Blog :: Ending the War on Dogs

It's ironic to me that despite all the violations of humans rights, if the Drug War is ever given up it will probably be because of people's soft hearts for their dogs. If the name Radley Balko means nothing to you, you might not realize that it has become incredibly commonplace for SWAT units to raid civilians for non-violent drug related offenses. Such raids involve shooting the dogs as a standard practice

A fairly famous example would be the raid on the mayor of Berwyn Heights in Maryland. A package containing Marijuana was sent to the mayors house and the Sheriff's department followed the package with a "no-knock" raid; among other indignities the underwear clad mayor was handcuffed and dropped on his kitchen floor beside his handcuffed mother-in-law and the family's two labrador retrievers were shot and killed, one while running away.

Mayor Calvo was cleared of any involvement in drugs but the Sheriff's Department continues to claim that the raid was essentially a success since it followed departmental procedures. I suspect most people agree with Mayor Calvo - violent raids on law abiding citizens can't be considered "a success".

Sadly that sort of encounter with Law Enforcement typifies the Drug War - and is the reason that I don't support it. I'm personally conservative, generally sympathetic to Law Enforcement and general law and order concerns. I've never done drugs of any sort, nor am I likely to start if they're legalized. But I support decriminalizing at least marijuana precisely because of this sort of Law Enforcement over-reach. The following videos shows a night raid by a SWAT team on a house. Half a dozen armed and armored officers break a door shoot the family dogs (a pit bull and ... a terrifying corgi!) in front of a seven year old child and cuff the father. They eventually file misdemeanor marijuana possession charges.

As far as I'm concerned SWAT teams should be shooting hostage takers and bank robbers, not retrieving roaches and shooting the pets of otherwise law-abiding citizens, not ... this.

Posted on May 7th 2010, 05:56 PM

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