"We're not in the habit of going to homes and shooting peoples' dogs," Ellis said. "If we were, there would be a lot more dead dogs around the county."That's gotta be one of the more chilling "Only Ones" statements I've ever seen in print.
There's a video here.
I guess it never occurs to these flash-bang types that if you calmly and quietly go about your business, you can get results minus panic. It's like TASING somebody and then doing it again because they went into seizures instead of stayed still.
Most family dogs are approachable if you display the right attitude of confidence and calmness. One big thing I've always found helps is to not be a chickenshit on steroids. And even for those animals that stay aggressive, there are plenty of capture/restraining devices that make a lethal response one of last resort--just ask the town dogcatcher--they do it every day. A little training in animal control techniques is too much to expect from those empowered to employ lethal force?
I don't know what part the "persons of interest" played in all this, and the irony of a person who makes laws that others must obey--or else--being caught up in the system isn't lost on me. But anybody could have sent that package--a rival, an enemy--and for the cops to be right on top of it raises the question of "how?"
And do we really want dynamic entry teams with guns a-blazin' over a box of pot?
[Via John G]
6 comments:
Or, they could stop trespassing.
Slam, bang bang bang, now translates to "Police"? I didn't notice anyone saying they idenitified themselves.
Chickenshits on steroids is very apt.
it wasn't even the local police but the county police who overruled the locals and did not even bother to contact them about the raid. this also isn't the first time the prince georges' county police stepped out of their jurisdiction in Berwyn Heights. Then again this is the same police department with the strangled prisoner in solitary confinement so respecting the bill of rights isn't really on their list of priorities.
Larry King interviewed female inmates in a Maryland prison. At least two of them seemed to have committed -- or had a relative who committed -- justifiable homicide. "Maryland has no self-defense law," said one, and the other, more chillingly and maybe more accurately, said "Maryland has no self-defense."
One woman was there because her UNCLE or someone killed the man who beat and raped her and she wouldn't testify about it at his trial. (!!!)
If I'm not shooting promiscuously at neighbors, dogs and cats or singing opera in the buff at 3 a.m., there's no reason for the police to be in my yard, much less in my house.
Remember how Rush Limbaugh was a BIG War on Drugs fan, until he got a little too friendly with prescription painkillers? I don't know if he's married or has children, but how would he have felt if THEY were entrapped, invaded, treated like an enemy of the people? Lack of empathy is the WORST problem in the world today. Sad that some people only acquire it by having what they do done to them.
Freud said "Count no mortal happy." We all have our demons. We all have our ways of coping with them. Those ways should not involve pounding others for how they tame THEIR demons. In the Middle Ages, they took that literally. People died. Have we learned so little in 1,000 years?
It certainly SEEMS that cops are geting in the habit of shooting anyone or anything that takes too much time to deal with, if not with a firearm then with a TASER. An upset woman in a store who had just gotten bad news on her cell phone. A man who didn't want to sign a speeding ticket in Utah because, in part, the trooper had parked IN FRONT OF the temporary lower speed limit sign. A no-English traveler in Canada who thought his mother had not been allowed to leave her former Communist home country after all. You've read them.
BATFE methods are trickling down to all LEOs. The dog-shooting, cat-stomping tactical ninjas are in our small towns now.
They get commendations.
There's no one left to complain to about it except each other. The Chief already knows, and the mayor too. They initiated it. It's like in the prison movies when two tough guys grab the hero's arms and the gang leader walks up. You know nothing good's gonna happen.
For a preview of the real near future, watch "Caligula."
Anyone know where I can find a copy of "Harder Homes and Gardens?" It's a book about how to make your home harder to bust into.
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