SWAT Raids Md. Mayor's home for pot delivery

justanotherbozo

heres a little story i found on another forum i thought we should all know about.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have to hear the audio of the cops' side of this story, which is really slimey sounding.
Mayor wants federal probe after SWAT raids house, kills dogs
Aug. 7 2008

(CNN) -- A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme.

"This has been a difficult week and a half for us," Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, said Thursday. "We lost our family dogs. We did it at the hands of sheriff's deputies who burst through our front door, rifles blazing."

The raid last week was led by the Prince George's County Police Department, with the sheriff's special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo's home.

Authorities say the package was part of a scheme in which drugs are mailed to unknowing recipients and then intercepted.

Calvo said he had just returned home from walking his two Labrador retrievers, Chase and Payton, when his mother-in-law told him a package had arrived for his wife, Trinity Tomsic.

Moments later, Calvo was in his room changing for a meeting when he heard commotion downstairs.

"The door flew open," he said. "I heard gunfire shoot off. There was a brief pause and more gunfire."

Calvo said he was brought downstairs at gunpoint in his boxer shorts, handcuffed and forced onto the floor with his mother-in-law near the carcass of one of dead dogs.

"I noticed my two dead dogs lying in pools of their own blood," Calvo said.
Calvo said his mother-in-law is still recovering from the incident.

"She got the worst of it," Calvo said. "She was literally in the kitchen, cooking a lovely pasta dish, and they brought down the door and shot our dogs."

While he was being held, Calvo said, he told police he is the town's mayor, but they didn't believe him.

Berwyn Heights has its own police force, he said, but Prince George's County police did not notify the municipal authorities of their interest in his home or the package.

"They didn't know my name. All they knew was my wife's name. They matched that to the registration of the car," Calvo said. "It was that lack of communication that really led to what has really been the most traumatic experience of our lives."

After the raid, arrests were made in the package interception scheme.
The incident has prompted the couple to call for a federal investigation because, they say, they don't believe police are capable of conducting an internal investigation.

"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."

Calvo said authorities entered his home without knocking and refused to show him a warrant when he requested one.

But Prince George's County Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Taylor said legal counsel had informed her that "no-knock" warrants do not exist in Maryland.

Taylor said authorities were acting on a warrant issued based on information available to them at the time.

"This warrant was for permission to search the premises," she said. "The special operations team that supported us made a decision about the necessity of entry at the point of being on the scene."

"No-knock" warrants have drawn criticism before. In Atlanta, Georgia, Kathryn Johnston, 92, was shot to death by police in a botched drug raid involving such a warrant in November.

Taylor, a self-described dog lover, expressed sympathy for the loss of Calvo's dogs, but stopped short of apologizing for the incident.

"We've done these similar kinds of operations over and over again, to the tune of removing billions of dollars of drugs from the community and without people or animals being harmed," she said. "We don't want any of our operations to result in the injury or loss of anybody, and certainly not animals."

The deputies have said they killed the two animals because they felt threatened.
"I would say that the dogs presented a threat, I would imagine, to the special operations situation," Taylor said.

Meanwhile, Calvo and his wife said members of the community have expressed sympathy and concern about the incident.

At a news conference Thursday, Tomsic tearfully recalled a recent encounter with a neighbor who used to wave at the couple as they walked Payton and Chase.
"She gave me a big hug," Tomsic said. "She said, 'If the police shot your dogs dead and did this to you, how can I trust them?' "

Mayor wants federal probe after SWAT raids house, kills dogs - CNN.com

__________________

heres a quote from another poster and a link for us all to get involved, we have to be heard, we can't stay under the radar any more.

"There is a MAJOR discussion going on at Topix: Your town. Your news. Your take. on this story with over 3000 post natiowide so far. The people who posted so far are absolutely furious with this story, and rightly so. Please join the discussion and lets keep this story alive as long as possible, so they can't sweep it under the carpet. This is a very very sad event, but it could be to our country's advantage to have had this happen to a Mayor and his family. After all, people don't listen to poor people of color when it happens to them. I am begging everyone to get involved in this discussion and let our feelings be known.

