Arizona Racist? You Decide

OK, remember when the State of Arizona and its Queen of Prunes, Jan Brewer, passed SB 1070? That hideous piece of legislation that basically criminalizes all brown people who might cross the State borders or dwell therein? And Jan Brewer even dragged Scary Failin' away from her special-needs child to come help whitewash the law?



Less than a month after that, Brewer signed into law HB 2281, which will ban ethnic studies in that benighted state. No more Native American history classes for the half-million Native Americans living in Arizona. No more Mexican history classes for the 2.x million American citizen Latinos who comprise one-third of the state's population.

Meanwhile, the state has begun targeting teachers "with heavy accents." The state has not specified which accents it finds unacceptable. However, the fact that Latinos are being audited, and white teachers are not, makes one go "Hmmm."

Given that during the 1990s, Arizona hired native Spanish speakers from Latin American nations for its bilingual-education program, one can't help but wonder what the difference is between those apparently well-qualified yet accented speakers then and now.

The year George Bush was elected, Arizona voters passed an English-only bill, and bilingual teachers switched to English-medium classes. Those teachers have, apparently, been teaching their students just fine for two decades. But what a coincidence! Now that SB 1070 is law, their performance has miraculously degraded in a mere matter of weeks to an unacceptable level. These teachers will be "reassigned" (to what? If their accent is deemed to be incomprehensible to their students, what purpose is served by reassigning them, and where will they go? And if it is not incomprehensible, what purpose is served by such reassignment?) or fired. Of course, the fact that Arizona is facing a dire shortage of teachers is not even mentioned. Does that rate another "Hmm"? Hell fuckin' yeah. In fact the number of "Hmms" these actions have, and should, cause has us all here sounding like fucking hummingbirds.

Together, the Latino and Native American population of Arizona comprise approximately half the total population. And that, apparently, has some Bush cronies really worried. Apparently, Arizona racists like Russell Pearce, AZ state senator who thinks Latinos breed like bunnies, is hoping that by creating this legislation he will force undocumented migrant workers out of the state, and bugger all the documented American citizens who end up thrown in jail or out of the country because they don't have their papers on them.

And before y'all get all self-righteous on us with "That would never happen, the law says no racial profiling," go read these here links and then make up your mind.

Let me tell you just how bad things are right now: Some fucking witless bunch of teabaggin' ball-slurpers in fucking Ohio has announced a contest. Winners are invited to spend a week in Arizona "chasing aliens," and are reminded to "bring their green cards" with them.



This is why we all need to protest whenever shit like this happens, people. The idiot who dreamed up this incredibly insulting racist shit got his quantity of assholes increased by several as irate citizens contacted his radio station. The station manager has since apologized for this piece of shit (who has yet to offer his own fucking apology, by the way). So keep it up. You might not think you're being heard, and you might not think that you make a difference. But you are, and you do.

Without your calls and emails and letters, these fuckers would just have carried on being the fucking fuckety fucked fuckacious assholes that they've always been and will always be. At least now they know we're listening and if they don't want multiple rectal orifices, they'll quit spewing shit out of them.

Mind you, this is far from over. Just this month, artists painting a mural at a school in Prescott were told by the principal to lighten the skin colour of the pupils that they painted in the mural to a lily shade of white. Excuse me, what the FUCK? WHAT? These are actual real fucking live fucking children who attend this fucking school, the mural is part of revitalizing the downtown area, funded by a private organization and depicts the actual fucking children for christ's fucking sake!



How crazy fucking insane do you have to be to insist that black and brown children who attend this school be depicted as white? FTA:

City Councilman Steve Blair spearheaded a public campaign on his talk show at Prescott radio station KYCA-AM (1490) to remove the mural.

In a broadcast last month, according to the Daily Courier in Prescott, Blair mistakenly complained that the most prominent child in the painting is African-American, saying: "To depict the biggest picture on the building as a Black person, I would have to ask the question: Why?"

You would, you fat wrinkled rapidly aging bigot. Jesus. Holy quacking duckshit! What kind of people are these. It never occurred to me (or to any of you, I'll bet) to ask the question "Why" someone decided to paint a black face in a mural. Of course, the principal is now claiming this was simply a question of art, not actually whitening the children. Yeah, right. Just like your fucking laws aren't racist, Arizona.

You'll be happy to hear that the parents and teachers love the mural as it is. Upon questioning, the principal admitted that he had received a whole three complaints about the mural. As for those miserable fucks who drove by to scream epithets like "Nigger" and "Spic" at the kids who were helping on the mural, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves, but you're troglodytes, so you aren't. Fortunately, there's not as many of you as you thought. You pigs. Oh, wait, that's a terrible insult to pigs which are actually very nice animals.

