9655 – Friday

At last!

Springtime… the weekend!

I’d like to take BHK to Annapolis this weekend, do a little walkies and just enjoy each others company. That’s the plan, anyhow!


BHK got this recently, regarding Prince George’s County SWAT issue back in August. I feel that it’s worth sharing, dear journal.

I write these many months later to thank you for reaching out to comfort my family and I after last summer’s terrifying SWAT attack of our home.  The tremendous outpouring of support that we received from our friends, neighbors, and so many complete strangers sustained us through the worst of it, and I continued to find comfort in the kind words as I read the emails well into the fall.

Trinity and I continue to heal, and we always will miss Payton and Chase terribly.  One thing that has helped is that we’ve adopted another black Labrador, Marshall.  As you can see from the picture, Marshall has brought incredible joy to our lives.

After the incident drew international attention and outrage, Prince George’s County police finally exonerated my family and me of any wrong doing.  However, they have refused to apologize and continue to defend their actions in my case.

Over the last several months, I have undergone a personal journey to try to understand how this terrible incident could happen.  My initial reaction was that it was a terrible mistake.  However, as I have learned more, I have come to understand that what my family and I experienced is part of a growing and troubling trend where law enforcement is relying on SWAT teams to perform duties once handled by ordinary police officers.

In our case, the police deployed a SWAT team without performing basic investigatory work and apparently without considering more measured approaches.  Prince George’s County recently has acknowledged that it indiscriminately deploys SWAT teams to serve drug warrants.  Preliminary estimates suggest that the county deployed SWAT teams as many as 700 times a year – that is twice a day!  Other counties in Maryland also report hundreds of SWAT team deployments a year, and we have uncovered numerous other stories of botched and inappropriate raids, innocent families terrorized, and family dogs killed.

In fact, the inappropriate use of SWAT teams seems to be a national problem.  The number of SWAT team deployments nationwide has grown exponentially from about 2,500 per year in the early 1980s to over 50,000 in 2005.  SWAT teams used to be reserved for unusually dangerous situations such as the arrest of major criminals known to have hig h-powered weapons or hostage situations.  However, many police forces are using them today against people they suspect of recreational drug use and other much smaller crimes.

The more I have learned, the more I feel obligated to do everything I can to rein in over-aggressive policing.  I am working with Maryland lawmakers to pass legislation requiring the number of SWAT deployments and their outcomes to be regularly reported to civilian authorities.  By shining a light on paramilitary police activities, law enforcement agencies should find it in their best interests to change their practices and limit the use of SWAT teams to situations where the charges are grave and a violent response can be reasonably anticipated.  The Senate passed SB 447 unanimously yesterday, but we expect to run into more resistance in the House of Delegates.  As soon as we enact this legislation in Maryland, I intend to work with lawmakers in other states to pass similar legislation. We are also considering actions that can be taken on a federal level.

To help in this effort, we have created a web site, www.protectourliberties.com, which tells the stories of a number of innocent victims of traumatizing SWAT raids.  It also contains media clips of the coverage we’ve received and information about our legislative work.  If you are interested in staying informed about this issue, please sign up for updates that I’ll send every month or so.  Also, if you could volunteer for citizen advocacy or policy development work, I would really appreciate your help.  Our next citizen advocacy project is a Lobby Night on Monday, March 23rd at the Maryland Capital.

Thank you, again, for your support and encouragement!  
Warm regards,
Cheye
Make Maryland Great, Inc.
P. O. Box 4343
Annapolis, MD  21403
(410) 757-2811

1 year ago – colored egg pics, encounter critical, orange team, maryland cell phone driving, journaling and domain ownership, rival kenyan tribes fighting with bows and arrows

2 years ago – first full day at the calvert gig, bhk and I go shopping for work clothes, grownup table talk, spam attractive entry

3 years ago – rebis picture, deaf language, chacarron, math, phallic removal, open source, fake cigs as meds, prisoner comic book

4 years ago – Brady Kids welcome the equinox, shamrock shake, cosmic truth, mp3s,experimental gameplay, get your tasty hot sweet potatoes in Japanese,teen kidnappers, good advice, invisible mermaid airfare

5 years ago – openoffice, Visited w Dan, open door poll, people of worth

6 years ago – Al gore, Blue’s clues, Cranky Finn

7 years ago – Spring!, Socks, overturned issues, Linda let go from FMM, LJ directory, cool picture link

8 years ago – walkies, 2 chris-sites, both have long since been left dormant, lj brokenGeotarget

9654 – Thursday

Franklin (the outdoor cat who lives near my office) followed me a bit this morning to work, I stopped to give him some love – he’s a sweetheart. I made sure to wash my hands very carefully – don’t want to allergy myself too much, or possibly bring back feline leukemia to the boys at home. I should start bringing Franklin a little treat or something.

