FBI Investigates Md Home Invasion, Police Actions

Calvo, a mayor, claims one of his two Labs killed by police in the home entry was shot for sport while running away. The FBI has opened an investigation.

Reached at his home Thursday night, Calvo said he'd discuss the FBI's investigation the next day.

Earlier in the day, Calvo insisted the couple's two black Labradors were gentle creatures and said police apparently killed them "for sport," gunning down one of them as it was running away.

"Our dogs were our children," said the 37-year-old Calvo. "They were the reason we bought this house because it had a big yard for them to run in."

The mayor, who was changing his clothes when police burst in, also complained that he was handcuffed in his boxer shorts for about two hours along with his mother-in-law, and said the officers didn't believe him when he told them he was the mayor. No charges were brought against Calvo or his wife, who came home in the middle of the raid.

Prince George's County Police Chief Melvin High said Wednesday that Calvo and his family were "most likely ... innocent victims," but he would not rule out their involvement, and he defended the way the raid was conducted. He and other officials did not apologize for killing the dogs, saying the officers felt threatened.

The FBI will monitor how effective, fair and professional the law enforcement agency behaved during the incident, Wolf said. A police spokesman declined comment Thursday on the FBI investigation.

Comments

[SacTownMan]

Shooting the dogs was low life. Anybody who ever saw "Old Yeller" can relate!

[IslamoLlama]

The War On Drugs claims another smashing victory! Thank god we live in a country in which police address the massive marijuana problem by kicking down doors, shooting up dogs, and arresting local mayors without doing basic investigative work first.

Score another point for Touch On Crime conservatives. Now with more in-your-face SWAT teams than you can shack a ten foot night stick at.

[david lewis]

Wow. Too bad they can't find bin Laden!

Oh, right. He's deaaad...

[Fred Used to Be Beloit]

"The War On Drugs claims another smashing victory! Thank god we live in a country in which police address the massive marijuana problem by kicking down doors, shooting up dogs, and arresting local mayors without doing basic investigative work first.

Score another point for Touch On Crime conservatives. Now with more in-your-face SWAT teams than you can shack a ten foot night stick at."

On another thread I mentioned folks who have a strange point of view. I see now I forgot the completely insane.

[Chris Worthington]

PG County police has always had a history of wrong doings !!!!!!!!!!

These guys should sue for every penny PG County has !!!

UN-Believable

Chris

[anon]

I'd say a "raid" that nets an innocent elected official, an innocent old lady and two dead labs was ineffective. I'd say that a raid where police lied about having a no knock warrant and then claimed the old lady screaming at the site of masked, armed men in street clothes gave them the right to knock the door down and kill at least one dog who was running away, handcuff the old lady and the mayor for almost two hours [these guys must be real pussies if with all their guns and ammo they still felt they needed to cuff an old lady and a guy in his underwear].

I think I can save the FBI some time here, the raid was not effective and not professional and strictly speaking, not legal, let alone fair.

[mariner]

The FBI gave us Ruby Ridge and Waco. They are just thugs with badges at a higher level of government.

Anyone who thinks they will improve this situation is delusional.

[IslamoLlama]

"-- Wow. Too bad they can't find bin Laden!

Oh, right. He's deaaad... --"

Except during election years.

"-- The FBI gave us Ruby Ridge and Waco. They are just thugs with badges at a higher level of government.

Anyone who thinks they will improve this situation is delusional.--"

And this is the fruit that the War On Everyone has brought us. You can't trust the local cops. You can't trust the Feds. You can't trust the ACLU, but you can't trust NRA rep selling guns out of the back end of his car either.

We could reign back law enforcement, crack down on reckless police tactics, and roll back the ridiculously intrusive "War on Crime" initiatives that have been served up over the last 30 years. But then someone screams "Terrorist!" and its all people can do to dive back into their Police State bomb shelters.

[Anon]

I don't have a problem with a war on violent crime, but police who are apparently so DUMB they can't tell the difference between a situation that is likely to be violent and one that is not is cause for concern....pot dealers are notoriously non violent to begin with, so the need for a SWAT team is overkill, then there is a total lack of any kind of actual investigation, they had no idea they were raiding the mayor's house, which means they really had no idea whose house they were raiding, what the odds were of children/assault rifles or anything else were.

I do have a problem with police telling blatant lies such as first claiming they had a no knock warrent then claiming the circumstances were such that they were legally okay to knock the door down and they lying about showing the mayor the warrant that they did have, as well as apparently lying about the dog killing.

It makes me wonder how often police are lying and they get a pass because MOST of the people they raid and arrest are poor people,not well educated upper middle class white people who know how to fight back and are going to be believed.

[Fred Used to Be Beloit]

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you an acute and chronic case of BDS. The author's name will not be mentioned out of my respect for medical privacy. This case is presented to you to show how extremely devastating to thought BDS can be.

