed has… if you’re a duck.  The worst thing that dog would probably have ever done to a decent human being not participating in a SWAT raid is lick him to death.

Obviously the first shot at the older dog made such a noise that the second dog was scared off.  Could you have not just fired a warning shot to scare both the dogs off?