Jason "RoLLaJaY" Rivera (center in wheelchair) terrorized by sheriffs during raid of his medical marijuana garden

[UPDATED Friday morning... see below]

An Alameda County medical marijuana patient is reeling after sheriffs raided his garden and threatened to kill his pet dog today.

Jason Rivera, a paraplegic who suffers severe chronic pain, was detained by sheriffs presenting a warrant at his recording studio.  The warrant was based on the tip of an anonymous informant, said Rivera, recounting the statements of deputies on the scene.

As sheriffs executed the warrant at the studio, one asked Rivera about searching his home.  Rivera says the deputy threatened to kill his dog if he didn’t cooperate.  ”We can do this the easy way and you can take us to your house to look around,” Rivera recounts the deputy saying, “or we can detain you for six hours while we get a warrant and go to your house and shoot your dog.”

The killing of family pets by SWAT officers during marijuana raids has generated numerous headlines recently, including chilling video of a raid in Columbia, Missouri, where a man’s dog was shot seven times while the man’s wife and child slept in the next room.  In these cases, police spokespersons defend the actions of the officers by explaining that in these no-knock raids, securing the premises and eliminating immediate threats to officer safety is standard operating procedure.  Rarely are any officers punished for the wanton killing of these animals that are merely defending their homes from intruders.

In Rivera’s case, however, we have officers who are obviously aware there is a dog at his home.  They cannot justify using force against the animal when they have plenty of time to contact Animal Control and deal with the potential threat humanely.  This threat is nothing more than emotional terrorism by our domestic police force to trample a disabled man’s Fourth Amendment rights in a crusade over a plant.

(Full disclosure:  Rivera is also known as “RoLLaJaY” and one of the closest friends of the NORML SHOW LIVE podcast I produce.  He donated to NORML thousands of dollars of used recording equipment that makes our show possible.  He lives on a Social Security disability fixed income and requires a great amount of cannabis medicine just to live a pain-free life.  He had very little usable medicine and about $80 cash when the raid occurred; coincidentally as he was listening to today’s NORML SHOW LIVE.  Life in a prison cell without cannabis would be devastating for RoLLaJaY… far more so than the lesser time some lowlife coward snitch just traded for my friend’s health and freedom.) 

Friday morning update:  I contacted the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (you can, too, 510-272-6878) to get more information on the raid.  By “contacted”, I mean, “spoke with humans who worked there”, I certainly don’t mean “spoke with anyone who knew what the hell was going on”.

First the main Administrative Office.  I ask for the Public Information Officer.  He’s on vacation, I’m told, but Ray Kelly is filling in.  I dial the number given and get the “this number is not in service” recording.  I call back to verify I, indeed, got the right number and checked my BlackBerry to ensure I didn’t “fat finger” the dialing.  Nope, just a Ray Kelly with a disconnected number.

So Administrative Office transfers me to Warrants.  The person there can’t find any warrant for a Jason Rivera.  They want to transfer me to Jail, but I explain there was no arrest.  Perhaps someone in Investigations can help?  She transfers me.

Investigations has no record of a Jason Rivera or a warrant served on his property yesterday.  Maybe the folks in Records can help out?  She transfers me.

Records is an automated message system.

I contacted Jason to get more info.  Turns out the warrant was served for “2-Fisted Productions”, his recording studio business, and his name was not even on the original warrant, but was added after police arrived and got his name.  He says there were about five cops he was aware of.  One of them gave him a card, which Jason will forward to me along with a copy of the warrant.  Jason says he was given no other documents relating to the search of his studio, his home, and the removal of his plants and growing equipment.

“Remember the movie Training Day?” Jason asked me.  ”It felt like that.  When they came in and found out I didn’t have a bunch of cash or usable medicine or guns or anything, they all seemed really disappointed.”  Could it be that Alameda County Sheriffs got a tip that a rap recording studio engineer was growing pot and expected to find a Suge Knight-like kingpin with mountains of drugs and an arsenal to defend it?  Or was it just another typical “smash-and-grab” operation where they expected to make a hefty profit on asset forfeiture of cash and bling?

Still no charges have been filed and Jason’s not been contacted by police since.  Could it be that a marijuana garden in the Bay Area tended by a paraplegic without cash and guns makes for lousy public relations in Alameda County?  I’ll keep you posted.

