Those cops were just protecting and serving us – the public. Don’t know about you, but I feel sooo much safer knowing that those vicious black labs and that evil pot aren’t a threat to me anymore.

infidel4life on August 8, 2008 at 9:59 PM

The war on pot has successfully convinced millions of Americans that marijuana is a very dangerous drug. Madness, pure madness.

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The police have the burden of proof on them, not me or anyone else. Since when do the cops just kick in door without knowing who or what’s on the other side. This smells.

If this was an 11 bravo in Iraq there would be hell to pay. Intell, intell, intell.

I guess my estate will get a “Sorry we blew away your relative who was defending his home.”

In other PG news, under the national radar, 2 people have been killed by the police in the last 15 days. One was a teenager in a parking lot by an off-duty policeman, and other was a mentally disturbed man fleeing a barricade situation.

The mayor should be thankful he is alive. PG county – it can be a dangerous place.

Just because someone runs into your house yelling “Police, Search Warrant, Don’t move!” you must assume they’re police officers. Especially if you haven’t committed a crime. I will protect my family, my possessions and my own life. At all costs. It is their mistake, not mine. Armed people breaking into my house, there’s only one possible way of dealing with that. And they should be legally responsible and liable for any consequences.

But the errors made here deserve more than an apology; they deserve painful retribution and some accountability.

Let *US* not forget who pay$ the damage$

I’m not denying your right to defend yourself and your home. Far from it. I’d like to see the same right here in Canada. I’m just saying, try to keep a level head here, huh? One or two guys coming to rob you in the middle of the night aren’t so likely to hammer in your door with a breaching tool, then move quickly from room to room as a group yelling “POLICE! GET DOWN!” etc., etc.

Frozen Tex on August 8, 2008 at 6:17 PM

Not true. there have been mulitple incidents of people being shot by police where
a. the police “say” they announced themselves but multiple witness say they did not
b. the police were spotted as they were trying to pry open the door (one officer shot, citizen tried but got a hung jury) or before they broke down the door (one incident a 60 something marine vet spotted them in his yard and was standing in living room with a shotgun when they smashed the door in, he was immediately shot dead before they announced themselves… they had the wrong house).
c. as I said before… home invasions by people dressed as police (links in earlier post).

I do not blame the police… but I don’t blame the citizen either. I sleep with a handgun in a quick open safe under my bed. Imagine you are half asleep at 4 am and “Bam!” you say “what the hell?” Seriously, what is more likely a robbery or cops that got the wrong house… robbery of course. Or how about this… your neighbors dog is barking at 5 am, you look outside… see a weird van on the street and people in dark clothes in your yard, you grab your shotgun and go to the living room where suddenly w/o warning your door gets broken down and you get shot dead.

If this happened to me, somebody is going to die (prob me) because I am going to defend my wife, my child, and my home. If they knock, they are welcome to come on in. I’m not opposed to no-knock warrants, I only DEMAND that the cops do their homework beforehand and they are held accountable when they screw up. Cops are rarely held to account when these things go bad. I’m not talking about the cop who shoots an innocent guy defending his house… it’s the SUPERVISORS who need to pay, compare that to the citizen who is ALWAYS blamed and charged when these raids go bad. I do not have ESP and when threatened, I instinctively react. These raids should not be used to serve warrants for low level pot dealers or for non-violent crimes. If you don’t know… maybe they should do some more homework before they start kicking down doors.

What is the point of the Bill of Rights if PG Police do not respect it.

IntheNet on August 8, 2008 at 6:02 PM

I’ve known and worked with people who live in PG county. They refer to it as The People’s Republic of Prince George. Wonder why?

It was county police and this was a part-time mayor of a less-than-2000 person “town”.

jimmy the notable on August 8, 2008 at 1:30 PM

So if the cops were FBI or DEA and the mayor was the mayor of say, NY or LA, would that have made it any better?

I think we’ll see a Federal investigation into this incident.

highhopes on August 8, 2008 at 7:25 PM

That’s a good point. However, I have family living in PG county, and FWIW, reverse racism actions don’t appear to be as common as black-on-black violence.
From the decreasing volume of protests, there seems to be sullen resignation to PG police force, PG politicians, and PG government misconduct.
In fairness it the county, there are people who strive mightily to be good public servants and good citizens.
It just seems that the standards are lower across the board. This is a highly Democratic area after all.

Akzed, do you really want to compare drugs to booze and tobacco? Guess which crowd graduated with me in college: the pot-smokers or the drinking, smoking non-pot-smokers? Maybe you should try bringing stats to the table before making a comparison like that.
craig on August 8, 2008 at 3:59 PM

Outlawing vegetables is ridiculous.

Saying that drunks have a better chance at graduating than dopers is to takes sides with the morons against the idiots.

Stats? About 2% of state prison inmates are there on pot charges, which could include being arrested for robbery while holding pot. First time offenders charged only with pot possession is .3% of inmates. With 2.2 million in all US prisons, do the math and tell me how many tens of thousands of people this represents who are in prison because they prefer pot to beer, then tell me with a straight face that it’s worth it.

Since of course it isn’t worth it, mistakes like the one we’re discussing would not happen if the govt would just get out of the business of deciding what people are allowed to use to get high on.

One report said the dog was running away and they allegedly shot him for sport.

That story is tragic on so many levels.

Please don’t let this become a police-bashing fest that would make libs look like they are the police’ best friends.

DethMetalCookieMonst on August 8, 2008 at 1:02 PM

It isn’t, and far from it. These commenters have generally been highly supportive of law enforcement and military action, even when things go wrong. Egregious violations of the rules of law enforcement, common sense, and basic decency undermine that.

infidel4life on August 8, 2008 at 10:07 PM

Because human lives are worth more than my dogs, and mistakes happen, no matter how much I love my dogs. But the errors made here deserve more than an apology; they deserve painful retribution and some accountability.

In a no-knock warrant break-in, citizens should have the right to defend their property via the castle doctrine.

Absolutely. The whole point of a no-knock warrant is for them to get into your house with guns before you know they’re the police. But if they’re in your house with guns before they’ve let you know they’re the police, you’re well within your rights to kill them. In Florida, it’s only illegal to use lethal force against a police officer breaking into your house if he is performing official duties and the officer either clearly identified himself as law enforcement or you should have reasonably known that they were law enforcement. If a no-knock warrant team is doing their job, you’re not going to know that before you have a gun pointed at you. So if they kick down the front door, and you shoot them from behind cover before they announce who they are — you’re in the clear.

In Minneapolis, that very situation occurred and the owner of the house shot two officers. No charges were filed against the owner, and the police chief apologized to the family in person a few days later (wrong house).