Tag Archives: police

9655 – Friday

At last!

Springtime… the weekend!

I’d like to take BHK to Annapolis this weekend, do a little walkies and just enjoy each others company. That’s the plan, anyhow!


BHK got this recently, regarding Prince George’s County SWAT issue back in August. I feel that it’s worth sharing, dear journal.

I write these many months later to thank you for reaching out to comfort my family and I after last summer’s terrifying SWAT attack of our home.  The tremendous outpouring of support that we received from our friends, neighbors, and so many complete strangers sustained us through the worst of it, and I continued to find comfort in the kind words as I read the emails well into the fall.

Trinity and I continue to heal, and we always will miss Payton and Chase terribly.  One thing that has helped is that we’ve adopted another black Labrador, Marshall.  As you can see from the picture, Marshall has brought incredible joy to our lives.

After the incident drew international attention and outrage, Prince George’s County police finally exonerated my family and me of any wrong doing.  However, they have refused to apologize and continue to defend their actions in my case.

Over the last several months, I have undergone a personal journey to try to understand how this terrible incident could happen.  My initial reaction was that it was a terrible mistake.  However, as I have learned more, I have come to understand that what my family and I experienced is part of a growing and troubling trend where law enforcement is relying on SWAT teams to perform duties once handled by ordinary police officers.

In our case, the police deployed a SWAT team without performing basic investigatory work and apparently without considering more measured approaches.  Prince George’s County recently has acknowledged that it indiscriminately deploys SWAT teams to serve drug warrants.  Preliminary estimates suggest that the county deployed SWAT teams as many as 700 times a year – that is twice a day!  Other counties in Maryland also report hundreds of SWAT team deployments a year, and we have uncovered numerous other stories of botched and inappropriate raids, innocent families terrorized, and family dogs killed.

In fact, the inappropriate use of SWAT teams seems to be a national problem.  The number of SWAT team deployments nationwide has grown exponentially from about 2,500 per year in the early 1980s to over 50,000 in 2005.  SWAT teams used to be reserved for unusually dangerous situations such as the arrest of major criminals known to have hig h-powered weapons or hostage situations.  However, many police forces are using them today against people they suspect of recreational drug use and other much smaller crimes.

The more I have learned, the more I feel obligated to do everything I can to rein in over-aggressive policing.  I am working with Maryland lawmakers to pass legislation requiring the number of SWAT deployments and their outcomes to be regularly reported to civilian authorities.  By shining a light on paramilitary police activities, law enforcement agencies should find it in their best interests to change their practices and limit the use of SWAT teams to situations where the charges are grave and a violent response can be reasonably anticipated.  The Senate passed SB 447 unanimously yesterday, but we expect to run into more resistance in the House of Delegates.  As soon as we enact this legislation in Maryland, I intend to work with lawmakers in other states to pass similar legislation. We are also considering actions that can be taken on a federal level.

To help in this effort, we have created a web site, www.protectourliberties.com, which tells the stories of a number of innocent victims of traumatizing SWAT raids.  It also contains media clips of the coverage we’ve received and information about our legislative work.  If you are interested in staying informed about this issue, please sign up for updates that I’ll send every month or so.  Also, if you could volunteer for citizen advocacy or policy development work, I would really appreciate your help.  Our next citizen advocacy project is a Lobby Night on Monday, March 23rd at the Maryland Capital.

Thank you, again, for your support and encouragement!  
Warm regards,
Cheye
Make Maryland Great, Inc.
P. O. Box 4343
Annapolis, MD  21403
(410) 757-2811

1 year ago – colored egg pics, encounter critical, orange team, maryland cell phone driving, journaling and domain ownership, rival kenyan tribes fighting with bows and arrows

2 years ago – first full day at the calvert gig, bhk and I go shopping for work clothes, grownup table talk, spam attractive entry

3 years ago – rebis picture, deaf language, chacarron, math, phallic removal, open source, fake cigs as meds, prisoner comic book

4 years ago – Brady Kids welcome the equinox, shamrock shake, cosmic truth, mp3s,experimental gameplay, get your tasty hot sweet potatoes in Japanese,teen kidnappers, good advice, invisible mermaid airfare

5 years ago – openoffice, Visited w Dan, open door poll, people of worth

6 years ago – Al gore, Blue’s clues, Cranky Finn

7 years ago – Spring!, Socks, overturned issues, Linda let go from FMM, LJ directory, cool picture link

8 years ago – walkies, 2 chris-sites, both have long since been left dormant, lj brokenGeotarget

9389 – Thursday

Went the dentist – got a temp filling and I need a crown. Later at dinner, the temp filling fell out, but it’s aok for now.