Rottweiler: Unfortunately unable to distinguish between mask-wearing, weapon-wielding criminals and mask-wearing, weapon-wielding police who break in its home.

It’s the kind of email we tragically get too often here at NORML…

Dear folks at Norml: we are a family still, after 6 years desparately trying to regain our lives after the Hurricanes Katrina and Rita… and add to that Gustave and Ike. … On Jan. 30th 2011 the one thing that truly made us happy was evily taken away because of someone’s unscrupulous greed for our property, stupidity or just to cause attention to our privately public problem.

On this date a New Orleans Police Department officer, without warning, or exigent cause, crept into our home, while our 19 year old daughter studied in the adjacent room, distrubed the slumber of our 125 lb. full bred Rottie, and shot him at point blank range before he was even able to bark.

This crime, this murder, this homicide is now carefully being covered up by the police department as an “unfortunate incident” the words they always use  when “they” screw up. The print media made a mockery of our family and depicted us as ghetto, trash vagabonds, squatters etc…

Here’s the report from FOX News in New Orleans:

(FOX8) Around 9:48 Sunday morning a call came into N-O-P-D’s Fifth District officers that someone was inside a boarded up home and there was a dog roaming in the yard.

Three officers arrived to 2363 North Villere within minutes.

[Dog owner, Nakita] LaGarde says, “They say they knocked on the door which I was sitting in the side room the whole time. They never knocked on the door, never.”

But spokesperson for the New Orleans Police Department, Gary Flot says the officers knocked and identified themselves as police officers.

They found a metal door open and wooden door ajar, behind it was a rottweiler which charged at the three officers.

LaGarde says, “When they opened up the door he did what he was supposed to do. He was a guard dog. He went to protect his house and they shot him. I heard the shot go off I thought I heard the dog screeching.”

So they came to a home that wasn’t boarded up, there was no dog roaming around in a yard, make their way into the home and shoot the family dog inside.  There wasn’t even a question of drugs being present this time.  And if you’re poor and living in New Orleans, your life wrecked by hurricanes, your home destroyed and your neighborhood plagued by crime, it’s highly likely you get yourself a big dog to protect yourself.

Why can’t officers at least go for the taser to subdue a dog?  Police, if you ever find the need to break down my door for something as dangerous as smoking a joint while I watch Glee, just throw a tennis ball to the other side of the room and my dog will happily let you in.  Just please don’t kill him.

We have 100-150 paramilitary raids of American homes every DAY, mostly in the name of the War on Drugs, when most drug users are neither armed nor violent. (Missoula Independent)

The following rant was transcribed from Toker Talk Radio, M-F at 2:00 pm Pacific Time at http://live.norml.org.  I posted a story a yesterday about a man in New York who was needlessly killed during a marijuana bust.  Russ Belville does his usual excellent work of tearing this apart and supporting the story with facts and figures.  Gee, I love this kinda talk.

Can we stop the killing, can we stop the SWAT raids?  Can we stop using excessive police force to enforce these drug laws?  If we have to accept that they’re going to be around for awhile and it’s politically difficult to change them, if that’s the case, fine, but please change the tactics we use to enforce those laws.

There’s no reason that we have to have a fully armed SWAT raid to bring down someone who’s violating a marijuana law.  According to the latest FBI statistics of officers who were killed by suspects while enforcing the law, there were 48 deaths of officers last year and of those 48 law enforcement deaths, none of them had to do with enforcing drug laws*.   And certainly none of them killed enforcing marijuana laws!

When we look at the statistics over the years of police officers involved  in shootings, we find that that the risk of a police officer being shot, not killed, just shot, while enforcing a drug law is 1 in 350,000.  That is the statistic that qualifies them to come in with the body armor and flash bang grenades, the tear gas and automatic weapons pointed at 13 year old girls, shooting dogs and hand cuffing people and having them sit in their dog’s blood while they interrogate them and tear up their house.  All because there is a 1 in 350,000 chance that they are going to be shot at**.

There’s no reason why these laws can’t be enforced by knocking on these doors during daylight hours or waiting for people to leave their house so they can be apprehended outside the home.  Serving warrants in a SWAT-style fashion should only be reserved for those who pose a threat to themselves and to others.  It must be a case where you need to go in with guns blazing or it will mean a greater harm to our society and you cannot justify that greater harm to society by pointing to some guy growing pot plants under a light in his closet.

