The Conscience of Abe’s Turn freedom of speech, defense, and life

Thanks to Radley Balko for a pointer to this comment by Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson regarding the Cheye Calvo case.

The Prince George police had raided Cheye Calvo’s home, looking for drugs. Turns out, I guess, he didn’t have anything to do with drugs after all. Oops.

(Yeah, I know. Even if you’re not familiar with the Calvo case, you’ve heard this story before. But bear with me, because it gets more interesting.)

Meanwhile, however, SWAT team members with itchy trigger fingers held him and his mother-in-law at gunpoint, after shooting his two dogs. No, that’s not quite right. Actually, the cops handcuffed them and interrogated them for hours, while his dogs were marinating nearby in pools of their own blood.

Scenarios of this type play out every week in the U.S. of A., home of the brave, land of the handcuffed and interrogated. What makes the Calvo case different is that Calvo is a politician: Mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland. And that means the police raid really was a mistake. Oops again.  read more »

Lost: It started a few months ago, the story of a criminal so bad, he’s up to 5 times worse than a murderer. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about Charlie Lynch, who operated a legal marijuana dispensary for medical patients who had valid prescriptions from their doctors. The sheriff didn’t like the law, so he called in the DEA to raid Charlie’s business and his home, because as we all know, sheriffs and other law-enforcement goons— er, I mean, personnel…  read more »