"And this is the fruit that the War On Everyone has brought us." This patient insists, in spite of the truth visible all around us, that the President has declared war on everyone, even though it is not within the power of a President to declare war on everyone, someone, anyone. A quick, even careless looksee will show thia patient's errors of perception.

"You can't trust the local cops. You can't trust the Feds. You can't trust the ACLU, but you can't trust NRA rep selling guns out of the back end of his car either." Clearly a paranoid and delusional view of institutions that exist to keep us safe, except for the ACLU. (This patient does at rare times show unimpaired perception for reasons unknown.)

"We could reign back law enforcement, crack down on reckless police tactics, and roll back the ridiculously intrusive "War on Crime" initiatives that have been served up over the last 30 years. But then someone screams "Terrorist!" and its all people can do to dive back into their Police State bomb shelters." I have never before examined a patient, well an uninstitutionalized patient, before who presents with such a perverted view of safety, security, crime and punishment. My heart goes out to the family.

[Fred Beloit]

"Fred, you rat, are you trying to cover for bad and harmful police work?"

Not at all. I am merely pointing out how rare this type of police activity is. If it were common we would all have stories of severe brutalization. Personally, I had only one unpleasant interaction with a cop out of a long life. A got a speeding ticket from a cop who in my opinion was drunk or at least impaired. It was late. He managed to write out the ticket to his satisfaction. He gave it to me. Off I went. Rare cases, headline-making cases demonstrate the highly unusual. One doesn't see big headlines about common-place interactions with the police.

[joeb]

They most always shoot the dogs first thing. They shot the dogs at Waco. They shot the dogs at Ruby Ridge. So I think they are trained to do that as a matter of course.
Chris Worthington in a comment on this is right on. P.G. County police have a terrible reputation and history of wrong doings. Yes they have to deal with a heavy amount of crime but they come on hard and heavy handed. Best to avoid PG County.Maryland. It used to be a notorious speed trap also.
I really hope this case brings about some changes in that county's idea of law enforcement. And like Chris I hope this family sues the PG County for all it has got.
But it is not true that this was an uncommon occurence. This is a common occurence in PG County. But usually it is a black family so not much is made of it but since this is a white family and he is a mayor it is getting a lot of attention in the press in DC. The Washington Post is really covering this story well. It makes me think that hearing black people complain about police brutality and targeting the wrong people maybe they have something there. Normally I support the police but those are wild cowboys out in PG County and PG County remains the wild west and all those cops think they are John Wayne on a bad day.

[seekeronos]

"---

The War On Drugs claims another smashing victory! Thank god we live in a country in which police address the massive marijuana problem by kicking down doors, shooting up dogs, and arresting local mayors without doing basic investigative work first.

Score another point for Touch On Crime conservatives. Now with more in-your-face SWAT teams than you can shack a ten foot night stick at.
---"

This conservative believes that dopers should be free to toke up in the privacy of their own homes.

But there's this whole prison slave labour industry built around these dopers and dope traffickers who serve disproportionately long sentences and clog up our courts whilst child molesters, rapists, and murderers languish either free or with greatly reduced sentences.

And this thing with cops shooting dogs for sport and terrorizing a family for a few hours hardly seem like police work.... more like thuggery.

I smell a big fat lawsuit in the near future.

[fatsacca]

PG County had a cop once who followed a young man all the way to Fairfax County, VA late at night and shot him in a suburban driveway. Simple case of cross jurisdictional mistaken identity. Cop got off thanks to crooked Fairfax County DA Robert Horan. They're all out of control.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"Score another point for Touch On Crime conservatives. Now with more in-your-face SWAT teams than you can shack a ten foot night stick at."

Yep, I clearly remember when that conservative president *BEFORE* GWB put "100,000 extra cops on the street" to fight crime.Remember when the bestest Attorney G'enl we ever had under that same conservative had to send in the swat team to get that little Cuban terrorist and send him back to Cuber? Oh and went that same crew and their FBI shot the woman in the face because she was holding that assault baby? Let's not forget the 89 children the conservatives burned to death right up the road from you Lame LLama.

Except for the typical evasion of complete truth (as usual), I agree about the war for more revenue, I mean war on dogs, I mean drugs, yeah, it's a war on drugs.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"We could reign back law enforcement, crack down on reckless police tactics, and roll back the ridiculously intrusive "War on Crime" initiatives that have been served up over the last 30 years. But then someone screams "Terrorist!" and its all people can do to dive back into their Police State bomb shelters."

You're very cute when you actually make sense.

[Marilyn Miller]

this wasnt a police investigation it was an illegal armed home invasion. These werent law enforcement offciers they were out of control thugs with guns.