*Editor’s Note:  One death did occur from a Dallas police officer serving an arrest warrant when the suspect opened fire as the door was breached.  However, the FBI did not classify that as a warrant served over a drug-related matter.  Aside from 8 officers killed in drug-related arrests in 2001, no year in the 21st Century has seen more than 3 officers killed and in ’04, ’05, and ’09, there were no deaths serving drug arrest warrants.

I suppose drug prohibitionists would say that’s because we serve warrants SWAT-style.  But that doesn’t hold water.  From 2000-2009, there have been 19 officer deaths attributed to drug arrests (out of 536 total deaths, or 3.5%), while there have been 29 deaths attributed to “Tactical situation (barricaded offender, hostage taking, high-risk entry, etc.)”, exactly the situation SWAT was meant for, and 52 deaths responding to “robberies / burglaries in progress”.  Cops who are killed are most likely to die in a traffic stop (18.8%).

**Not exactly accurate.  There is a 1 officer killed for every 350,000 drug arrests.  More than that may be shot at.  Sorry about the error – I was reciting from memory. –”R”R

Another entry for our Dog Shooting files – this time, the family whose beloved pet was murdered by police on a drug raid are speaking out.  This is a scan from the Sunday “The Herald” in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Family dog killed over drug raid that netted no drugs or weapons.

In Memoriam “Dottie Dog”

For our Loyal & Beloved Family Pet of 11 years. Shot & Killed by Sierra Vista police Dept. officers while you were locked up in the back yard during execution of a search warrant. But the police didn’t find any drugs or illegal weapons in the house so…

You are missed rest in peace. Janelle, Sarah, Darnell & Adele Drumevitch

It was an idyllic afternoon in this quiet East Haven neighborhood. At Michael Dadio’s house on George Street, his girlfriend’s kids played in the back yard while his dad mowed the lawn.

Then the cops showed up.

They killed the family dog, tasered Michael Dadio Sr. and then arrested him — all because he didn’t show up to court on DUI charges. Dadio Sr. was not available for comment.

This overreaction by two East Haven police officers — in front of children — has upset neighbors on a street where many families own dogs.

“The way this happened was totally reckless,” says Dadio Jr. He says he went to the police to complain and was told, “It’s just a dog.”

via East Haven Cop Shoots Dog in Front of Children – New Haven Advocate.

According to the son, the cops shot this German Shepherd as it was barking in the back yard, as kids were about 25 feet away. The cops didn’t kill the dog initially; it lay there on the ground yelping and crying as it bled to death.

The cops in their report say they came upon “an aggressive dog/pit bull” and had to shoot it, even though the police report says nothing about the dog lunging, approaching, or trying to bite the officer who shot it.

“It’s just a dog.” It’s just their training to shoot the dog. It’s just an impediment to an arrest, a potential threat to the cops, no matter if it is a German Shepherd or a chihuahua… YES, a chihuahua, as this story from last year reminds us, all canines are handled “according to department policy”:

Police in Blue Ash, Ohio have shot dead a Chihuahua cross dog, but only after first tasing it.

5 year old Jack was the pet of the Bullock family, who bought the dog several years ago for their now 12 year old son. While the Bullock’s were out, Jack got out, and that’s where the police became involved.

If tasing and shooting a small 5 pound dog isn’t bad enough, the way the family found out about it was worse again. On returning home, they found three bullets and blood splattered over their front porch, along with a note to call the police about their dog.

Please take a moment to sign the petition at http://CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com/animals to protest the cruelty of the unnecessary killing of pet dogs by police during encounters with citizens.

Our first story comes to us by way of the Associated Press (click to watch the video). A 62-year-old grandmother in Washington, DC tells AP that police came to her home serving a drug warrant for her 28-year-old grandson. The grandma asks to put her dog in the back yard or the bathroom. The cops tell her the bathroom would be fine. Later, the cops open the bathroom door, claim this 13-year-old dog named “Wrinkles” attacked them, and they shoot it multiple times. By the way, the grandson hasn’t lived in the home for a dozen years and the only drugs cops found were what they claimed was “drug residue” on some baggies, which the grandma contends is the residue of fortune cookies.

Our second story is just this video, which was uploaded to YouTube on June 10, claiming to be the Lagrange, Missouri, police department shooting an calm dog they had already gotten into a noose and immobilized.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dog-killing cop petting the dog that was so aggressive, he had to shoot it twice.

