Mayor of the Berwyn Heights community in Maryland, Cheye Calvo, found himself Tuesday evening on the floor of his house with his hands behind his back, wearing nothing but boxers and socks, with his two beloved dogs’ bloody carcasses lying lifeless next to him for hours. The first question that pops into my mind after hearing a description like this is what kind of an evil criminally minded lunatic would go to such disgustingly brutal lengths to torture someone? And what could have Mayor Calvo possibly done that inspired such an attack?

The answer, surprisingly enough, is that it was no criminal at all, at least not according to the government. In fact, it was the Prince George's County Police Department who broke into Mayor Calvo’s house during a no-knock drug raid, shot his two Labrador Retrievers, and interrogated Mayor Calvo and his mother-in-law for hours about a package that had been intercepted in Arizona addressed to the mayor’s wife containing 32 pounds of marijuana. After raiding the house with a SWAT team, and finding absolutely nothing, police released the Calvos, coming out with no arrests. The Calvo family did nothing wrong, and denies knowing anything about the drugs.

The “War on Drugs” has killed yet another two innocent victims. Every day, people’s lives are wrongfully lost to this unnecessary and counterproductive battle.

University of Maryland’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter will be holding a memorial service for the dogs, Chase and Payton, on Saturday at 5pm at Lake Artemesia. We will be inviting the community and surrounding areas to bring their dogs to the event, where we will be giving out ribbons to the dogs and owners to show our solidarity with the Calvos, have a moment of silence for the dogs, and take some time to speak about other incidents in which innocent dogs’ lives have been lost to the “War on Drugs”. More information about the event can be found here.

UMD-SSDP sends our most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the Calvo family for their loss, and pledges to do their part in preventing such violent police tactics in the future.