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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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: 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

Cheye Calvo and Trinity Tomsic

Update. Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, writes a piece in the WahPoo (Washington Post, in case you hadn't guessed) about the ordeal he suffered at the hands of the police of Prince George's County, as we blogged before.

We're glad to see that Mayor Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, have filed suit against these apparatchiks of the fascist state. These are the people the ReapUglyCans want us to submit to. They're pro-police, pro-authority, pro-the strong, long arm of governmental control — at least until it comes to them. They, themselves, are, of course, beyond the reach of the law. Or think they should be. Schmucks.

In case you were comatose at the time and failed to see anything about the case, the Prince George's County sheriff's office, in the course of a War on Drugs police sting, delivered a package of marijuana (the noble weed, for crisake! Aren't there shitloads of meth freaks they should be concentrating on? Fuckwits.) to the Tomsic-Calvo household, then used that incident for a "no-knock" breaking down of the Tomsic-Calvo home's front door, and held the inhabitants at gunpoint (including Tomsic's elderly mother) for several hours.

Oh, and they shot the couple's two friendly black Labs, one just a puppy. Shot them dead and left them lying in pools of their own blood while they held Mayor Calvo and his mother-in-law at gunpoint.

The poor little pupsters

They did all this without bothering to coordinate with the Berwyn Heights police. What a bunch of fucking eejits. Naturally, when it came out that a middle- to upper-middle class WHITE family had been held at gunpoint and had their pets murdered before their eyes, the outrage over the incident went international, and the Sheriff's office got the butt-fucking it deserved.

Of course, they do this every day in this country to people of colour. Even college professors.

At least Calvo and Tomsic will get their day in court. Hopefully, they'll succeed in bringing about the death of this "no-knock warrant" shit, as blatant a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution as ever there was. Does anyone think the Founding Fathers would have approved of this?

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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.

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