At any rate, a big thank you to those of you who complained. Steve Blair has been fired from the radio show. Your right to free speech has not been infringed, Mr. Blair. You're free to get on your soapbox in the local park anytime and yell your hate speech. You're not free to use the public airwaves to felch the haters though. So fuck you very much, and may you live the rest of your life in a bitter oblivion, you anal afterbirth.

Stumble It!

The Police State

Jesus fucking J.H. Christ and his Black brother Harry. Is this what it's come to? Body-slamming frail, elderly grannies with dementia in the interests of "protecting and serving?"

Who the fuck, just who the fuck are the cops "protecting" when they slam this poor old lady to the ground and leave her bleeding? Like being old and disoriented isn't bad enough?



I thought the last time the cops engaged in a little granny-bashing was, truly, the last time I'd hear about this. But these motherfuckers — hey, that lady cop has got to outweigh the victim by a good 100 lb., at least.

Your friendly local Cat has had to disarm knife-wielding persons before. It happens sometimes in the course of an argument that an overly-excited person picks up something that they think will help them, um, forcefully drive their point, as it were, home. If you're younger and stronger than the other person, you can get the weapon away from them pretty easily. You do risk getting cut, of course, and you might lose a little blood. But, you know, if you're, like, arguing with grandma, it's no big deal to step behind the old lady, grab her wrist, and twist it till she drops the knife. Unless she has a black belt in some martial art, she's not gonna be able to fight back.

So why these fucking proto-fascists felt the need to body-slam Grammy is completely fucking beyond me, OK?

Here's the facts of the case, as reported by Raw Story:

• The lady in this disgusting video evidence of police brutality is one Virginia Dodson of Whitehall, Ohio;
  
  
• Ms. Dodson is 84 years old and suffers from Alzheimer's Disease;
  
  
• Her daughter, who is her primary caregiver, was running an errand at the local Mall*Wart, and took Mom with her (probably because there is no alternate caregiver, or one wasn't available right then);
  
  
• Understandably, the daughter didn't want to take her into the store, so left her buckled into her seat in the car;
  
  
• At some point, poor disoriented Ms. Dodson lost track of why exactly she was all alone in a car, strapped into her seat, and panicked. She cut the strap with a steak knife she found in the car and exited the car, knife in hand, calling her daughter's name.
  
  
• Thanks to the police, she now has stitches closing the wound in the back of her head, and possibly a broken hand.

Now, some people are all, incensed, screaming, hey, the cops had to take her down 'cause, you know, she had a knife and she threatened some kid, and like that.

OK, you dumb motherfuckers, you wanna live in a police state, move to fucking Afghanistan or where-the-fuck-ever. And ask yourself how you'd feel if that was your Grandma the cops were bashing around. Or you, your very own precious self, some 40 or 60 years from now when you can no longer remember your name or how to wipe your own fucking ass. And don't forget to meditate on the fact that any kid that can't outrun an 84-year-old frail elderly woman who walks with a cane is gonna get Darwinized sooner or later.

Other people are claiming Ms. Dodson's daughter is responsible for this unholy mess because she "neglected" her mom. You lot, form a line to the right. The trucks will be coming any minute now to schlep you off to the local senior home or nursing home or any other place with a high proportion of physically and/or mentally disabled people. You're sentenced to do caretaker duty for them until you figure out just how difficult it is to look after someone with that particular combination of disabilities.

What does this story teach us, boyz'ngirlz?

• One, somebody is putting something truly sinister in the drinking water in Ohio. Either that or the whole fucking state is in the nth degree of crayzee natural-born fucking fascist loons. Maybe we should send all the other loonies there and build high concrete walls around the state. Eh?
  
  
• Two, Our care of the elderly, especially the elderly with mental disabilities, is fucking appalling. Why is Ms. Dodson's daughter forced to schlep Mom around and lock her in a car while she does the grocery shopping? Why don't we have daycare for the elderly and mentally disabled?
  
  
• Three, The police forces in this country desperately need new, better policy positions. One of the first things I'd like to see is the removal of those glorified cattle prods known as Tasers.
  
  And yes, I'm well aware of the fact that most cops lose their lives when intervening in domestic violence situations.

Is respect for the human rights enshrined in the Constitution too much to ask of our police? Because if it is, we need to scrap the existing police force and recreate it from the ground up.

Stumble It!

The Police State: Defined

ICHC

We here at La Casa de Los Gatos have blogged repeatedly and at length upon the police state that has come into public (and unabashed) existence ever since one Gee Dumbya and his evil cohort Dick "Satan's Spuzzer" Cheney got their hands on this once-great nation.


Today, we have both heartening and disheartening news to impart to our friends and visitors. Times like these you don't know whether to laugh, cry, or take an increased dose of your psychoactive fucking meds, right, SGTG? The heartening news is that one Sheriff Thomas J. Dart of Cook County, Illinois, has decided he's had enough of using the state's power to forcibly evict people from their homes. Yup. He's not gonna do it no more. Says Sheriff Dart:

"These poor people are seeing everything they own put out on the street. ... They've paid their bills, paid them on time. Here we are with a battering ram at the front door going to throw them out. It's gotten insane," he said.[...]