The dog is barking, but is on a chain. At 2:26 the 2nd officer approaches the dog and bends over and scratches its head – the dog seems to not be threatening the officer. He spends nearly 45 seconds ensuring the chain is on the dog’s neck as he gets the rest of the length of chain into his hands to lead the dog. The 1st officer at 3:00 appears to be taking a cell phone camera picture of the dog.

As the two officers surround and restrain the dog with the chain, it seems to not be aggressive or threatening. At 3:16 the 2nd officer unholsters his pistol. At 3:40 they lead the dog out of frame.

Officer Doug Howell, the he-man, Lagrange Missouri cop who shoots unaggressive restrained dogs (his latest victim under a blanket over his shoulder)

When the officers return to frame, we’re looking at another angle. At 3:43 they’ve got the dog out in the street as 2nd officer approaches with the stick-noose that animal control will use to keep an animal at bay. The dog is still on a chain, which seems to be fastened to the bumper of one of the patrol cars. The dog is frightened and trying to escape, but still not aggressive toward the officers. When the cops aren’t approaching the dog, it is literally standing absolutely still (see 4:34). At 5:27, the dog just sits down calmly. At 5:47 it lies down in the middle of the road, still on a chain, presenting no visual evidence of being threatening or aggressive.

Dog-killing cop faces serious danger from dog he petted earlier now that it is secured by a noose at the end of a ten-foot-pole.

At 6:24 the 1st officer is looking at the dog in the road and furtively looking around the neighborhood to see if anyone is watching. The 2nd officer comes into frame, apparently talking on his cell phone. At 7:12 2nd officer comes back into frame with the stick-noose and the dog gets up and backs away defensively. At 7:39 he appears to secure the noose on the dog, which then quickly runs through the frame. 1st officer reacts to 2nd officer and dog off frame and runs across while drawing his firearm.

Finally, after a chain, a noose, a pole, and two shots from a police firearm, the dog-killing cop is once again safe!

The dog resists the stick noose and the 2nd officer holding the stick noose comes back into frame. When the dog stops, 2nd officer pulls his gun, 1st officer covers his ears and steps back out of frame, and 2nd officer shoots the dog while still controlled by the stick-noose (at 8:17). The dog falls onto its side, but it is still alive, flailing a tail or leg (hard to tell), until the 2nd officer fires a second shot into the dog’s head forty seconds later, killing it.

The Hannibal Courier-Post reports:

The officers were responding to a call from LaGrange resident Mary Coleman that the dog had acted threateningly toward her and her daughter as they walked to a school bus stop.

“It was growling at my six-year-old,” Coleman testified. “I wanted my kid to be safe and myself to be safe.”

[The dog's owner, Marcus] Mays pointed out that the dog could not have been too angry because Coleman chained it at her home while [Officer Doug] Howell [the "2nd Officer"] and [Officer Jason] Powell [the "1st Officer] went to get special equipment used in handling animals.

The video shows that at one point, the dog laid down on the street and remained motionless for a time.

Howell testified that the dog growled as he tried to load it into a truck, that it later broke free from a chain tied to the vehicle and eventually charged as he tried to capture it with a six-foot catchpole.

Powell described the dog as “aggressive” and “vicious.” Both officers had electroshock weapons, but did not use them because they said the effectiveness would have lasted only five seconds.

Howell said that he felt the only option to protect the safety of neighbors was to shoot the dog.

Howell fired one shot to the chest, which felled the animal. On the video, the dog can then be seen wagging its tail. Howell said he fired a shot to the head “because I didn’t want the dog to suffer.”

How much threat to the neighbors can the dog be when two cops have it in a noose at the end of a pole?!?

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Hemp Headlines

1. Violence breaks out in Jamaica over extradition of drug lord
2. Rep. Polis of Colorado and others complain to Treasury Secretary about banks denying lawful medical cannabis dispensaries
3. Corpus Christi police unearth 300-400 weeds, mistakenly believing them to be marijuana

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Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

• Johnny Reeferseed & the High Rollers – “Nuggets Are a Girl’s Best Friend

Reefer Madness

• KATU’s Anna Song goes “undercover” to investigate how easy it is to get a medical marijuana card in Oregon

NORML Newsmakers

• Missouri NORML’s Dan Viets on the Columbia SWAT Dog Shooting and subsequent investigations finding no wrongdoing

No wrongdoing in this video. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Click here to view the embedded video.

