Police Clear Themselves in Raid Which Killed Mayor's Dogs

The Prince George's (MD) Sheriff's office has cleared itself of wrongdoing in raid which left a small town Mayor's dogs shot to death. The raid was due to a 32-pound package of marijuana that was addressed to the Mayor's wife. The couple had no criminal history. The package was never brought inside the house, since it was unexpected and unwanted. The raid and subsequent justification raises some troubling questions.

Why were the dogs shot, when at least one of them was fleeing?

Why didn't the police know that this was the Mayor of the town?

Why did the police think they had one type of warrant, when they had another?

Why was there a dynamic entry, when there was no history of violence, nor any reason at all to suspect there would be any?

Why did the judge approve the warrant on such little evidence, IE only that the package was addressed to the house?

On a larger scale, this speaks to where the "War on Drugs" has taken us. There is literally no assurance that our doors will not be kicked in, our pets shot, ourselves and our loved ones handcuffed(in this case next to the dead body of the pets) and our lives turned upside down, because someone gets an address wrong on a package.

Remember, this was not an armed to the teeth crack house in the inner city, nor did police expect it to be. This was a typical suburban house, with no history of criminal activity.

Police are understandably concerned with their safety when executing warrants, and certainly these decisions were made in a split second. This incident is less an indictment of law enforcement than of over-adversarial environment, created by politicians playing to fears and stereotypes in order to score poll points.

The "War on Drugs" needs to be brought to a negotiated end, as we will no more win it than we did prohibition. Resources will be better allocated to addressing actual violent crime, instead of potentially violent crime, and the militarization of law enforcement can be rolled back as legalization deprives criminal gangs of their funding, making both police and civilians safer.

An excellent first step would be Barney Frank's(who I almost always disagree with) proposal to eliminate federal penalties for personal use amounts of marijuana.

Thanks to the Cato Institute, which is holding a forum on this topic.