A man whose home Columbia police raided in February on a narcotics search warrant has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and is contemplating a civil action against the department for shooting his two dogs during the raid. Jonathan E. Whitworth, 25, of 1501 Kinloch Court entered into a plea agreement with the state to drop charges of possession of marijuana and second-degree child endangerment for a guilty plea to possession of drug paraphernalia. Investigators believed Whitworth was in possession of a large amount of marijuana and was considered a distributor, Deputy Chief Tom Dresner said in February. Police, who found a grinder, a pipe and a small amount of marijuana, shot two dogs upon entering Whitworths home around 8:30 pm Feb. 11. SWAT team members encountered a pit bull upon entry, held back and then fatally shot the dog, police say. Officers said the dog was acting in an uncontrollably aggressive manner. A video of the raid shows that a shot was fired upon entry, but the pit bull was not wounded until later. Whitworth was arrested, and his wife and 7-year-old son were present during the raid. Both his wife and child were living in the residence at the time, said Jeff Hilbrenner, Whitworths attorney. Dresner previously said that intelligence gathered before the raid did not indicate the child was in the home. A second dog was shot in the leg but was not killed. The corgi is seen in the video and does not appear to be wounded. There is no indication when the …
This is a planned project for a friend who works for the local gas company. The footage will probably be used as a training video to illustrate the mess a can of pepper spray will make if one isn’t careful to keep it from overheating inside a hot vehicle. Numerous cans have burst. A lexan box was constructed to contain the burst, and to simulate the hot interior of a vehicle. We set up the box and using a couple reflectors and other heat collecting devices, managed to heat the box up to a surprising 182 deg. F. with just the sun. We put the can inside, and filmed for over 30 minutes without the can bursting. 30 minutes of 600fps HS is 10 hours of raw footage. – Impatience and sunlight was running thin so we decided to take the next step and use a heat gun set on Low to bring up the temperature higher. We also decided to put both cans inside the box hoping to double our chances. Using a remote thermometer (calibrated with ice water) the interior temperature of the box clicked over to 255 deg. F. right when the can burst. None of us knew what to expect. We did not know if the can would explode violently, or reach a point where the gas would release slowly. The failure occured at the can’s top lid seam and was more like a cork popping from a champagne bottle than an explosion. If the can was not in the box, it would have had enough energy to fly around and sling the oily pepper spray liquid quite a distance. It seems to stain too as you can see in the photos of the label. I …
Police Brutality: A Prince George’s County, Maryland SWAT team raided the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo last night, shooting and killing his two black labs in the process. “My government blew through my doors and killed my dogs,” Calvo said. “They thought we were drug dealers, and we were treated as such. I don’t think they really ever considered that we weren’t.” Calvo described a chaotic scene, in which he — wearing only underwear and socks — and his mother-in-law were handcuffed and interrogated for hours. They were surrounded by the dogs’ carcasses and pools of the dogs’ blood, Calvo said. Spokesmen for the Sheriff’s Office and Prince George’s police expressed regret yesterday that the mayor’s dogs were killed. But they defended the way the raid was carried out, saying it was proper for a case involving such a large amount of drugs. Well no, it isn’t, unless there’s reason to believe that the mayor, his wife, and his mother-in-law are violent people capable of killing cops who might have served the warrant in a less confrontational manner. The possibility of the mayor or his wife disposing of the drugs doesn’t seem likely, either, unless the family owns an industrial-strength toilet: The raid commenced after police began tracking a package filled with 30 pounds marijuana originating in Arizona that was eventually delivered to the mayor’s wife. Local police are angry that they weren’t notified first: “You can’t tell me the chief of police of a municipality …
Police dogs are trained to take down armed criminals, this leads the dog down a slippery path in life. Once a dog has been trained to attack it is never the same, this brings violence to its life. I think cops need to get a clue, if you cannot do your job, without putting a dog in between you and your target, then you need to get a new line of work. It is sad, one cop told me, “they are a deterrent, and used to take the first shot.” So they dogs are like a armed, animal shield?? Police dogs, attack dogs, and security dogs need out of those environments, and we need to make this practice illegal in Canada Join the revolutionary movement CUFF (Citizens United For Freedom) www.bebo.com
Invitation: watch a video of a more mellow dog that hits soccer balls with its head: www.youtube.com A makeshift lock on a chain link fence was no match for the dog employee at Mann’s Welding called Winston. The 80-pound pit bull mix managed to break free Sunday. That’s when Michael Emerling received a call from police. “When they said he attacked a car,” said Emerling, “I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.” Winston chewed the front bumper of a patrol car completely off, bit through two tires, and left teeth marks in the side panel of the vehicle. The Chattanooga Police Officer behind the wheel was clocking speed when Winston launched his attack. The Officer was sitting in his car, filling out a report when he says the car began shaking. That’s when he got out of the car and discovered the dog attacking his car. The Officer used pepper spray, and then a stun gun but not even that could stop the dog. “The dog apparently rolled over and started chewing on the prongs, pulling them out of his skin,” said Officer Rebecca Royval, spokesperson for CPD, “then he kept going.” Royval says when back up arrived Winston then chewed the tires of the other patrol car. Eventually the dog was captured by animal control officers, with the help of one of his owners. “Obviously at some point yesterday he was not a nice dog,” said Emerling, “but previous to that he was very sweet.” Emerling says Winston will occasionally show aggression toward lawn equipment, but has never hurt anyone. Still …
2008 Tammy Christopher is suing Grady County Oklahoma after Deputy Sean Kinght shot her dog. While the police officer told her that the dog charged at him when he stopped for direction while serving tax warrants, the video appears to contradict that claim and show Knight. shooting the dog in the head. Christopher has filed a 000 claim against Grady County, State of Oklahoma and Grady County Deputy Sean Knight for the wrongful shooting of her dog
Thousands of firefighters from across Greece came to Athens on Thursday, March 26, 2009 to vent their anger at the government of Kostas Karamanlis. Many of the firefighters are part-time workers and they say they were promised year-round employment by the Greek government. That promise was withdrawn due to financial constraints which prompted the protesters to converge on Athens. Earlier in the day, firefighters gathered at the Labour Ministry and were dispersed by riot police who fired tear gas into the crowd. They regrouped at 5 pm at Syntagma Square near the Greek Parliament, many of them wearing their full uniforms. Some members tried to gain entrance to the Economic Ministry office which is close by on Ermou Street, a popular shopping and tourist destination. Scuffles with police broke out and hundreds of firefighters rushed over to confront police. After an exchange of tear gas, pepper spray, bottles and other solid objects things settled down. The firefighters hunkered down for a few hours facing off against lines of riot police. As the evening went on the protest winded down and many were ready to go home. One firefighter was resigned to the fact that the protest didn’t change the government’s position. “We haven’t heard anything today,” he said.