Went to the Walgreens and I got BHK a pedegg – foot callous remover and orange zester, apparently. I think it’s a pretty surreal device, and is more surreal to me en espanol.

Watched latest Psych and Dragon’s Den… that’s about it!



Hey, Thanks, Knife-wielding robot! You’re not as dangerous as you sound, I guess!

knifebot3000


Photobucket
crazy robot doodle by me, article via



I just realized something about German boardgames. Seldom do you see dice. Cards are drawn and are sometimes used as randomizers, but you can still play the odds a bit – it’s rare to roll the ol’ bones. I wonder why?



Bengie’s is showing Wall-E, Dark knight and step brothers… I don’t think that I care to see Dark knight again, so it looks like we’ll wait another week or so before our return trip to the drive-in.



Follow up on the mayor’s “drug raid / dog shooting” indecent. He’s completely innocent, it seems. Prince George’s County Police really fouled up, in my opinion. That and the armed car chase through my neighborhood (well outside PG county jurisdiction) only adds to my problem with that organization. Some sort of Internal Affairs review needs to be done… but it seems unlikely.

“The mayor’s counsel also disputes authorities claims that they killed the dogs, Chase and Payton, because one of the dogs was coming at officers. Maloney says one dog was running away and the other was shot some distance from the front door.

Still, county law enforcement officials say they do not owe the Calvo’s an apology. Chief High defended the officers actions, but expressed regret over the death of the dogs.”


As someone that’s been at swat team gunpoint more than once… (06/02/2001 when my landlord went loopy with his guns over his face cancer and 02/24/2004 once when my bro committed “grand theft boat”.) – I can honestly say that sometimes the police has good reason to hold someone under potential deadly force. I’m thankful that neither I nor Newton were shot



Well, bro is right on the border of the 44 violation points rule. (he has exactly 44 points)(pdf info ) If convicted of all of his charges, he could either do under a year in county jail, or over a year in state prison.

from here

If total points are equal to or less than 44, the lowest permissible sentence is a non-state prison sanction (however state prison up to the statutory maximum can be imposed).

If total points exceed 44, the minimum sentence is established by taking the total point value subtracting 28 and decreasing the remaining value by 25%. This end result value is the lowest permissible prison sentence in months.

This means than only those offenders scoring 44 or less points may receive a non- state prison sanction under the code. All others must receive a state prison sanction, absent downward departure from this structure. The threshold under the guidelines for mandatory prison incarceration was 52 points.

and from here

The magic number is 44: Anyone scoring above 44 points “must” be sentenced to state prison under the Code. However, the plea bargaining process can a) reduce the number of counts charged, b) have an agreement not to score certain items, c) substitute charges, d) reduce the actual count charged, or e) several other creative techniques can be used to get someone sentenced to a non-incarcerative sentence. Note the departure grounds under Rule 3.992(b), but also note the actual language of the “Sentence Computation” because someone charged with a felony can be sentenced to state prison even if the score fewer than 44 points. For this reason, felony cases are always very serious legal matters.


For his Faces of Evil project, Hans Weishäupl made composite photographs of the world’s worst dictators by photographing hundreds of people in each dictator’s country and stitching them together. The results are a bit disturbing, particularly when viewing very large, clear, vibrant color photos of long-dead monsters like Stalin or Hitler. (via conscientious)


1 year ago – dc to nyc bus, pg county car chase update, chocolate gum, ex debt, louise fadeout, ljopoly, cruel 2 b kind assassination game

2 years ago – finished pride & pred / monkey politics, Newt pic, kid rolling ajoint on the bus, solar powered sun bricks, firkin, 8500, flying model plane in miami, flight plans to maryland

3 years ago – deepest sender, jumping pictures, walkabout autostitch, mangrove tunnels

4 years ago – tmbg thoughts, sugar water vid, space issues, Rick James dead, Burpin’ at Newt, Magical Trevor, cocktail demons, nifty charts, Newt Videos, CoH Pix

5 years ago – Zombies, Army Men, mean cannibal pudding, time travel spam, vampire game, celeb phone calls, cej chat, bro request

6 years ago – Earth and Beyond Playtest, Kev & Bailey, fat parrots, french fry girl palm doodle

7 years ago – harried, inculpate, plane lands just down the road on andrews as a makeshift runway and kits my regular bus, wondering about lj’s image server (still not ready!), happy thoughts, magic can of soda

8 years ago – grumping, Space cowboys shows old man butts Geotarget

6484 Damn… Frankie the mooch was treated better.

Warning, foul language ahead.

