United Liberty
The Government’s War on Dogs
Sat, 06/19/2010 - 1:05pm | posted by Michael O. Powell
A very disturbing trend is occurring in the prosecution of the federal’s government’s “War on Drugs:” an additional war on the country’s canine companions. It started in Maryland in 2008 with the case of a small town mayor:
BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. (AP) - Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table.
Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple’s two dogs and seizing the unopened package.
The package had 32 pounds of marijuana, quite a bit of the illegal substance, but certainly not of more worth than the life of a pet.
The trend continued recently with the released video of a raid in Missouri in May, in which dogs can be heard howling as they are shot by a SWAT team:
(Click on the video to watch)
The next story comes with a raid on an elderly woman in D.C., resulting in the killing of her dog:
Today’s story of police canicide comes to us by way of the Associated Press (click to watch the video). A 62-year-old grandmother in Washington, DC tells AP that police came to her home serving a drug warrant for her 28-year-old grandson. The grandma asks to put her dog in the back yard or the bathroom. The cops tell her the bathroom would be fine. Later, the cops open the bathroom door, claim this 13-year-old dog named “Wrinkles” attacked them, and they shoot it multiple times. By the way, the grandson hasn’t lived in the home for a dozen years and the only drugs cops found were what they claimed was “drug residue” on some baggies, which the grandma contends is the residue of fortune cookies.
There was another heartbreaking dog killing by police in Lagrange, Missouri, caught on video that you can view on our NORML Stash Blog. This incident did not involve a drug warrant, however. Instead it was a report of an aggressive dog, who on video appeared to be quite calm and friendly, shot to death by an officer after the officer had it fully restrained by chain, noose, and pole.
In an interview with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, conservative Charles Krauthammer conceded that the “war on drugs” (which I contend should be called “the Government’s War on the People”) will never be won, but that a world in which narcotics like heroin were available at the local pharmacy would not be one he wants to live in. Well, Mr. Krauthammer, your priorities are certainly different than mine. A world where drugs are widely available legally (Mr. Krauthammer may be unaware that narcotics are widely available illegally, despite our government’s best efforts to the contrary) would be supremely preferable to a world in which I have to fear that a SWAT team will break down my door and kill my pets (or worse) under the suspicion that I have drugs in my possession. That is a tyranny that would have horrified our founding fathers, and certainly horrifies any citizen who has not lived in the soul-destroying environment of Washington D.C. as long as Krauthammer.
Taxpayer dollars should not be used to terrorize taxpayers, especially not under the pretense of protecting them from themselves.
the man in maryland who had his pets murdered by those punks in uniform had the package delivered their by some one he did not know and the cops had previously siezed the package and then put it back on the step to see who would get it. so none of this was even nesacary they had all ready seized the package once they did not need to destroy the mans home and murder his pets and then threaten to destroy his reputation if he went public with the story which is exactly what happened every cops on that case should be fired tried and convicted and then have their ass whipped for what they did to that family EVERYONE OF THEM!!
well said WB. Why is it so hard to acknowledge that many cops are bullies that like to kill things? Not all cops! But some. That is why it’s so important to have strict rules.
Mr. Klosthommer or whatever the F his name is should realize that the corner pharmacy he speaks of distributes drugs like Paxil (can cause seizures and death), Ritalin and Adderrall (pharmaceutical meth), and Prozac (drugged 24/7/365, “anti-despressant” causes suicidal impulses) all day long to TENS OF MILLIONS of American children.
why should I care if an adult wants to use the cannabis or coca plants, or opium? Is it going to do anything worse than alcohol to them? Highly unlikely. Alcohol kills over 100,000 people per year, all illegal drugs combined only 21,000
Also, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that government cops kill peoples’ dogs - they’re more than happy to steal the children right out of the home for cannabis and no other offenses.
And of course our govt. doesn’t balk at dropping Agent Orange on an area the size of Massachusetts halfway around the world, or at cutting down Iraq and Afghan people by the dozen with machine guns as we saw at Wikileaks.org recently.