14 Responses to “Cato Forum on No-Knock Raids Featuring Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo, LEAP’s Peter Christ, and Your Humble Agitator”

1. #1 |  dsmallwood |  August 29th, 2008 at 9:57 am

   um, shouldn’t there be someone from law enforcement?

      --2
2. #2 |  Vlad Drac |  August 29th, 2008 at 10:09 am

   “um, shouldn’t there be someone from law enforcement?”

   No.

   These bastards have had generations, now, to fix the rot from within. Instead they grow more insular and aggressive by the day, while their sycophants in the media continue in their miserable failure to afflict the comfort these bastards enjoy. There may really be only “a few bad apples”, but every individual in the so-called profession who lets the mountain of crap pile ever higher is equally rotten.

   Hell, the very idea of “law enforcement” is half of what got us this far down the slippery slope in the first place. Because if it’s “the law”, you know, then it MUST be enforced.

   Intercourse that, sideways, good and hard.

   Until these crumbs clean house, they don’t deserve the back of my hand, let alone any manner of podium from which to blather their self-serving drivel.

      +8
3. #3 |  Chris |  August 29th, 2008 at 10:34 am

   I agree with Vlad. No. They don’t need any representation at this event. They seem to have all the power right now, so the heck with them.

   I was reading about a six artists/independent news reporters in town to cover the RNC convention being detained and having their equipment confiscated. For what? “Suspicion of Trespassing on railroad property”.

   http://tiny.cc/xhnxa

   I had a couple of police officers give me a hard time a few days ago while I was downtown snapping some photos of the Excel Energy Center and the surrounding area (Nothing sinister planned, and I do live less than three blocks from this area!) - Seems that the police are telling people to not take photos “because of heightened security”. What a bunch of bravo sierra.

      +0
4. #4 |  z |  August 29th, 2008 at 10:38 am

   Are no-knock, paramilitary raids an appropriate tactic for drug investigations? Or do sudden, unannounced entries bring unnecessary violence to police investigations?

   Since it seems everyone on the panel already agrees with the answers being “no” and “yes”, I can’t see there being much of a debate. I agree with smallwood, it would be better to have someone representing an opposing viewpoint.

      +1
5. #5 |  Radley Balko |  August 29th, 2008 at 10:49 am

   When I put together the first forum in 2006, I invited several law enforcement groups and defenders using SWAT tactics for drug raids to participate. They all either declined or didn’t respond.

   Cato tells me the same thing happened this time.

      +11
6. #6 |  claude |  August 29th, 2008 at 11:22 am

   “When I put together the first forum in 2006, I invited several law enforcement groups and defenders using SWAT tactics for drug raids to participate. They all either declined or didn’t respond.

   Cato tells me the same thing happened this time.”

   Gee i wonder y?

      +0
7. #7 |  SusanK |  August 29th, 2008 at 11:23 am

   They know it’s not defensible. If I were in “law enforcement”, I wouldn’t go, either.

      +0
8. #8 |  Pete Guither |  August 29th, 2008 at 11:50 am

   Peter Christ is from Law Enforcement.

      +1
9. #9 |  Thomas Blair |  August 29th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

   For those wishing for a two-sided debate, I’m inclined to think the host couldn’t get anyone to publicly defend this horseshit in a non-controlled setting.

      +1
10. #10 |  The Johnny Appleseed Of Crack |  August 29th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

    Perhaps the SWAT team will show up as “uninvited guests”?

       +4
11. #11 |  nemo |  August 29th, 2008 at 2:14 pm

    Quite frankly, I seriously doubt it would make much difference if they did show up.

    The reason is obvious. In almost every single instance where police and agents hold press conferences, the formulaic nature of it becomes evident.

    I cannot say with any accuracy that there is a ‘playbook’ by which police, drug agents, prosecutors, etc. have a limited set of statements to make to the press in such instances, but it certainly seems to be the case, with the same phrases being uttered time and again with suspicious regularity.

    I do know for certain the DEA has been using taxpayer’s dollars to publish ‘manuals’ intended to be used in any debate with drug law reformers..

    So…what diff would it make if they showed up? They would never stray outside the safe boundaries of their scripts; they wouldn’t dare engage in an actual debate, as they’d be rhetorical roadkill within minutes. And that kind of loss of ‘face’ has political consequences. Ones that they don’t want to experience under any circumstances.

       +0
12. #12 |  This Is State Control » Boztopia.com |  August 30th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

    [...] frequency and with almost no justification again and again in this country. It’s what got Cheye Calvo’s home raided and his dogs killed, and it’s what gets dozens of often young, black, and poor people tossed into jail or killed [...]

       +0
13. #13 |  Madison Katzenbaum |  August 31st, 2008 at 11:27 pm

    SWAT teams nowadays deliberately kill the dogs, not because the dogs are really a threat to an entire group of cops armed with automatic weapons,scatterguns and body armor, but they kill the dogs in order to terrorize the civilians(a type of shock and awe tactic)… the obvious implication being …{we just blasted your dogs guts all over the place and we would just as easily blast your guts all over the place]…now, this might be acceptable SOP during wartime against a known clear enemy but it is hardly proportional when trying to bust nonviolent civilian home residents who have no criminal record, over a small box of marihjhuana. I cant imagine how hard the politicians,lawyers, and talking heads are going to sweet talk the FBI and justice department out of calling for the firing and criminal negligence prosecution of these cops. But, I would be willing to bet good money that the politically correct Prince George’s County politicians and their fellow travellers in Maryland and Washington D.C. will “find a way” to absolve the police chief and his cronies. Just watch, the report will likely come out on the day of the election or at some other “convenient” time and they will likely use a “who’s on first” (chinese firedrill) parade of excuses. Just watch!

       +0
14. #14 |  Red Green |  September 1st, 2008 at 10:22 am

    The tactics and appearance of these American swatzi goons indicates that they are far more afraid of “us”. Maybe your next book should be titled “Killcrazy” or “Why We Kill Them ,Before They Kill Us”.

       +0

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