Thanks

LittleNut"

__________________
bozo
peace, love, dope

'it's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice'
Those that give up Liberty to have temporary Security deserve Neither......Benjamin Franklin.
be advised, these are the meanderings of a mad man, completely imaginary and should in no way be taken seriously, especially Leo
my imaginary garden
http://www.greenpassion.org/f22/newbie-cfl-hydro-experiment-5525/
http://www.greenpassion.org/f15/chea...-results-5593/
http://boards.cannabis.com/

scott06

This is the same town where the turtle found the grow in the woods...something strange is going on there

justanotherbozo

lol, is there a nuke power plant nearby?

__________________
bozo
peace, love, dope

'it's nice to be important but it's more important to be nice'
Those that give up Liberty to have temporary Security deserve Neither......Benjamin Franklin.
be advised, these are the meanderings of a mad man, completely imaginary and should in no way be taken seriously, especially Leo
my imaginary garden
http://www.greenpassion.org/showthread.php?t=5525
http://www.greenpassion.org/f15/chea...-results-5593/
http://boards.cannabis.com/

DieAbetic

wasnt the turtle story from virginia? i thought it was Chesapeake or something

__________________

"Remember, you can never overdose - you can only under-dose. We are just making sure we aren't under-dosing."


I do not now, nor ever will grow illegal substances. All posts are fictional for entertainment only.

scott06

same time and nearby not the same town

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A female Eastern box turtle called Turtle No. 72 has led Washington police to a well-tended marijuana garden in Rock Creek Park.
The turtle is one of 135 wired animals with a small radio transmitter on its shell to provide scientists data on turtle movements. The six-inch turtle wanders through 50 acres near the District-Maryland boundary.
Ken Ferebee, a National Park Service researcher who has been monitoring Turtle No. 72 for seven years, recounted that on July 14 he found the turtle in an area with fallen large trees. Ferebee noticed a portion with bare soil, which was unusual in a forested area.
After he examined the spot, he concluded the plant in the area were grown elsewhere but replanted in the park. The four plants which were 10 feet tall turned out to be marijuana.
Ferebee informed the Park Police of his finding. The police observed the patch until they arrested the care taker of the plants Wednesday. The suspect, 19-year old Isiah Johonson, was charged with possession of marijuana with intention to distribute it.
Johnson is the drummer of a band with no previous criminal record.
A day before, Maryland police raided the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo, where they discovered a 32-pound package containing marijuana. The package was addressed to his wife, Trinity Tomsic. Tomsic's mother said the delivery men left the package outside their home upon her instruction. Calvo insisted the box was unopened and his family has nothing to do with it.
While conducting the raid at Calvo's residence, the SWAT team shot and killed his two black Labrador retrievers, 7-year old Payton and 4-year old Chase.

jonnyappleweed

NOW PETA NEEDS TO GET INVOLVED IN SEEING THESE OFFICERS ARE CHARGED WITH ANIMAL CRUELTY...
If it were anyone else they would be under the jail...

__________________
Aging is GODs way of telling us there's no time to waste...
WAS MOSE'S REALLY SPEAKING TO A BURNING BUSH???
OR WAS IT ONLY SMOKING???

Sock

Yeah and if a police dog comes charging through my door and I kill it, I am going to jail for a long time, I think the laws for killing a cop are the same for killing a police dog, or rather close...

Peace,

Sock

snickelfritz

They knew this, yet still busted in guns a blazin'!!!


All this over a plant that never should have been made illegal in the first place!!! A plant that has been on this Earth long before the first Human ever set foot on it...

War on drugs, my arse!!! We live in a police state!!! What about the 4th amendment? Oh, yeah... We have no friggin' rights anymore... Homeland Security & the Patriot Act saw to that!

How many have died?

How many have lost their freedom?

How many have lost their homes, and other property?

How many more lives will be ruined or lost because of corporate greed, the arrogance of our politicians, and gun happy cops?





End the madness!!!


EDIT: So... If this is allowed to stand... Or be swept under the rug... It will set a new precedent.

If the cops wanna raid ANY home, ANYWHERE, all they gotta do is mail contraband to you & then bust in on ya for checking your mail!

Think about it!!!

__________________

What gives a government the right to outlaw nature?



War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.

Snick's MySpace Page