Outrage For The Morning

Courtesy of Radley Balko, comes this latest drug war outrage: Prince George County Police Raid Home of Berwyn Heights Mayor and Kill His 2 Black Labrador Retrievers.

This doesn't seem to be a wrong warrant type of case, but the results have my blood boiling this morning, probably because my two labs, Callahan and Devon, are sitting right at my feet. As Balko has blogged endlessly, this use of such intensely violent tactics by police just makes no sense. This isn't a case where police were going after a dangerous and violent drug dealer, they were only attempting to determine who was the intended recipient of a large package of marijuana. Why the need for the SWAT team and why the need to shoot a dog that was running away? And why the need to interrogate the mayor and his family in front of the dead dogs? It's not just wrong, it's outright brutal, the sort of tactics that should be reserved for real war, not marijuana enforcement.

My outrage has nothing to do with the marijuana and everything to do with the poor dead dogs- even if we were talking about a package of heroin, or child pornography , this sort of violence is just not justified. What we end up with is dead loved ones, dead people and dead pets. It's just not worth it.