Editorial: Drug Raid
August 9, 2008
The Capital
Yesterday the Prince George's County police belatedly expressed "regret" for a July 29 raid in which they and a Sheriff's Office SWAT team burst into the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights and killed his dogs. But they kept defending the actions of the officers involved. Meanwhile the FBI, at the mayor's request, is reviewing the incident.
Officers had intercepted a package with 32 pounds of marijuana sent from Los Angeles and addressed to the mayor's wife. An undercover officer deposited it on the doorstep of Mayor Cheye Calvo. After the mayor took it into his house — he put it aside and went off to change clothes for a community meeting — the officers stormed in, breaking down his door and apparently immediately killing his two pet Labrador retrievers with multiple rounds.
The mayor — in his underwear — and his mother-in-law were handcuffed, forced to kneel and questioned for hours. If you go by what Mr. Calvo says, the officers — who don't appear to have been well briefed — thought he was crazy when he tried to tell them that he was, in fact, the mayor. Apparently it never occurred to them to check with the Berwyn Heights police.
Earlier this week, police made arrests in the case, saying that a drug ring had been depositing drugs at the homes of unsuspecting people, then retrieving them. They took their time exonerating the Calvos and making their expression of regret — which was something short of the prompt full apology the situation called for.
Everyone makes mistakes, but police agencies too often act as if they have nothing to apologize for if they haven't done anything illegal. The state police force's recent failure to apologize for squandering time and resources on spying on civic activists comes to mind. Don't most of us apologize simply for doing something stupid?
And when was the right of police officers to defend themselves against attack by menacing animals enlarged into a right to shoot the pets of anyone who is the target of a raid? | 
