Berwyn Heights mayor denounces police tactics

I want to revisit a discussion Mike and I had last year after Seung-Hui Cho murdered 32 people at Virginia Tech.  Mike, as Gun Control advocates do, took this cause célèbre as an excuse for calling for universal gun control – well not universal, Mike said.  “There would probably have to be a SWAT unit, but it would be very select and very, very well trained.  But they would doubtless be as lonely as the Maytag repairman.  There's no reason for anyone to have a gun if no one else has a gun.  So you can relax, Lawrence, policemen will be your friends.”

The Mayor of Prince George had an occurrence similar to mine and he was paid a visit by one of Mike’s SWAT teams.  The Anti-Terrorist Task Force showed up at my door because some disgruntled Rhodesian Ridgeback breeder decided to “get even” with me by implying I might be a terrorist.  In the Mayor’s case, drug dealers who feared they were being tracked by police, sent some drugs to random addresses and then waited to see if those houses would be targeted by police.  In the case of the mayor, the police were following the drugs.  One of Mike’s “very select and very, very well trained” SWAT teams invaded the mayor’s house, put his mother-in-law in handcuffs and shot the mayor’s two Labrador Retrievers.  Well, you can read about it yourself:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-mayor0807,0,4563211.story

The point of the argument last year was whether people needed guns to defend themselves.  Mike thought that his very select and very, very well trained SWAT teams would be all the protection innocent civilians would need.  I chose not to trust Mike’s SWAT teams.  Select them as carefully as you want and they will still be human beings who make mistakes.   

By the way, since the Anti-Terrorist Task Force accusation originated in a Rhodesian Ridgeback discussion group, and since I was not quite done talking about all its ramifications – and since the moderator reminded me that the forum was for dogs not politics, a helpful nephew created a Blog for me, www.lawrencehelm.com  If Mike visits that blog he will find reference to a fictitious gun-control advocate named Mike.  If he takes offense at that, I hope he will talk it over with me before sending his SWAT team to my house.  I shall gladly recant everything.

Lawrence Helm