"These mortgage companies ... don't care who's in the building," Dart said Wednesday. "They simply want their money and don't care who gets hurt along the way.

"On top of it all, they want taxpayers to fund their investigative work for them. We're not going to do their jobs for them anymore. We're just not going to evict innocent tenants. It stops today."

Dart said he wants the courts or the state Legislature to establish protections for those most harmed by the mortgage crisis.

[...]

"When you're blindly sending me out to houses where I'm coming across innocent tenant after innocent tenant, I can't keep doing this and have a good conscience about it."

Wow. This is a human being, peoples. We have often wondered how cops can do their job, because a lot of it seems to involve protecting the person or property of the rich and brutalizing the poor and defenseless. Whether it's wearing a tee-shirt at the mall to which the hired dogs of the mall owners object, or making a joke that security guards at a hospital don't think is funny, we, the common people, are constantly in danger of having our ass busted because we said or did something someone rich or powerful didn't particularly care for.

Sometimes we follow every fucking rule in the book, and we still get our ass busted. They kick us out of our homes. They take away our kids. They beat us up and throw us in jail because we exercise our constitutional right peaceably to assemble as set forth in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights guaranteed in the Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances".

They make being homeless an offense with their loitering laws. They arrest us for being the wrong color, or driving the wrong car, or dressing in a way of which they don't approve.

Then along comes someone like Sheriff Dart and says, "I'm a man with a conscience and it goes against my understanding of wrong and right to kick people out of their homes when they have done nothing wrong." And you wonder, what kind of world would we have if every cop and security guard and enforcer consulted their conscience before tasering a teenager with a broken back nineteen times; or shooting an innocent woman to death before her children; or breaking down the door of an elderly, blind, diabetic cancer survivor.

And you wonder, whose side are we on, really? Who's on our side? Who's on which side? Because the Illinois Bankers' Association responded to Sheriff Dart's statements thus:

The Illinois Bankers Association opposed the plan, saying that Dart "was elected to uphold the law and to fulfill the legal duties of his office, which include serving eviction notices."

The association said Dart could be found in contempt of court for ignoring court eviction orders.

"The reality is that by ignoring the law and his legal responsibilities, he is carrying out 'vigilantism' at the highest level of an elected official," it said. "The Illinois banking industry is working hard to help troubled homeowners in many ways, but Sheriff Dart's declaration of 'martial law' should not be tolerated

Martial law? The man whose conscience won't abide kicking tenants who are not guilty of any wrongdoing out of their homes is accused of imposing martial law? Of vigilantism?

Personally, we would rather see Sheriff Dart expend his (and his staff's) energies and monies apprehending murderers, thieves, rapists, burglars, child abusers, batterers, and disturbers of the peace. You bankers got everyone into this mess. You've already taken $700 BILLION of our dollars to help you out. Quit whining, as Phil Gramm, your good friend (and John McCain's) and deregulator of the banking industry stated recently. You're not fooling us with your gabble about trying to "help troubled homeowners in many ways." We know only too well that your "help" mostly consists of "helping" yourself to their assets and those of other taxpayers in general.

Video footage of Sheriff Dart giving Illinois bankers what-for available here.

The bankers are not on our side. John McCain't, who is good friends with many many bankers and lobbyists calling for further deregulation of the financial industry, is not on our side. John McCain't is, however, on the same side of these issues, apparently, as the White House, which today issued this unbelievably heartless statement. From the article:

During today’s press briefing, White House press secretary Dana Perino suggested the Bush administration would oppose any effort to extend jobless benefits — a stance the White House has taken before. She explained their position by saying, “we want people to be able to return to the workplace as soon as possible.” The suggestion was that extending benefits somehow prevents people from returning to work.

She concluded by saying that “the best way to help” the economy and unemployed people is for unemployed people to simply “get back to work.”

Where's OUR fucking bailout, George? You think it's so easy to "get a job" and "go back to work"? Not after you exported all our jobs, you fucking prick. Why didn't you tell your Wall Street friends that? They got $700 BILLION and we get the bum's rush. And our children's children will be paying for all those manicures and pedicures AIG executives were getting EVEN WHILE THEY WERE NEGOTIATING THEIR SHARE OF THE BAILOUT!!!



If you don't vote for Obama/Biden after reading this, it is your bounden duty to hie thee to the nearest area inhabited by large, hungry, dangerous animals (for example, sharks, lions, or tigers). Take no weapons nor any protective gear. Strip naked at the site and give the animal of your choice a passionate kiss. Hopefully we'll see no more of you in this life. With any luck, in the next you will reincarnate as a small, nasty-looking arthropodic life-form which will be instantly killed and eaten repeatedly until you have worked off all your truly crappy karma.

