Quote:

(CNN) – A Maryland mayor is asking the federal government to investigate why SWAT team members burst into his home without knocking and shot his two dogs to death in an investigation into a drug smuggling scheme. Berwyn Heights, Maryland, Mayor Cheye Calvo comforts wife Trinity Tomsic at a news conference Thursday. 1 of 2 “This has been a difficult week and a half for us,” Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, said Thursday. “We lost our family dogs. We did it at the hands of sheriff’s deputies who burst through our front door, rifles blazing.” The raid last week was led by the Prince George’s County Police Department, with the sheriff’s special operations team assisting, after a package of marijuana was sent to Calvo’s home. Mayor wants federal probe after SWAT raids house, kills dogs - CNN.com

Updates:

The police did not have a no knock warrant

In addition, they were aware the recipients of the drugs were innocent and had no knowledge of the drugs.

i can see why they shot the dogs, but they should have used a non lethal method for disabling the dogs, through tranks or tasers.

In this case, I don't think shooting the dogs was even remotely justified. They did not have a no knock warrant, if they had knocked the mayor would have held back the dogs so they couldn't threaten the cops. Shooting the dogs of people you know are innocent is very very suspicious. The chances of black labs being threatening in the first place is pretty small, they are more likely to back away from the cops to protect their people rather than go toward the cops and growl at them. I was defending the cops until I found the updates. That particular department has had a lot of problems with the cops behaving badly and this goes right along with that.

That is a pretty strange story.

i didn't read the story so didn't know what type of dogs they were, but my grandfather was a postman and i know how dogs can react strangely, pepper spray always at my grandfathers side... they could have subdued the dogs non fatally.

but from the sound of it never should have went down like it did.

They do have to kill the dogs if they actually are threatening but most cops do everything they can do avoid it. Mace doesn't always work on dogs so that is not a reliable alternative. Tranquilizers would be good and they will often do that if the dogs are outside and are able to be subdued without alerting the people inside or endangering the officers. Unfortunately, they can't always be reached and if a swat team has been called in it's already a dangerous situation and the team won't be carrying tranquilizers and their flashlights and guns at the same time. Without the extenuating circumstances, I'd support the swat team completely. Unfortunately, this case seems to be a huge fuck up.

so why wouldn't a taser have worked?

If they worried about non lethal methods, the officers lives would be endangered. If the swat team has to be called in, non lethal methods are out. Most cops would much rather shoot a person than a dog and will do everything they can to avoid it but nonlethal weapons are not a safe possibility when the swat team needs to be called in.

FTR, I'm confirming all this with a cop.

swat team sub machine guns have ras and ris rails on their guns, these allow for all sorts of attachments such as flashlights laser sights reddot sites scopes they could easily attach a taser to the side of one of those guns... its not an option because they don't want it to be one. cops go through all sorts of identification split second thinking before reacting... to identify hazards or bad people from innocents.

There wouldn't be time to switch back and forth. What might happen to be a dog in a room could easily have been a angry suspect with a gun. I will never support or defend anything that could endanger the lives of cops.