Oh, the fuckin’ drama.

Police came by my apartment tonight, looking for my brother.

I assume it’s for something serious, as there were six cops there, 3 of whom swarmed into my house, wearing bulletproof vests another one had a gun to my head, outside, while two more looked at my ID and shined lights in my face.

The first thing out of my mouth? “Don’t let the cat get out!”

A cop’s got a fucking gun to my head, and I’m afraid that Newt’ll get outside and be hit by a car.

A guy’s got to have priorities, I guess.

They came here, because the ass-monkey that answers to my brother’s name registered his truck at this address. I didn’t know his exact home location, but I was happy to provide his cell phone number and to call the mother up to get the location of his apartment.

I guess they were looking for Andy, too… I knew full well that he was a problem, and bro was warned time and time again. He was just at court yesterday, and I guess he or his pals just couldn’t wait to screw up yet again. I wonder if this is going to have effect on his currently deferred charges, and my bond money?

I want to know what my brother did… Crackhead Mooch Frankie only got two cops, no drawn weapons. No-nose psycho Landlord got 12 police cars, a fire engine and a fire-car.

So, it’s worse than being a combative, lying crackhead, but not as bad as a suicidal, gun-toting loon. Good to know. So, I have a range to work in. I know my brother has a nose.

I *hate* having some other guys running around all over my territory. Looking at mail on my counter, reading the screen of my computer, and so on. I’d consider 4 of the cops as power-trippy cocksmokers… the other two looked like they could at least be a little respectful and work with me communications wise.

The lead cop had the nerve to ask “Why are you so jumpy if you don’t know what’s going on?”

My reply was “I didn’t like having your God-Damn gun pointed in my face… it’s a pretty jarring experience, and I hope you’re never on the other end of it. That makes me jumpy. If you had a half dozen guys show up with guns and flashlights out of the blue, you’d be jumpy, too.”

I didn’t finish the sentence that was in my head that basically ended with “You nazi, piggy motherfucker.”

Now, I know what they did was for their own protection, but that’s the thought that went through my head. Jackbooted, pig-shouted, jerkoffs. I work with nice cops every frickin’ day. Heaven forbid if a missig kid call came while I was at gunpoint.

I’m currently looking here to see if bro or one of his pals has been picked up. plus it’s interesting to see who else turns up.. it’s refreshed every quarter-hour. This one is useful, too.Site Meter

at the moment, he’s got a felony (open), 2 municipal ordinances, and a misdomeanor.

He was warned that I wouldn’t pay bond to get him out this time (if they’ll even grant bond, considering the situation.)

No more drama, please. Gimme some love, life.

Well, shit.

Something you never want to see in a quiet neighborhood. A gang of cops with rifles pointing at your house, and an armed one at the door when you’re freshly naked from the shower.

Here it is in raw, uncleaned up format. Site Meter

Newt and I just were allowed back into the apartment, after 2 hours of being made to wait in a carport 4 houses down the street. My landlord (the apartment is an efficiency built into the side of a larger house) apparently decided to arm himself, take some vicadin, and scare his girlfriend. I don’t know the whole story yet, just that there were over a dozen police cars, a fire safety vehicle and a fire engine descending on my home. I was just drying after a shower when a BCS officer knocks on my door, and tells me to come out…I let him know I’m nude and ask if it can wait a moment as I dry and dress… he told me to hurry up, and asked me through my louvered windows if there were any other entrances to my apartment than the front door. I told him no… and asked what it was all about. He said for me to just please come out, and I said sure…’Could you please tell me what’s going on..” He then informs me of the above ‘armed-drugged, please leave for your own safety/may we come inside your apartment” I told him sure, as I had my pants on by then, and picked up Newton, and walked out and up the street, as fast as my sandaled feet would take me and my orange striped son. We go four houses down the street to the nearest neighbor I know, and knock on the door, asking if I may hang out on the porch for a while… they’re good about it (as I expected, and I filled them in on what’s happening…. we at and talked about the lunacy of the deed holders of my place, and how any mook can get a gun these days. Their daughter had never met Newton, and he charmed the 8 year old completely…she said that Newton could stay over in her room whenever he wanted. (I may take them up on it, if I ever have to leave town for a day or two…) It’s funny, I had a fear that I might never see any of my stuff at the house again, but I just grabbed the baby… I even left my laptop behind. (that stuff is all replaceable….Newton’s too precious to me to leave anywhere.)