Stumble It!

2008 Elections: More of the Same

From Mark Frauenfelder over at BoingBoing, a graphic (in many senses of the word) illustration of the past 8 years with Chimpy McDrunkensot and Dick "dick" Shootemintehface.

Vote for this guy if you want more of the same:

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Politics: So Much For

Our "shared Judaeo-Christian values." The WaPoo is reporting that the FBI investigation of Army Engineer David Tenenbaum was racially (religiously?) motivated.

Photo courtesy of Patricia Beck, Detroit Free Press

In other words, Tenenbaum was targeted because he is a practising Jew. Of course, it took the Pentagon 11 long years to exonerate the man. Eleven years of living under suspicion with the FBI tailing you, the press reporting it, and the nutbags crawling out of the woodwork to threaten your, and your family's, lives.

Does the right hand know in whose pants the left hand is rummaging? Half our congresscritters are owned body and soul by the rabid Likudnik hawks of AIPAC; yet our military and our intelligence agencies, while failing to unearth the recipients of AIPAC largesse, are running around harrassing ye regular olde citizenry.

Joe LIEberwhore is pole-dancing to AIPAC's tune, putting Israeli hawks' interests before those of his constituents' and being invited to speak at the Republican convention. Mr. Tenenbaum, a man with little power or influence and no lobbyist money connections, is followed, threatened, searched, harassed, and spied upon. The effrontery of the officials conducting the surveillance of Mr. Tenenbaum is shocking:

The examiner also threatened him, Tenenbaum said. " 'I want you to confess,' he was yelling at me," he recalled. "I've done other Jews before and gotten them to confess, and I'll get you, too."

What the fuck is this, the Third Reich reborn? Where do these people get off with comments like this?


Somebody needs a few whups upside the head with La Casa de Los Gatos' trademarked Golden Bat o'Clue. So hawkish AIPAC Jews with money get their ass kissed by all and sundry and religious practising ordinary Jews with no money or power get the third degree? Muslims who happen to be members of the Saudi Royal Family get their money laundered by the current Idiot-in-Chief's uncle, but Muslims who happen to be powerless ordinary guys get dragged into the White House interrogation chamber for roughing up and questioning because they're using an iPod?

Mr. Tenenbaum better get a nice long letter of apology from the fucking schmucks who have made his life a hell. And we the people need to crack down on these various "authorities" who are making all our lives hell, shooting our dogs and our wives, tasing our children and our friends, and sending our neigbours and our relatives to die in pointless foreign wars.

Stumble It!

The Police State: FBI Investigates

CNN tells us that the FBI, at the request of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife Trinity Tomsic, will be monitoring an investigation into the recent "no-knock" raid in which the Prince George's County Sherriff's SWAT team kicked in the front door of the mayor’s home and shot and killed his two black Labrador retrievers. The investigation will be conducted by the Prince George's County police. Which is rather like asking the fox to take charge of the henhouse, but hey. The spokesweasel for the FBI is one Richard Wolf, in an ironic example of Interesting Names Connected With Strange Cases. The Prince George's County police chief is — Melvin High. The county sherriff? Michael Jackson.

Mayor Cheye Calvo formally requested that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate his case and other similar cases in Prince George’s County. To date, the Prince George's County police and the County Sherriff have failed to produce a warrant consistent with their claims. While Maryland judges are empowered to grant no-knock warrants, the warrant issued by Circuit Court Judge Albert W. Northrup was a standard search warrant.

However, when Mayor Calvo requested the SWAT team to show him their warrant, they refused to do so. That should be a punishable crime, since the Constitution specifically requires that government employees who enter a private citizen's home have (and, presumably, show upon request) a warrant that states specifically the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The Fourth Amendment is all but dead, the citizenry having traded it away for the mess of pottage that allows such criminal actions by government servants acting under colour of authority. Chances are, however, that the only "punishment" meted out to the police will be exclusion of evidence obtained by illegal search and seizure.

Subsequently, Prince George’s authorities claimed to have a “no knock” warrant, but failed to produce it when requested. The warrant that they finally did produce indicates that they never asked for, nor received, a no-knock warrant.

The fact is, the officers knew that they were behaving illegally. A detective signed a sworn statement to the presiding judge that he had provided Calvo a copy of the warrant at the time of the raid, as required by law. Why lie unless you are doing wrong?

The Washington Post weighs in:

The warrant issue will probably only heighten anger in the community over the incident. Even when a search warrant has been issued, courts have held that police must generally knock to announce their presence, preserve the privacy of a homeowner and let occupants know they are not experiencing an illegal home invasion.

"It's a traditional constitutional protection, going back forever," said defense attorney Richard A. Finci, who is not involved with the Calvo case.

