Drug warriors endanger us all.

By now we all know the story of Mayor Cheye Calvo from Berwyn Heights, Maryland. He, like so many Americans, was the victim of the war on drugs. Note that he was not a victim of illegal drugs. Illegal drugs can only hurt the people who choose to use them. He was a victim of the war on drugs itself, a war that kills, maims, and harms the lives of multitudes of innocents every year.

Calvo’s home was attacked by the jackbooted thugs who enforce the asinine drug laws. It appears that some drug dealers had a plan to ship drugs using the names and addresses of innocent people. The drugs would be shipped to an unsuspecting individual. A courier working for the dealers would intercept the parcel before it was delivered. Though, in at least one case, they actually came by asking for their parcel after it was delivered.

In this case, the drug warriors were monitoring the parcel and perhaps that was enough to put off the courier from intercepting the parcel. It was delivered to the Calvo home, addressed to the Mayor’s wife. The package company left it on the front stoop. Calvo, on returning home saw the package and picked it up. He brought it inside, put it down, and went upstairs to change clothes.

It was then that he heard thugs smashing down his door followed shortly after by gun shots. The drug warriors rushed into his room and assaulted him. In his underwear he was forced downstairs where he discovered the two family dogs had been executed by the drug warriors. His mother-in-law was handcuffed and pushed to the floor next to the dead animals, as the pool of blood around them spread.

Now, even the drug warriors admit that Calvo and his wife were entirely innocent and completely uninvolved in this scheme. But they are defending their actions -- as always.

The lying drug warriors count on public apathy and misinformation. For instance, in this case they justify the murder of two family dogs claiming that they felt threatened. Fuck! They always feel threatened.

They routinely execute family dogs in their botched raids. This is not something that happens periodically or rarely. If they raid a home, if the family owns a dog, they murder the dog in cold blood. Numerous witnesses, to such drug warrior attacks, have testified that they saw dogs being killed, even as the poor animals were trying to flee the drug warriors.

Yes, if a dog is a threat to someone that person has the right to kill the dog. That is true with any threat. But dare I point out that I feel more threatened by these crazed drug warriors than I do by most dogs. Dogs don’t break down people’s doors in the wee hours of the morning and come crashing in with guns drawn. Dogs that kill people are put down. Drug warriors that kill people are honored by other drug warriors. If feeling threatened were itself justification for killing not a drug warrior would be alive today.

Drug warriors are more dangerous than dogs. Drug warriors are more dangerous than the drugs they seek to confiscate. Drug warriors regularly, consistently botch things up and murder innocent people. Mayor Calvo is lucky he lived. He’s lucky he didn’t find his mother-in-law lying in a pool of blood as well.

Calvo’s wife spoke of a young girl who came to her after this horrific incident. The girl asked her how, if the police had done this to her and her dogs, how could this girl ever trust the police. That is a good question. I fear the honest answer is not one that the girl was given --- you can’t.

When the police of this country went from preserving peace to enforcing laws they went from protecting people from crime to protecting government from the people. The police are not there to help us. They are here to control us. And when stupid politicians pass stupid laws it is the job of these officers to pull their guns and force you into submission.

The typical police officer spends very little time actually protecting people from criminals. Most of his time is spent enforcing regulations on the public. A small percentage of his time is taken up standing between you and criminals. The majority of his time is spent controling you for his political masters. There are more laws that violate rights, these days, then which protect them. And most of the police officer’s time today is spent enforcing those laws. In other words, the typical police officer spends more time attacking your rights than he does protecting them.

When government is limited to the proper functions outlined by the Founders, then one should not have reason to fear the police. When government expands beyond those functions of protecting life, liberty and property, then the police are not your friends, they are the armed agents of organized crime. Their job is not to protect rights but to violate them.

They were doing their job when they executed Mayor’s Calvo’s dogs and pointed loaded weapons at Calvo’s head. They were doing their job when they pushed his mother-in-law down to the ground next to the murdered animals. The job of the police today is to violate rights and force you into obeying laws that violate your rights.

I have never been harmed or threatened by illegal drugs. I choose not to use them. I have never used them. According to my own personal morality, I happen to frown on anything that makes one intoxicated so that they inhibit or lose their ability to reason. So I will never use them.

But the drug laws, and the thuggery of the drug warriors, does threaten me. Mayor Calvo had no reason to think drug warriors threatened him until they smashed into his house. When 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston was mistakenly attacked by drug warriors she was terrified. Once again the lying officers started to break down her door, without announcing who they are, which seems routine these days. All the terrified, elderly woman knew was that some bad men were smashing into her home. She took out a handgun and tried to defend herself. The drug warriors executed the old woman -- the same way they execute dogs.

The drug warriors have intentionally created a violent, dangerous situation. They attack people’s homes, often in the middle of the night. They do NOT announce who they are. They do NOT attempt to serve a search warrant. They smash through doors and windows, with guns pulled, screaming orders at people. They use tactics which intentionally create confusion among their victims. And sometimes victims, fearful that they are being attacked by criminals (they are but the police don’t see it that way), defend themselves. If the victims defend themselves the chances the are good that they will be murdered by the cops.

And what will the cops do? Will they take responsibility? Not at all. They will start lying about what happened, as they did with Kathryn Johnston. They will claim that they announced they were cops before they smashed into the house. Invariably witnesses to these crimes say the police are making up their claims. The police will blame the victim of their attack for the attack. And when they can’t do that they will blame drugs and claim this is another reason that drugs should be outlawed and more homes attacked by drug warriors.

Once again the panic mongers have created a scenario where the solution is far worse than the problem. No one says that illegal drugs are entirely harmless. But the harm done by the drug warriors exceeds the harm done by the drugs.

I should also note, in closing, that while I’m glad that Mayor Calvo’s situation is getting publicity, countless innocent victims of the drug warriors are routinely ignored, or given very little publicity, merely because they are not part of the political class. Calvo is a politician, so he gets noticed. Kathyrn Johnston only got attention because she was an old woman. But numerous other victims of the drug warriors are barely noticed and quickly forgotten when noticed.

It’s time to end the war on drugs. And it’s time to start arresting the drug warriors for the violent crimes that they routinely, and regularly, commit.