COLUMBIA — The Columbia Police Department has concluded its investigation into a Feb. 11 SWAT raid that has gained worldwide attention over the Internet, Chief Ken Burton said in a Thursday afternoon news conference.

“Were the actions of the officers on scene appropriate, based on policy, law, and what they knew?” Burton asked. “Yes.”

The announcement was the result of an internal investigation of the raid, in which police with a search warrant for marijuana entered the home of Jonathan Whitworth while he, his wife and 7-year-old son were home. The officers shot a pit bull to death, wounded another dog and found paraphernalia and a misdemeanor amount of marijuana. Whitworth eventually was fined $300 for possession of paraphernalia.

via Columbia police’s internal investigation finds no wrongdoing by SWAT officers – Columbia Missourian.

Were the police actions appropriate?  Hell no!  But unfortunately, “based on policy, law, and what they knew,” the chief is right.  The police had a warrant.  SWAT raids on marijuana suspects are common.  It is established protocol to shoot any aggressive dogs in order to secure the premises.

This is all completely legal and justified in the eyes of the law.  Standard Operating Procedure.  You, sitting there, smoking that joint on your couch, could be next.  Jonathan Whitworth had his home burst into by armed invaders and his pet shot and killed based on the tips of anonymous informants (read: criminals getting a deal to squeal) and a few empty baggies in his trash.  Many others have had their homes violated because of an incorrect address on a warrant or faulty information from a snitch.

This also occurred in a town that had voted to make marijuana enforcement the “lowest law-enforcement priority”.  It didn’t distinguish between misdemeanor and felony, it just said “marijuana enforcement”.  So the police sent in a SWAT team to enforce a marijuana law… does sending in your most expensive and dangerous tactical unit sound like a “low priority” to you?

Dan Viets, director of Missouri NORML and a member of the NORML Board of Directors, joins us on NORML SHOW LIVE this afternoon to discuss this story.  Viets also has details from his discussion with the police chief, who, oddly enough, supports NORML’s mission and wishes he and other cops could “get out of the [marijuana enforcement] business”.

We have 100-150 paramilitary raids of American homes every DAY, mostly in the name of the War on Drugs, when most drug users are neither armed nor violent. (Missoula Independent)

(Drug War Chronicle) Doing drug law enforcement is just not that dangerous. According to statistics on police line of duty deaths compiled by the Officer Down Memorial Page, only three law enforcement officers were killed enforcing drug laws last year, and those three were not undercover narcs doing drug buys or SWAT team raiders busting down doors, but DEA agents who died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. (One officer, Michael Crawshaw of the Penn Hills Police Department in Pennsylvania, was killed responding to a drug-trade murder in which one drug trafficker killed another over a drug debt. This officer death was certainly related to the drug war; we rightly or wrongly did not include him in the count because he was responding to a murder, not a drug crime.)

According to historical data provided to the Chronicle by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which also compiles statistics on police line of duty deaths, last year’s low death toll among officers enforcing the drug laws is not a fluke. In the decade between 1978 and 1988, an average of 6.5 officers were killed each year; in the following decade, the number was 6.2; and in the last 10 years, an average of 4.3 officers were killed each year enforcing the drug laws. The single bloodiest year for drug law enforcement was 1988, when 12 officers died.

In 2008, the number of police who died maintaining drug prohibition was seven; in 2007, it was four; it 2006, it was five; in 2005, it was four. When placed in the context of the more than 1.5 million drug arrests made in each of those years, it is clear that only one in every several hundred thousand drug arrests leads to an officer’s death. During the past 10 years, the odds were less than 1 in 350,000.

The whole post is worth a read.  The Chronicle does a great job of recounting some of the horrific abuses of SWAT, including the dog shooting stories of Mayor Cheye Calvo and the Missouri SWAT Dog Shooting incident this month.

Click here to view the embedded video.

"Maybe if someone tried to make a coat out of me, then PETA would protest my death."

Second, from one of our loyal followers who contacted PETA about the Missouri SWAT Dog Shooting:

Thank you for contacting PETA.

We share your concern about the circumstances under which these dogs were shot. We understand that the responsible agency is conducting a thorough internal review of the incident, and we sincerely hope that this review will lead to policy changes that will ensure that it is never repeated.