Police officers are sometimes allowed to search without knocking, even without getting authority in advance, but courts have ruled they can do so only if there are specific circumstances at the time of the search that lead officers to conclude evidence might be destroyed or law enforcement could be endangered, said lawyer William C. Brennan, who is not involved with the case.

Do you think the Prince George's County law enforcement folks could tell us how to dispose of 32 pounds of marijuana between the time the cops knock at the door and the time the homeowner lets them in? A small amount of weed can maybe be flushed down the bog or set on fire, but 32 pounds?

Things took a turn for the surreal when Prince George's County Police Department spokeswoman Sharon Taylor said legal counsel had informed her that "no-knock" warrants do not exist in Maryland. CNN has a video clip of police defending their botched raid.

Taylor said:

"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."

[...]

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."

"I would say that the dogs presented a threat, I would imagine, to the special operations situation," Taylor said.

What's your degree in, Ms. Taylor? Weaseling? Incidentally, the Prince George's County law enforcement have bungled drug raids before.

It's time to end the so-called "war on drugs," whose major legacy to the nation is the imprisonment of one per cent of the population. If that seems ludicrous to you, consider that the prison system is privatized; but subsidized by you, the taxpayer; that prisoners are a cheap source of labour to manufacturers but the taxpayer derives no benefit therefrom; that every prisoner who is incarcerated for a drug "offense" has a family that is affected, sometimes severely — whether it's children who have lost a parent and a provider, however poor; or parents who have lost a pair of hands that could add economic, social, and emotional stability to the household.

Consider also that you, the taxpayer, heavily subsidize SOME drugs, like alcohol and tobacco, and the prescription pharmacopeia; that much of the prison population who you are paying to house and feed while businessmen profit from their cheap labour and take away your union jobs are in the hoosegow for offenses relating to marijuana, a drug that has no recorded fatalities; consider that if marijuana usage, possession, and even exchange were not criminalized, billions of taxpayer dollars currently spent to monitor, harrass, arrest, incarcerate, and otherwise interfere with ordinary citizens whose only offense is that they like to get high, could be used for better things — like a better health care system. Consider that prison has never rehabilitated anyone, only taught them how to commit worse and more dangerous crimes. And that prisoners are eventually released into the community from which they came, but it's a community that has changed during their incarceration and it's difficult for them to fit in. So they often turn to a life of crime.

Sheriff Michael Jackson and Police Chief Melvin High have not apologized for the raid, saying their officers acted appropriately. They claim the heavily armed SWAT officers in full protective gear were justified in shooting two innocent, tame, gentle family pets because they "felt threatened." Like we said before, clearly these cops are too wussy for their current line of work if they're scared of two black Labs. They should go into babysitting, there's good money in working as a nanny to the wealthy property-owning classes. Oh, wait, they're probably going to shoot the babies if they feel "threatened."

It turns out that Mayor Calvo and Ms. Tomsic were apparently the victims of a scheme in which packages of marijuana were sent to unsuspecting people and were intercepted by a deliveryman. Five or six other innocent residents of Berwyn Heights have been similarly victimised. Two men have been arrested in the marijuana shipping plot. And two sweet and much-loved dogs lost their lives for the complete idiocy of the LE of Prince George's County. And a couple or three very nice people are completely traumatized and will be for a long, long time.

Stumble It!

The Police State: Something YOU Can Do

Photo by Sarah L. Voisin, copyright Washington Post

Previous posts on the raid available here and here.

A rally was held yesterday for Mayor Cheye Calvo of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, to offer him and his wife support after a county sherriff's SWAT team kicked in their front door and killed their two black Labs in a stupid, irresponsible, incompetent, botched "drug raid."

One hundred people turned up, apparently. It's clear that the Mayor is popular with the citizenry. The tiny town boasts only 3,000 residents. Commentor Diane had this to say:

should put fear in all of us. Cheye has always supported ethics and justice in government, in its leaders and in his own personal life as well as his public life. Trinity Tomsic, his wife is exactly the same. I shudder to think of what worse could have happened if Trinity’s mother had taken this package in at the time of its arrival. Perhaps we would be reading about, not just two gentle innocent dogs being shot as they barked or ran from the heavily protected SWAT team carrying assault rifles, but a tiny older woman being shot as she ran away in fear. Any small investigation would have yielded enough information to make most people think twice about this family being considered “person’s of interest.” Recently, in the DC area, this receiving of a package of drugs by innocent people has happened, been documented, and should have been noted by these enforcers of the law. Where is justice? Where is due process? Why are the police of any kind given carte blanche (a knocking not necessary) warrant to enter a home with no known connection to drugs or crime? Don’t tell me how dangerous their job is if this is how they conduct it. They create unnecessary danger by their hapless planning and violent responses. Can you only imagine the feeling of personal violation had this been your home or pets? Would you, could you ever feel the same? No. Their lives are altered forever. As Cheye Calvo said, “these were our children.” Consider this. I believe killing those dogs was the violent act of intimidation and very purposeful. The message was clear as implied violence always is; Mr. Calvo, we can kill your dogs and we can kill you just as easily if you don’t comply. It was a cowardly act!! I see no bravery, courage, responsible forethought or accountability here. The county sheriff said of course, his men must have felt they were in danger to have killed the dogs. How merciful that Trinity was not home to witness this. How absurd that several men in protective gear armed with assault weapons are afraid of a fleeing terrified pet. If they fear a fleeing dog, they are definitely in the wrong business. Cheye has always planned a career in government and politics. I hope and pray he doesn’t shrink from this now. We obviously need more ethical people with courage to stop this madness. On the other hand, one can only imagine the pain, shock and sorrow in his heart that could lead him to turn his back on this violent madness. We who know and love this family, my family, are incredulous. It proves no one is safe from this kind of hapless violence. I will be at that rally in my heart!!!

