Posted on 04/05/2006 12:57:02 PM PDT by JTN
In the course of researching paramilitary drug raids, I’ve found some pretty disturbing stuff. There was a case where a SWAT officer stepped on a baby’s head while looking for drugs in a drop ceiling. There was one where an 11-year-old boy was shot at point-blank range. Police have broken down doors, screamed obscenities, and held innocent people at gunpoint only to discover that what they thought were marijuana plants were really sunflowers, hibiscus, ragweed, tomatoes, or elderberry bushes. (It’s happened with all five.)
Yet among hundreds of botched raids, the ones that get me most worked up are the ones where the SWAT officers shoot and kill the family dog.
I have two dogs, which may have something to do with it. But I’m not alone. A colleague tells me that when he and other libertarian commentators speak about the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco many people tend to doubt the idea that the government was out of line when it invaded, demolished, and set fire to a home of peaceful and mostly innocent people. But when the speaker mentions that the government also slaughtered two dogs during the siege, eyes light up, the indifferent get angry, and skeptics come around. Puppycide, apparently, goes too far.
One of the most appalling cases occurred in Maricopa County, Arizona, the home of Joe Arpaio, self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America.” In 2004 one of Arpaio’s SWAT teams conducted a bumbling raid in a Phoenix suburb. Among other weapons, it used tear gas and an armored personnel carrier that later rolled down the street and smashed into a car. The operation ended with the targeted home in flames and exactly one suspect in custody—for outstanding traffic violations.
But for all that, the image that sticks in your head, as described by John Dougherty in the alternative weekly Phoenix New Times, is that of a puppy trying to escape the fire and a SWAT officer chasing him back into the burning building with puffs from a fire extinguisher. The dog burned to death.
In a massive 1998 raid at a San Francisco housing co-op, cops shot a family dog in front of its family, then dragged it outside and shot it again.
When police in Fremont, California, raided the home of medical marijuana patient Robert Filgo, they shot his pet Akita nine times. Filgo himself was never charged.
Last October police in Alabama raided a home on suspicion of marijuana possession, shot and killed both family dogs, then joked about the kill in front of the family. They seized eight grams of marijuana, equal in weight to a ketchup packet.
In January a cop en route to a drug raid in Tampa, Florida, took a short cut across a neighboring lawn and shot the neighbor’s two pooches on his way. And last May, an officer in Syracuse, New York, squeezed off several shots at a family dog during a drug raid, one of which ricocheted and struck a 13-year-old boy in the leg. The boy was handcuffed at gunpoint at the time.
There was a dog in the ragweed bust I mentioned, too. He got lucky: He was only kicked across the room.
I guess the P.R. lesson here for drug war opponents and civil libertarians is to emphasize the plight of the pooch. America’s law-and-order populace may not be ready to condemn the practice of busting up recreational pot smokers with ostentatiously armed paramilitary police squads, even when the SWAT team periodically breaks into the wrong house or accidentally shoots a kid. I mean, somebody was probably breaking the law, right?
But the dog? That loyal, slobbery, lovable, wide-eyed, fur-lined bag of unconditional love?
Dammit, he deserves better.
Radley Balko is a policy analyst with the Cato Institute.
kill the dog is standard policy on any LEO raid. a dog is considered the first line of defense of any home. the dog is silenced before anything else happens in a raid. agents are not worried about being attacked by the dog, they are worried that the dog may alert the owner.
i didn't see it mentioned yet, but randy weaver's dog was shot first at ruby ridge also.
How did you know my name was Sparky? I live in Florida, grew up in Missouri (return regularly), and drive through Georgia on a regular basis. I've never had money taken from me by the police. Nor have I been detained for a search.
I do however have to chase crack heads off of my investment properties though, and never work on one anymore without being armed.
_____________________________________________________________
Did you have large sums of cash on you? Stuff a few thousand in your pocket, get pulled over for speeding and see how that works out. Over half the time...you will have to petition the courts to have your money returned. I know 3 insurance adjusters that have had to do this within the last 5 years in MS alone.
