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Militarized police overreach: “Oh, God, I thought they were going to shoot me next”
Salon ^ | July 10, 2013 | By Radley Balko

Posted on 07/12/2013 12:28:18 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee

There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice. — Charles De Montesquieu

Cheye Calvo only intended to be home long enough to grab a bite to eat and walk his dogs. Calvo worked full-time at an educational foundation in Washington, D.C., but he also had an unusual part-time job: he was mayor of the small town of Berwyn Heights, Maryland. In 2004, at age thirty-three, he was the youngest elected mayor in the history of Prince George’s County, Maryland. Now thirty-seven, he lived with his wife, Trinity Tomsic, her mother, Georgia Porter, and their two black labradors, Payton and Chase. Calvo was due back in town later that night for a community meeting.

As Calvo took the dogs out for a walk the evening of July 29, 2008, his mother-in-law told him that a package had been delivered a few minutes earlier. He figured it was something he had ordered for his garden. “On the walk, I noticed a few black SUVs in the neighborhood, but thought little of it except to wave to the drivers,” he would later recall. When Calvo and the dogs returned, he picked up the package, brought it inside, then went upstairs to change for his meeting.

The next thing Calvo remembers is the sound of his mother-in-law screaming. He ran to the window and saw heavily armed men clad in black rushing his front door. Next came the explosion. He’d later learn that this was when the police blew open his front door. Then there was gunfire. Then boots stomping the floor. Then more gunfire. Calvo, still in his boxers, screamed, “I’m upstairs, please don’t shoot!”

(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...


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To: RedHeeler

What question should I have asked?


41 posted on 07/12/2013 5:35:30 PM PDT by Repeat Offender (What good are conservative principles if we don't stand by them?)
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To: VRW Conspirator
I suppose one day there will be a firefight with some overzealous LEO’s who raid a property and then get their butts handed to them.

Already happened. Remember the initial raid on the Branch Davidians at Waco? Of course, the govt forces retreated, came back with military hardware, and ensured that the people who got the best of them in the initial raid didn't get out alive.

42 posted on 07/12/2013 5:40:44 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: PapaBear3625
Already happened

Bam

43 posted on 07/12/2013 5:47:04 PM PDT by VRW Conspirator (The Lefties can drink Kool-Aid; I will drink Tea.)
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To: Repeat Offender

“Now citizen, ask yourself who is the bigger enemy- jihadis hell bent on the destruction of the United States or you.” A better question would be- “Who is destroying the United States- the jihadis or Our own US Gov’t?”


44 posted on 07/12/2013 6:01:41 PM PDT by RedHeeler
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To: HiTech RedNeck

Before they went weird, I was a Boy Scout.

BE PREPARED.

I do not disagree with you in principal, it is just that when faced with reality, I choose to fight, not turn the other cheek.

In the fight of Good vs Evil, I choose to fight!


45 posted on 07/12/2013 6:09:59 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: Brad from Tennessee

I’m not sure anymore which one makes you stupider - the drugs, or the war.


46 posted on 07/12/2013 6:12:27 PM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Taxman

Cheek turning should be viewed in the context of ministering the gospel (which a Christian ought to do with his or her whole life, as God desires). It’s being willing to put up with SOME guff for the sake of gospel ministry. If it goes too far, then pearls-and-swine applies and you can get out of there. Standing up for neighbor against danger is a Good Thing too (that’s why Jesus said take a sword), but the neighbor must not be idolized, and neither must the country. Wisdom dictates when to do what, and it comes from the Holy Spirit. No mechanical applied system of man can bear that responsibility of direction.


47 posted on 07/12/2013 6:36:17 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Whatever promise that God has made, in Jesus it is yes. See my page.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

As I said, I don’t disagree with you in principle, but, the question is, “How much guff should I put up with?”

Now, we are down to the brass tacks.


48 posted on 07/12/2013 6:40:45 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

PS, at my age, I cannot put up with too much physical guff!


49 posted on 07/12/2013 6:41:31 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: Taxman

I’m thinking metaphorically, especially in this age. In the gospel times, people were more likely to slap one another (for example, when Paul met with the Sanhedrin and he called the chief priest, whom he didn’t recognize, a whitewashed wall) and it wasn’t EEEEK an assault and battery case as today.


50 posted on 07/12/2013 7:16:17 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Whatever promise that God has made, in Jesus it is yes. See my page.)
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To: RedHeeler
Well, I posed the question the way I did because because the more aggressive force is against the U.S. citizen....ie you...yet the larger threat to the destruction of the American way of life is the jihadi; not the U.S. citizen.

Who is destroying the United States- the jihadis or Our own US Gov’t?”

The "correct" answer would be the jihadis. Following the questions I posed yields the actual answer to be: Both. The jihadis created fear; the gov't acted upon it = DHS, TSA etc....and the militarization of our police have paved the road to tyranny.

The underlying rhetorical question I asked was why are "we" such a threat and yet the actual threats are played down.

Why do people on the left coast have such a problem following logic?

51 posted on 07/12/2013 7:19:50 PM PDT by Repeat Offender (What good are conservative principles if we don't stand by them?)
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To: Taxman

Today, it would be more like being called names, snubbed, belittled, that sort of thing. To help counter that would be the perspective, derived from the Holy Spirit, that the people may simply be reacting blindly without truly understanding. That God still loves them so much that you are willing to be His cheek, so to speak, for the sake of a possible gospel opening.


52 posted on 07/12/2013 7:21:52 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Whatever promise that God has made, in Jesus it is yes. See my page.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

I am an easy-going guy.

HST, there are some fighting words, and there certainly are some fighting actions that will cause me to react.

At the ripe old age of 72, I am not prone to put up with too much guff — name calling, belittling, etc. etc. is not a big deal.

Other stuff is; say a punch in the nose.

I have spent my life trying to live by the Golden Rule. HST, there are times when a man has to be a man, and meet force with force.


53 posted on 07/12/2013 7:46:58 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: Taxman

Well, one does not react in a void. One reacts out of the kind of spirit that one carries about. There are two to choose from: God and the Devil.


54 posted on 07/12/2013 7:48:47 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Whatever promise that God has made, in Jesus it is yes. See my page.)
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To: Repeat Offender

Thank you for the explanation. Your logic, is beyond compression.


55 posted on 07/12/2013 7:56:02 PM PDT by RedHeeler
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To: taxcontrol
Makes me want to build my next house like a fort.

I've been thinking the same thing but haven't come up with anything solid yet.

56 posted on 07/12/2013 8:11:47 PM PDT by scripter
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Today, it would be more like being called names, snubbed, belittled, that sort of thing.

Thank GOD! that none of this is found on FR!!

57 posted on 07/13/2013 4:28:23 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: RedHeeler
Your logic, is beyond compression.

And eye hole hartedly agree!

58 posted on 07/13/2013 4:29:47 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Elsie

Some of it comes from folks with faith-lite. Some from frank unbelievers.

I’m getting to be more a gospel radical every day. Yeah, I take guff for it (but also get a lot of encouragement from those who thereby have gotten glimpses of truth). As C. S. Lewis put it — I have learned my driving in a hard school. If God issued a Ph.D. in hard knocks I’d be a post doctoral student. God clobbered me good (technically, let the devil clobber me good), but then He raised me back up and keeps on raising me back up, and all that agony was not in vain.


59 posted on 07/13/2013 9:29:17 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Whatever promise that God has made, in Jesus it is yes. See my page.)
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To: scripter

I’ve been reading about a concrete log home: http://everlogs.com/


60 posted on 07/13/2013 10:22:34 AM PDT by taxcontrol
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