We agree. This is nothing but intimidation. Brutal, violent, unconstitutional and therefore illegal, intimidation.

Commentor Susiefunk adds her two cents:

I hope the Mayor will sue the P.G.County Police and the Sheriff Department and have an individual suit against the deputy or deputies who shot the Labs for cruelty toward animals. The whole incident is a disgrace to P.G. County. I want to know if this same type of drug drop on a resident's porch has happened before(College Park) why was the idenity of the person who lived in the house taken into consideration? Or does this take too much effort on this law enforcement agency? To shoot a dog as it is running away is a real coward and bully!

Absolutely. One wonders why the police didn't bother to investigate more carefully. If there had been similar cases in the same area, shouldn't the police have known about it? Shouldn't they have used due diligence to uncover similar cases?

Commenter heckuvajob gives us the action item:

Sgt Mario Ellis can be reached at (240) 508-7638. I called to ask for the name of the shooter, and was told this guy is the department's spokesman. Several attempts to contact yielded only voicemail.

Give Sergeant Ellis' voicemail an earful, please. You might be speaking for a hundred others who are equally enraged but not able to contact the Sergeant for one reason or another. This is absolutely disgraceful. We've blogged about no-knock warrants before and how dangerous they are. And the police have yet to produce the warrant they claim to have based this illegal act on. Disgusting, disgraceful, and utterly shameful.

Our favourite penguin adds his two cents:

Wow, so they entered without a warrant too. How... fascist... of them.

Freedom(tm). For some definition of freedom that looks suspiciously like Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany. Sigh.

- Badtux the Free Penguin
(for some definition of "free" that doesn't look like the dictionary one at all).

Yup. Couldn't agree more. So, how does America look now in the eyes of those of her citizens who get their doors kicked in, their pets killed, or lose their own lives as Kathryn Johnston did? Does this look like the "land of the free and the home of the brave"? Does this look like the nation that was bequeathed by its founders to be a beacon of freedom? Badtux is right. It looks like Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, a police state in which the police may violate any and all codes of decency, morality, humanity for any reason at any time without recourse for the citizenry.

And here's what really bunches our underroos. While this ridiculous sham of a police operation was going on, a certain Richard D. Davis and his companion Dena D. Riley, both of Missouri, are on trial for brutally torturing, raping, and murdering at least two women. Well, at least two whose repulsive deaths were videotaped, anyway. It so happens that Mr. Davis and Ms. Riley were questioned by the police, but not taken into custody at the time. Shortly after the questioning and before the police obtained a warrant for their arrest, the couple fled.

Mr. Davis, shortly before the torture-murders of the two known victims, had served an 18-year sentence for rape and sodomy. Yet, the police did not think they needed a "no-knock" warrant to apprehend him. A known criminal with an obvious proclivity for brutal crimes (it's not easy getting sentenced to 18 years for the crime of rape) gets a relatively polite questioning. And this from the police of the fine state of Missouri, who tased a teenager with a broken back nineteen fucking times for no reason that anyone can determine. But a law-abiding citizen like the Mayor of Berwyn Heights, with no known criminal record but rather a record of achievement and service to his community and his nation, gets his door kicked in, his pets shot before his eyes, and has the privilege of cleaning their bodies and blood off his floor afterwards and repairing his own front door. And the Prince George's County police have yet to show this warrant. So what's the deal, is Maryland trying to catch up with Missouri and Louisiana and Ohio in the "violation of human rights and civil rights" award department?

If you want to do something nice for Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, or for their poor dogs, send money to Chris Brittan-Powell, who organized the rally. Here's what he has to say:

Berwyn Heights police chief Patrick Murphy said he regretted that the sheriff's office and county police raided Calvo's home without Murphy's knowledge. Murphy has been vocal about his anger that his eight-person force was not informed of the raid in advance.

"I never imagined, when I set out to protect people from the crooks and the criminals, that I would have to protect them from my fellow police officers," Murphy told the crowd.