These tragedies happen more often than one would imagine. It seems we’re inundated with calls every week from people whose dogs were shot by law-enforcement personnel. Officers appropriately resort to deadly force when they believe that their lives, or the lives of others, are in danger. But sometimes officials draw their guns unnecessarily or too quickly. Regardless, it’s important that all officials whose work brings them in contact with animals be trained to deal with animal situations effectively and humanely. We often recommend that agencies take advantage of the National Animal Control Association’s training programs (http://www.nacanet.org) for that reason.

If, after reviewing state law (http://www.animallaw.com) and local law (http://www.municode.com), it is believed that a government agency wrongfully injured or killed a companion animal, the shooter could face prosecution, and the animal’s guardians may be able to sue.

It is important for any companion-animal guardian to be familiar with the laws that afford their loved ones protection from every kind of abuse. For more information at your fingertips, you may wish to read Dog Law: A Legal Guide for Dog Owners and Their Neighbors, by Mary Randolph.

Thank you again for writing and for your concern for animals.

Sincerely,

The PETA Staff

…but PETA’s not going to do jack about it by publicizing this as much as they’d protest some actress wearing a fur coat or a biker wearing a leather jacket.

Third, as the video is close to topping 1,000,000 views, the Columbia Police apologists have come out in force on the blogs, including this one, to put a rest to all the “misinformation” out there:

Kinloch Court Search Warrant Update

Columbia Police officers served a search warrant at 1501 Kinloch Court, in Columbia, at 8:27 p.m., on February 11, 2010. The search warrant entry team consisted of eight SWAT members and the perimeter team consisted of three officers, one of whom is a SWAT member.

Upon entry, the officers immediately encountered two dogs. During the search warrant, one of the dogs was shot and killed. This dog was a breed commonly referred to as a “pit bull”.

According to the search warrant affidavit, this is what the officers knew as they were barging in late at night in full body armor and toting automatic weapons:

There is reason to believe the crime of “MARIJUANA, A SCHEDULE I CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE and the evidence of the crime of drug trafficking to include records, phone numbers, cash, and apparatuses to facilitate the use and distribution of controlled substances” is being committed at the residence.

“[A] cooperating citizen with a history of truthfulness and reliability… advised Jonathan Whitworth is selling large amounts of high grade marijuana in the Columbia area.”

“[A]nother cooperating citizen who has proven reliable and truthful on numerous occasions… has observed a large amount of high grade marijuana inside Whitworth’s residence within the past 10 days.”

“During an examination of the contents ofthese trash bags, I found… a baggy containing [THC] residue and numerous items of drug paraphemalia with [THC] residue on them.”

“Jonathan Whitworth has numerous previous arrests including resisting arrest, possession of marijuana, delivery, manufacturing controlled substance prior/persistent offender and DWI. The Columbia Police Department has received information dating back to 2003 indicating Whitworth’ s involvement in the sales and distribution of controlled substances.”

Notably absent from this crack detective work and plea to a judge to allow Detective Dogkiller and his stormtrooper buddies free reign to bust in Whitworth’s door and start discharging automatic weapons…

• Whitworth is living in the home with his wife and 7-year-old son.
• Whitworth has two dogs, a pit bull and a corgi, in the residence.

Do you think a judge would be so quick to sign that warrant with that information?  (Don’t answer, because he probably would.)  So this entire invasion was based on pot that wasn’t there with no knowledge of children and pets that were there?  Didn’t your garbage snoop turn up any kids juice boxes, baggies of dog poop, or anything other than discarded pot baggies and pipes?  Did you not observe anything at the home over eight days between warrant and raid to indicate there were dogs and a child present?

The defendant, Jonathon Whitworth, was arrested.

The police department has received numerous inquiries from citizens who have received misinformation. While the investigation is still ongoing, the department recognizes the need to provide information prior to its conclusion to clarify some specific questions, many of which are based on misinformation.

* The pit-bull type breed dog was not confined; it was not in a cage and it was not behind a gate.
* The other dog, described as a Corgi, was not killed. This dog is believed to have been struck once.

“Believed to have been struck”?  What, we need further investigation to determine whether the audible yelping in the video and the visible damage to a corgi’s paw was the result of your officer’s gunfire?  And oh, it was a pit bull that was killed, not the corgi?  Well, then, that makes it all OK, now, doesn’t it?  Pit bulls deserve to be killed, is that it?

