America’s Troubled House

Plain clothed police creating mayhem and arresting those in their way has been going on for thirty years in the USA. The police are not even embarrassed or concerned; as is plain from this rare high profile run over: the America you delude yourself exists has long been gone. The draft is scheduled to return in 2009, protests have been outlawed, peaceful assembly a felony. In a few days: the Domoquack convention will see peaceful protestors herded to jail to the applause of the American people and press. The CHANGE from plain clothes to army uniforms is just around the corner. Lets have a nice long lasting war and sell lottttssss of weapons! I would rather see Paris Hilton president than either of these two non representatives of the American people: Obumer!

The supporter sounds more like a soiled "athletic supporter" than a presidentsupporter. Just where have you been for the last seven years? This administration has done more harm to our nation's standing in the world community than all the rest put together.Unless someone in a position to change the direction this country is headed, we will have zero personal freedom , and zero credibility on in the eyes of the rest of the world. We are dangerously close to that now...

i have to agree with the author on this one. The actions taken by this "law enforcement" team were absolutely inexcusable. It would be one thing if the mayor of this little town had boxes of marijuana delivered to his house on a regular basis as documented by an ongoing investigation. But to just burst into someone's (anyone's) home with little to no cause, is an invasion of privacy and is completely unconstitutional.
Do we not live in a country where we are supposed to be able to pursue happiness? Can we not have a picket fence, 2.5 kids and dog in a friendly neighborhood?
What is this country coming to?
Our next president is going to have a lot of work to do to restore the US to any repectible level of functionality much less regain the support of a people who are losing faith by the minute...including myself.

The war on drugs is a jobs program for former military unfit to work in the private sector. They are taught that they do not have to respect the law because the ARE the law. A law enforcement officer can do anything he wants as long as he knows how to write the report.

What would one expect from the offspring of ancestors who bred human beings as beasts of burden? I am surprised Americans can complain of such behaviour especially as it is the same behaviour they mete and meted out to folks in Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan etc even today that slave trade is ostensibly said to have been abolished. It is a good thing for some Americans to feel these things in order to understand what their prey went through and have been going through even today.

'Or perhaps, if you pay close attention to the plight of the poor, a poverty-riddled neighborhood somewhere in America where drugs and violence define everyday life.'

Or perhaps? Ever heard of Katlheeen Johnson, the 80+ year old grandmother shot down in Atlanta in a botched drug raid (they even planted drugs on her after to cover their tracks. Or that mother in Ohio who was killed and her one years old finger shot off. Not to mention Sean Bell, who was killed the day before his wedding, what would you do if a bunch od guys in plain clothing jumped in front of your car with guns drawn? This happens in minority communites a lot more ofthen than is recognized, I am sorry about the dogs, by why is this issue only Newsweek worthy now?

This is an example of bad police work. Dumb and sadistic. PG county has a drug problem (we used to live there). Everyone knows that. The county government is corrupt. Periodically someone (county exec., schools chief, etc. ) is fired over allegations of ...whatever. Still......

The saddest part is that this mayor lives in an artsy little corner of the county in a modest 1950's home with a wife who is remarkably simple. No drug-fueled bling in this couple. Simple background checks (the police had time to do this) would have indicated the low likelihood this couple being drug dealers.

As I said ...dumb and crue and lazy.

Fire them all after a thorough investigation!

And the person who shot the family dog who was running away....bring back the stocks and public floggings!
Can't believe the cruelty of shooting two dogs - one running away at that.

Umm, where are all the conservative apologists and spin-doctors when an article like this is written? I don't see any Limbaugh-esque posts here defending the police. So where are you all now? How do you like reaping what you have sown???????

Oh, OH, and all this over MARIJUANA?????? The substance that works better on cancer pain than morphine but is not addictive? The substance that, according to an Federal Adminstrative Judge, is "less toxic than potatoes"???? The substance that has been shown over and over again to effectively treat a number of illnesses and ailments, AND have some cancer-preventing qualities, but is still on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, as having no medicinal value along with Heroin, LSD, and Ecstacy? Cocaine, Meth, and PCP are schedule II for God's sake, less illegal than Marijuana.

Not a single Marijuana overdose or death directly caused by Marijuana has ever been recorded. Sure, lots of people get killed and injured dealing marijuana, but that's a side-effect of it's illegality, not Marijuana killing people.

Yet Marijuana accounts for about 70-80% of our drug-enforcement expenditures each year. Anybody else think those funds could be spent more effectively??

Nixon's own blue-ribbon conservative task force said that we should legalize Marijuana, but Nixon didn't want to hear it, Marijuana was too useful in law enforcement, as an excuse to bust hippies and ruin their lives. And here we are today.

ABSOLUTELY LUDICROUS. CHANGE THE MARIJUANA LAWS NOW AND CONCENTRATE ON THE DANGEROUS DRUGS LIKE METH AND CRACK.

This story is insane. Is this the United States of America?? The police can just charge into your house in the middle of the night, kill your dogs, and victimize your family???? Sounds like something out of Soviet Russia.

The police in this country need to be curbed. Now. They have too much power and have been trained to be victimizers instead of helping and protecting the citizens. There are too many cops, too many laws, and too much power placed in the hands of people with tiny minds.

How about we concentrate on violent crime instead of all this other BS that detracts from our safety???

I will tell you this for certain: if a cop comes into my house and shoots my dog for no good reason, the bloodshed will not stop there.

The police did not follow normal procedure in this situation. It would have been easy to do an initial background check on the suspects before taking any action so as to ascertain the comportment of the department in dealing with suspected criminals. especially since the drugs in question was cannabis and not some major hard narcotics or more serious drugs such as meth. This department sounds like it is both improperly trained and instructed on handling such manuvers. The police failed to apologize because of fear of lawsuit. I definiitely see a major lawsuit in the works over this. These cops really need to do their homework and know who their suspects are before putting their heads where their butts belong.