Brittan-Powell said that the rally's aim was not to condemn police but to show Calvo that residents were on his side and did not believe he deserved to have his home raided. Brittan-Powell said the group was taking donations to buy two trees to be planted at Calvo's home in memory of the dogs as well as to fund repairs to Calvo's front door.

Gads! The SWAT team, the county sherriff's department, and the county police department should have to pay for the repair of the door, plus a generous settlement for the emotional distress that resulted from their actions.

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The Police State: Rally

Post-rally post here. Pre-rally post here.

The city of Berwyn Heights is holding a rally in support of its Mayor, Cheye Calvo, who was recently subjected to the power of the police state in its rawest and most brutal form when a SWAT team kicked in the door to his house, shot his two black Labs to death, and handcuffed the Mayor (in his underwear) and his aged mother-in-law and interrogated them without benefit of counsel or even clothing (the Mayor's, anyway), for several hours. From the WahPoo:

A rally in support of Calvo and in memory of his dogs has been scheduled for tomorrow evening at a ball field in the town. Berwyn Heights Police Chief Patrick Murphy said his eight-person department has been besieged by phone calls from as far away as Louisiana from people who mistakenly believe his officers were involved.

Murphy said he is angry that, instead, his officers were not informed ahead of time of that the county planned a major operation inside the town limits, especially in light of a 2006 incident in which then-Prince George's Police Chief Melvin C. High expressed formal "regret" that Berwyn Heights police were not told of threats made to an abortion clinic.

"I believe there is absolutely no credible reason why notification to my police department should not have been made," Murphy said. He said he is confident his officers could have entered Calvo's house without violence.

Cpl. Clinton Copeland, a spokesman for the Prince George's police department, said officers had a "no-knock" warrant, which allowed them to enter the house without alerting Calvo. Such warrants are issued when police fear they might face armed suspects. He said they notified Murphy immediately after entering the house.

La Casa de Los Gatos extends its condolences to the Mayor on the loss of his dogs. Labs are just too sweet for us to resist. Not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, but good, sweet doggies.

The Calvo/Tomsic doggies

We sure hope the Mayor sues the asses off the Prince George's County police and the Sherriff's office. Those thugs blatantly violated the Constitution, and, as one of the WahPoo's commenters pointed out, that's just a piece of paper unless its provisions are enforced.

Please consider schlepping over to Berwyn Heights to demonstrate your support for Mayor Cheye Calvo's constitutional rights, if you live out that way.

Just remember, the police are supposed to "protect and serve" the citizenry. Not kick their doors in or shoot them or their children or dogs on mere suspicion. The Constitution's Fourth Amendment requires "probable cause":

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The police clearly had no reason to suspect Mayor Calvo, his wife (an employee of the State of Maryland) or his mother-in-law would be armed and dangerous, which might have justified the probable cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment. A little research — a friendly conversation with the Berwyn Heights police, for example — would have told them that the couple lived a quiet low-key sort of life and were respected professionals of standing in the community, not drug dealers and scofflaws.

Mind you, the Constitution was created to protect everyone, not just quiet, low-key middle-class white professionals. So the cops don't get a pass for the shooting of Tarika Wilson, either.

Calvo says police did not show him a copy of the warrant, and the press has not been able to obtain a copy:

Mayor Calvo has not been arrested, and neither has his wife or mother-in-law. But, police say anyone living in the house is a person of interest in their investigation. Calvo says he was never shown a search warrant during Tuesday night's raid, and FOX 5 was unable to obtain a copy from circuit court.

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The Police State: More Misbehaviour

Cheye Calvo and Trinity Tomsic walk their dogs Payton and Chase

More information available here and here.

Those sworn to protect and serve have increasingly been doing the exact opposite, of late. These days we seem to be suffering from a surfeit of stories of bad behaviour by these so-called "public servants." They're beating up and jailing innocent citizens, subjecting them to strip searches and repeated taserings leading to death, kicking in their front doors, shooting them, and generally acting like the worst thugs of the third reich. But today's outrage is really beyond the pale.

The county police of Prince George's County in Maryland, working with the Sherriff's Office SWAT team, kicked in the door of the Berwyn Heights Mayor's home and shot his two black Labs to death — one, in the back, as it tried to run away. What, exactly, was the Mayor's offense?

Apparently, the police, posing as deliverymen, delivered a parcel that contained 32 lbs. of marijuana to the house, and the mayor took it inside. The county police and the Sherriff's office didn't bother to inform the police of Berwyn Heights that they were on a pet-killing spree. What the hell is wrong with these people? Oh, yeah. Their president is a lawbreaking thug. So why the hell should they abide by the law when their own leader (probably the chimp they voted for) can't be bothered to do the same?

