The creatures that changed the rules – Kommersant

In the summer of 2008, in the United States, police intercepted a package containing 15 kg of marijuana; the final recipient of the package was allegedly Trinity Tomsik, the first lady of the American town of Berwyn Heights (Maryland). In July 2008, special forces from the local sheriff’s unit themselves delivered a package of drugs. Then they blew up the entrance doors and searched the mayor’s residence.

Mayor Chey Calvo has pleaded not guilty. What outraged him most was that security forces shot and killed black Labradors named Payton and Chase. As a result, the mayor paid for an official autopsy, which showed that one of the dogs was shot from behind while trying to hide from fear.

Soon the shooting of the Labradors attracted the attention of the federal press. An editorial in The Washington Post compared the SWAT team’s actions to “the stupid and dangerous behavior of silent comedy cops.” Sheriffs have been criticized for misusing SWAT teams and increasingly turning them into paramilitary forces.

An FBI investigation later revealed that neither the mayor nor the first lady knew about the marijuana package; the real drug dealers worked as FedEx drivers and chose their address by chance.

In 2009, the state of Maryland passed a law according to which the police report every month on the work of their special forces – for example, listing operations, places and times of their implementation, all cases of death or injury of animals. The initiator of the new rule was Mayor Chey Calvo.