Via Last One Speaks comes this story from Decatur, Alabama.
As long as they think you have drugs, your 4th Amendment rights don’t matter, your possessions don’t matter, the lives of your pets don’t matter, and in many cases, your life doesn’t matter.
Police in a minor drug raid shot two of three family dogs. That part’s not in dispute. Once we know this fact, in my mind the onus is on the police to defend and document their activities. The whole notion (as I have repeatedly said in this blog) of using SWAT-style tactics for drug raids is wrong and dangerous, and puts the prevention of flushing evidence above the lives of citizens.
So at this point, unless the police can better prove their story, my tendency is to believe the family whose home was invaded.
Police say they used fire extinquishers to subdue the dogs and only fired when necessary to protect their lives. The family said the police came in shooting the dogs, killed one immediately, shot the second one in the back as it fled and the third escaped by hiding under a table. The family also says that there was no fire exinguisher residue anywhere and they saw the police bring one in later.
Police say they found an undisclosed amount of marijuana, cocaine, paraphernalia, and cash (of course, once they find drugs they always find paraphernalia, since ordinary household items start qualifying). The family said that there was about 8 grams of marijuana, but no coke, and the $600 the police seized was for moving expenses (they were packed for a move).
8 grams of pot and $600 justifies shooting your dogs? Of course, I don’t believe that any amount of pot justifies busting down your door to begin with.
Oh, and this doesn’t help:
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