Of course, what this means is the cops can deliver a parcel of marijuana to anyone's door and if you take it in, they can kick your door in, and handcuff you and your elderly mother-in-law for hours while they interrogate you. Really, Mayor Calvo, you should be grateful they didn't waterboard you.

So who is this Mayor Cheye Calvo? Commenter Pete over at Raw Story unearthed this information about the Mayor:

Cheye Calvo
National Conference of State Legislatures

Cheye (pronounced "shi") Calvo directs the National Conference of State Legislatures' (NCSL) transportation and financial services committees and represents state legislatures in our federal system of government on banking, insurance, securities and transportation issues. Cheye played a leading role in efforts to create state-friendly federal driver's license standards as part of the intelligence reform in December 2004 and more recently in opposing the driver's license provisions of the REAL ID Act. Cheye has spoken, testified and written extensively on a wide range of public policy matters, and has co-authored and co-edited studies on human genetics policy, genetic privacy, and auto insurance ratemaking. He also serves as the part-time, elected mayor of the Town of Berwyn Heights, Maryland.

Calvo, 37, has been mayor of the 3,000-person town near College Park since 2004. His wife is a finance officer for the state, he said. He works part time as the mayor and serves as director of expansion for the SEED Foundation, a well-known national nonprofit group that runs urban public boarding schools.

Sounds reeeeal threatening, people. Of course, those of us who are working-class, or poor, or dark of skin have had stuff like this happen to them pretty routinely. But, goodness me, when a middle-class white working couple like the Calvos have it happen to them ... isn't it time to, um, do something?

To their credit, the Berwyn Heights police department had a reaction pretty similar to ours:

Berwyn Heights Police Chief Patrick Murphy said county police and the Sheriff's Office had not notified his department of the raid. He said town police could have conducted the search without a SWAT team.

"You can't tell me the chief of police of a municipality wouldn't have been able to knock on the door of the mayor of that municipality, gain his confidence and enter the residence," Murphy said. "It would not have been a necessity to shoot and kill this man's dogs."

Common law holds that a person's home is their castle — that every person has the same right to freedom under their own roof, whether rented or purchased, as a king or queen has in theirs. And the Constitution is explicit regarding search and seizure:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Do you see anything in there about kicking down doors and shooting people's pets? The fucking police fucking SWAT team is scared of black Labs? A turtle could outwit a Lab, and there isn't a dog like it for sheer friendliness and sweetness of disposition. And why would you shoot a dog that is running away from you?

Want an action item? Call the PGCP Chief, Melvin High, at 301-772-4740 to let him know what you think of his high-handed tactics.

Melvin High! What a name.

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Politics: Round One to the Victim

of the police state.

European Car-Free Day in Budapest Photo from Time magazine

Raw Story tells us that a NYPD officer who knocked a Critical Mass rider off his bike and onto the ground has been relegated to desk duty.

Now, we know quite well that the bicyclists who participate in Critical Mass can be unbelievable fucking jerks. We've been subjected to their jerkiness quite a few times. We include the idiot who acted like he owned the goddamned road, shot in front of us, almost killing himself, then pursued us for two miles, spitting on our windshield and window, swerving in front of us deliberately, and screaming abuse at the top of his lungs. We include all the idiots who don't obey stop signs or the rules of the road and lack basic ordinary manners. We include the lunatics who surrounded and attacked some idiot SUV driver.

Look, people, when people have their kids in their car, even if it is a gas-guzzling monster and the driver is an asshole, DO NOT for crying out loud attempt to teach them good manners by screaming foul abuse at them while putting dents in their vehicle, OK? That is so not cool. Yes, the parent is an unmitigated asshole and probably a lousy driver to boot, and yes, they probably were acting like they owned the fucking road. The right thing to do is take a video of their assholish behaviour with your cool little cellphone/video camera type gadget, note their license number, and call the cops.

Of course, when the cops happen to be the ones that beat your ass, you definitely want the event videotaped. In this particular case, although the cop in question did arrest the cyclist and hold him for a little over a day (26 hours), a fellow cyclist videotaped the whole thing and put it on YouTube:

"If it wasn't caught on video people would not have believed it," rider and documentary filmmaker Christopher Ryan added. "The video just shows what the cyclists have been saying all along, that the police are still harassing and intimidating them from doing group rides."

Well, cyclists in NY are made of different stuff from our intrepid natives, apparently. Or perhaps it's the fact that the Critical Massives have so much clout here, but our cyclists seem to have everyone intimidated and terrorised. Which is also not a good thing.

The lesson to be learned is, apparently, to videotape interactions with the police (and do it surreptitiously, for mercy's sake). Because if they whup your ass and you can prove it, they're going to learn from the consequences. Oh, yeah, it helps not to live in Bumfuck, name_of_state. Or, if you're so unfortunate as to live there, to do your best to ensure that your local politicos and your neighbours understand the meaning of "police state" and agree that it is not a desirable thing.

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