* The defendant’s wife and child were at the residence. However, neither was in the presence of the officers or dogs when the dogs were shot.

Oh, so the child didn’t actually see Detective Dogkiller shoot his pets, he only had to hear gunshots, his pets yelping in agony and terror, and only saw one of his pets’ corpses as a body-armor-and-mask-clad stranger with a still-smoking weapon led him and mom out of the house while others were manhandling and screaming at his daddy.  Sure, there were seven bullets flying around the home, but none of them pierced the paper-thin walls to harm the child, so it’s all good, right?

* The officers did not force entry into the home. The door was unlocked and an officer opened it.

So, you’re telling me this big time drug dealer goes to bed at night without locking his front door?  A guy you presume to have large amounts of high-grade marijuana and cash related to drug trafficking in the home, a guy by your accounts is a repeat offender well versed in the drug trade, leaves his front door unlocked.

* The search warrant was not served for a misdemeanor amount of marijuana. The Columbia Police Department does not pursue search warrants for misdemeanor amounts of marijuana. The search warrant was for Marijuana, A Schedule I Controlled Substance and the evidence of the crime of drug trafficking. A copy of the affidavit is attached.

In other words, we only go to the trouble of bursting into homes at night, terrorizing women and children, and killing family pets if there’s more than 35 grams of marijuana involved and the suspect is selling it to other willing purchasers.

* A diversionary device or “flash bang” was not deployed during this incident

Police Chief Ken Burton requested the Internal Affairs Unit conduct an investigation into the uses of force involved in the incident. A total of seven shots were fired.

The investigative review also examines training practices, and the department’s current practices in general with regard to the service of search warrants. Since that time, the department has received inquiries from individuals expressing a desire to know if an investigation is being completed.

Upon being briefed about the incident Chief Burton concluded that this search warrant should not have been served in the delayed fashion that it was, but rather should have been disregarded when the department was not able to serve it within a reasonable time. He has made members of his department aware that policy changes with regard to search warrant service are underway. In the interim, he will personally be responsible for approving search warrants in which forced entry may be required.

See, the problem isn’t that we’re bursting into homes at night, terrorizing women and children, and killing family pets over marijuana.  The problem is timing.

When the internal investigation is complete, a news release will be issued with its results.

Many phone calls and e-mails are being received by the members of the police department, as well as other City departments, regarding this incident. The department is doing its best to reply with a statement to the inquiries that contain a legitimate e-mail address or phone numbers, and which include questions that we can answer at this time.

Chief Burton has proposed changes to the department’s Narcotic Search Warrant Service Protocol. View those changes here.
http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Police/Documents/NarcoticsSearchWarrantProtocolChanges.pdf

View a copy of the search warrant affidavit here.
http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Police/Documents/AffidavitKinlochCourtsearchwarrant.pdf

Make all the excuses you like, Chief, but it still boils down to this:

• Cops broke into a man’s home over marijuana.
• Cops fired seven bullets in a home where a child was sleeping.
• Cops killed one family pet and wounded another.
• Cops didn’t find any evidence of the felonies for which the warrant was served.

All these explanations are meaningless until you accept the premise that this level of force is appropriate to keep people from using marijuana. The proposed changes by the Columbia Police still allow for “dynamic entry” to bust into people’s homes to keep them from using marijuana. All this document represents is embarrassment that the cops were caught on video executing these commonplace tactics and promises to make sure that the next time they burst into a home late at night guns blazing to catch someone with marijuana, they’ll try to be sure there are no kids around.

Or as Pete Guither at DrugWarRant so eloquently puts it:

The proof of this failure is evident in the statement by Deputy Police Chief Tom Dresner:

“If we were searching for stolen televisions in his house, there is no reason for SWAT,” he said. “He can’t flush televisions.”

He doesn’t even get the wrongness underlying his statement.

The entire philosophy behind SWAT-style drug raids is that the death of a mother, a child, or the family pet is an acceptable risk to prevent flushing. (Deep Thoughts)

What makes it worse is that you can’t actually flush large amounts of marijuana.

Remember, folks, this isn’t just Columbia, Missouri, this is commonplace all across the United States and comes straight from the top.  Federal funds are abundantly distributed to local law enforcement agencies through mechanisms like Byrne Grants to buy military-style hardware and conduct aggressive anti-drug efforts.  This raid is the expected result of our national War on Marijuana Users.