Topic: War on Drugs
Bob Barr denounces dog-killing drug raid Libertarian candidate says no-knock raid on innocent family shows "how the drug war threatens the liberties of all Americans."by George Dance
(libertarian)
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr issued a press release on Aug. 11 condemning the July 30 drug raid in suburban Prince George's Co., Maryland, in which county police handcuffed the town mayor and shot his two dogs.
As Nolan Chart reported Aug. 1, "a SWAT team planted a mail package containing 32 pounds of marijuana at the doorstep of Mayor Cheye Calvo. Right after the Mayor of Berwyn Heights, MD, returned home and brought the package inside, the police rammed open the door, and shot dead Calvo's two black Labrador retrievers, Payton, aged 7, and Chase, aged 4.
"Chase was shot from behind while running away from the officers in a vain escape attempt to another room.
"Mayor Calvo was upstairs changing from his working clothes when he was alerted by the screams of his mother-in-law. He rushed downstairs clad only in underwear and socks to encounter the scene of dogs getting shot and his terrorized mother-in-law forced to the floor.
"Then, surrounded by his dogs' carcasses and pools of blood, Calvo in his underwear and his mother-in-law were chained up (or cuffed, same-same) for several hours. While their belongings were ransacked in the search for more drugs (not found), they were interrogated. No other incriminating evidence was found, and neither Calvo nor his mother-in-law were arrested."
The police cleared Mayor Calvo and his family on Aug. 8 and expressed regrets for the incident, but stopped short of apologizing to the family.
Barr, a former U.S. federal attorney, charged the county authorities with having "acted rashly, illustrating how the drug war threatens the liberties of all Americans." He also condemned "so-called no-knock raids," calling them "an affront to the Constitution."
No-knock raids are routinely used in the war on drugs, with people as well as dogs being shot. On the weekend of May 26, police "broke through windows and deployed flash grenades while conducting a drug raid on a home in Connecticut. Gonazalo Guizan, 33, who was visiting and didn't live at the house, charged at the raiding officers, unarmed.The police shot him dead."
On Aug. 4, a Lima, Ohio, police officer was acquitted on charges of negligent homicide in the shooting of "26-year-old Tarika Wilson and her year-old son, whom she was holding, during a SWAT raid on her house on Jan. 4. Wilson was killed and her son was hit in the shoulder and hand. One of his fingers had to be amputated."
Sgt. Joseph Chevalia testified that he shot the Wilsons because he heard gunshots and thought his life was in danger. It was revealed later that the gunfire came from police downstairs shooting dogs.
Barr warned that "Law enforcement agencies have become more arrogant and less accountable in cases other than those involving drugs. Most people are aware of well-publicized examples like Waco and Ruby Ridge, but similar abuses are common across the country, though they usually receive little or no public notice." He added: "We all want police to do their jobs well, but part of doing their job well is respecting the people's constitutional liberties.
"In a Barr administration, government officials will never forget that it is a free people they are protecting."
Except for the Washington Post's "Maryland Moment" column, Barr's release was ignored in the mainstream media.. However, it was widely reported on the internet, on blogs ranging from Stop the Drug War to Pet Pooch.
Blog reaction varied. Liberty Maven (whose Marc Gallagher had reported the "ridiculous" drug raid on July 30) printed Barr's release without comment. At Independent Political Report, Barr was criticized in the comments section for (among other things) not calling all federal law enforcement unconstitutional.
At The Liberty Papers, Stephen Littau, who reported on the Lima acquittal Aug. 12, followed up the next day with a story on Barr's release, commenting: "It's nice to see a presidential candidate address this issue. Clearly, the phenomenon of no-knock raids isn't on John McCain's or Barack Obama's radar at this time."
Similar sentiments were expressed by Scott Morgan of the Drug Reform Co-ordination Network, who wrote Aug. 12 at Stop the Drug War:
Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr is the first presidential hopeful to speak out regarding the brutal drug raid in Berwyn Heights, MD that resulted in the death of the mayor's two dogs.... I'm still getting used to hearing words like these from former drug warrior Bob Barr, but I'll take it. Barr, despite his unfortunate history, is now speaking out against abusive drug war policing with a vigor unmatched, or even attempted, by the major party candidates.
Unfortunately, we can be reasonably sure we won't hear a word about this from Obama or McCain. Sure, it is an ugly national controversy with a fairly obvious right and wrong side....
But implicit in all this is the central question of how far we as a society are willing to push the limits of peace and freedom in the name of a war on drugs that has already exhausted many of us to the point of unrestrained bitterness. It's a conversation that can't be avoided once Cheye Calvo's name is spoken and one which the major party candidates remain hesitant to explore. Their silence becomes increasingly hard to explain as it becomes steadily more apparent each day that the drug war blood bath sometimes doesn't discriminate as well as it's supposed to.
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Bob Barr Condemns Bungled Police Raid as Example of Unaccountable Law Enforcement Agencies
August 11, 2008 10:32 am EST
Atlanta, GA -- "We typically make fun of bungled police operations by saying they were conducted by the gang that couldn't shoot straight," notes Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president. "In this case they could shoot straight -- as a result, they killed a family's two dogs in the midst of a misguided drug raid.
In the case in Berwyn Heights, Maryland, county police raided the mayor's home, in a case in which he appears to have been victimized by drug smugglers, who shipped marijuana to the addresses of a half-dozen unsuspecting families. "Rather than carefully checking the facts, including talking to the local police department, the county authorities acted rashly, illustrating how the drug war threatens the liberties of all Americans," notes Barr, a former U.S. Attorney. The police broke down the door rather than knocking and charged in with guns drawn. They killed the couple's two Labradors, one while it was running away. Mayor Cheye Calvo spent two hours in hand-cuffs while in his boxer shorts; his mother-in-law was hand-cuffed in another room, left beside one of the dead dogs.
"Absent exigent circumstances, not present here, so-called no-knock raids are an affront to the Constitution," explains Barr. "So is a shoot first, ask questions later philosophy by the police.
"Yet the Prince George's police have done this before -- last fall they invaded a house at the wrong address and shot the family dog. All Americans are at risk when the police behave this way...."
The views expressed in this
article are those of George Dance only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. George Dance is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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