Change "gunfight" to "gunfire" since it was rather one-sided.
animals don't have a voice. We are their voice and the only one they have to protect them. If we won't, then who will?
I love my dogs more than most people. They'll always be true, they'll never lie, they are always there when you are down, they'll never yell at you and no matter how much you yell at them, not matter what you do to them, they will unconditionally love you. and when they die, a piece of you dies with them.
I'm a firm believer that you can judge the character of a person by the way he treats his dog. I don't have much respect for people who have no respect for an innocent life that appears to be less worthy than their own. Because it wanders around on 4 feet doesn't make it any less God's creature.
I don't know for sure, but I'd bet they are, for exactly the reasons you mentioned.
Why are they emptying their pockets without a search warrant? Likely something here I'd completely agree with you about.
My point is that I don't connect the dots on bad cops = legalize drugs, which is what seemed to be getting advocated. Completely separate issues. If drugs are legalized, the bad cop issue still isn't addressed.
Your #46 is one of the best FR posts I've read in a long time. What you wrote was what I was trying to convey in post 17.
Gotta go coach soccer. I'll check in later.
Damn well said.
You put a different bend on it, but I think you, like me, see this whole article as a red herring.
Why are they emptying their pockets without a search warrant? Likely something here I'd completely agree with you about.
My point is that I don't connect the dots on bad cops = legalize drugs, which is what seemed to be getting advocated. Completely separate issues. If drugs are legalized, the bad cop issue still isn't addressed.
___________________________________________________________
Oh, I don't condone legalizing drugs in any way shape or form. My problem is the way they are allowed to sieze property and the citized has to "prove" it is gotten by legal means later in court. Large sums of cash carried by people...to authorities that means only drug money.
As for illegal search, when pulled over in certain areas, all they need is probable cause and they can rip your vehicle apart if they choose. Large sums of cash to them is probable cause. They just ask about drugs, weapons, large sums of cash, etc.
I agree with you. My dog Max is my best friend. More than once he has placed himself between me and danger. This single German Sheppard has ten times the courage of the SWAT team cowering behind the building at Columbine.
And, even worse, a large percentage of the inmates of any county jail is persons who have not been convicted of any crime at all, felony or misdemeanor. They have been arrested and held because they couldn't made bail. A significant number are never charged with a crime or are found not guilt or otherwise have their case dismissed. So, they walk out without a criminal record having suffered from the inhumane conduct of the Sheriff and his band of thugs. The serious felons and really bad guys go to state prison, so he's portraying a tough guy, wild west sheriff with inmates who've committed minor offenses or none at all.
It's not the baloney sandwiches or even the pink jail uniform. This cretin's pride in feeding the inmates on 40 cents a day and confining them to pup tents in the 120 degree heat during the day and 50 degree desert night is simply obscene.
The old rubric that crime has gone down in Maracopa County is an illogical deflection from the real question of humane treatment. His posturing is a disgrace and his seeming willingness to burn homes, shoot pets and children exemplifies his reign of criminality and terror masquerading as law enforcement.
Gotta go coach soccer. I'll check in later.
_________________________________________________________
That in of itself makes you a good man in my book. I know the owrk that goes into it. What age? I've coached now for 10 years and this is my LAST year for my girls. Gatta love 17 year old girls worried more about how they look than how they play. ROFL I just have 2 rules...no bleeding and no crying.
I don't like to see puppies hurt, either. But my anger is correctly directed. JBTs treat people like 'animals', and personification of animals can also devalue humans. Therefore, my anger goes in both directions (though not in equal portions).
They're our jack-booted thugs now.
Have you ever seen certain parts of Phoenix?
Gang-ridden and crime-ridden. The criminals are usually armed better than the police on duty.
There are certainly times and places an APC could come in handy. I have no problem with them having one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.