0319090817.jpg .0319090817a.jpg .0319090818.jpg .0319090819.jpg .0319090822.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottobear/archives/date-posted/2009/03/19/

If I’m not careful, BHK is going to make me adopt him and bring him home. Plenty of little hellcats at the house already, but I’m a soft touch.

Though I am of no particular religious faith of my own, I don’t mind when others express belief… to a degree. Riding the green line into work this morning, a wall-eyed lady was shrieking out hosannas and praise the lords intermixed with some tuneless chant-like singing. she had headphones on, but I suspect that they were just props so she could ramble loudly.

I’ve seen this from assorted people, numerous times – usually on the bus, but the train here and the tri-rail back in Fort Lauderdale.  Why are folks permitted to holler at the top of their lungs while I’m confined to the same space as they are? I think that the train is better for just making a lot of noise without repercussions, because it’s less likely that it’ll stop and eject the person.

mouthbig - animatedsleep
(They won’t shut up – all I want to do is nap)

I’ve been "witnessed" to at least 4 times, maybe more while on the bus. I’ve noticed that the best thing to do is just be quiet and let it pass, because the folks doing it are generally more than a little unhinged already – I don’t want someone flipping out too much.. it seems like they run out of gas after about 15 minutes (which seems like an hour) and then start again maybe 5 minutes after that.

There needs to be some sort of code of ethics – if I’m trapped with a person that is at the minimum causing sound pollution that I don’t want, or at maximum is a foamy-mouthed looney, I get upset. I was fantasizing about picking up a tranquilizer dart gun somewhere for the bulk of the noise.

See also about 11 months ago

In a similar vein, I don’t mind being trapped on a bus with folks talking a little loudly on the phone if it’s a language I don’t know… if it’s English, it bugs me, but if it’s something very exotic (something Asian or African – not too uncommon in DC area) I don’t mind nearly so much. German, French, Creole and Spanish is fairly annoying too, for some reason. (if I’m in a movie theater, however, it’s easy for me to leave and get an attendant.)

The ride home on the train was easier on my ears.

Called Comcast about some service – if they slack on me too much, I think we’ll just cut that internet cord, and go to hughes-net or some other provider.

Tasty buffalo "chicken" salad for dinner tonight – and I had the rare beer – (Michelob Lime/cactus – good, light fare).

BHK and I are giving up on Castle, I think – 2 episodes, and neither had the grabbing power. Going to give Better Off Ted another chance, but I suspect the quirkyness is already too stiff for real fun, and it’ll get switched off, too.

Our netflix came in, in time for the weekend – Hancock and Run, Fat Boy, Run . My hopes aren’t too high – If I’m entertained, that’ll do the trick.

1 year ago – coloring eggs, haiku, atari, victorian chewie, Dro who an insane lsd junkie, obama race speech

2 years ago – newt and pye on cam, first day at county, Ze:The Show is over, squid vs yellow submarine,

3 years ago – condo area pic with duck, i don’t like cricket

4 years ago – Lunsford, Atlantis, car crash test, voice post

5 years ago – club 977, Wine & Food, itunes, lj spam, Fri-5, nearby donations,First hint of New Dr Who, Newt big-head pic, color associations

6 years ago – heat, bad job recruiter, UT

7 years ago – city relic quiz, got into an argument with Astley, work nonsense, happy ending

8 years ago – awake but paralyzed for surgery, com ideas, animal eyesGeotarget

9653- Wednesday

Bro’s girlfriend / possible mother to his kid Shannon has been found, and she and her baby are doing OK – Momster is distancing herself from the situation – and I think that’s a good thing.


Google voice – free phone goodies –

http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?answer=142423 – That sounds amazing… google… I hope you don’t turn too evil on me!

Ran a query to update about 20000 drivers for a client – amazing what a little snippet of code in the right place at the right time will do.

 

update driver_details set timestamp=’2009-03-18 20:10:00′

WHERE

driver_details.MC_ACCT_NO =  ‘**account number**’ AND

driver_details.DRV_TERMINATED_DT is null

 

 That’ll earmark all the active users for that group and send an update file to everybody. Hooray for Triggers !

 

Chasing potential errors after, now. Seems to be working within parameters, save for one not splitting properly.

Chinese food from the Octagon tonight – this was try #2 – I suspect BHK’ll be leery of a third try, unless Little Panda or Grace’s are closed.

1 year ago – voice post, eating grapes, haiku, busy day, gaming with R/K/P, POTA, Will Smith Denies Scientology

2 years ago – Behind the Mask, Tigger Adopted!, whistle blowers get some clearance,

3 years ago – bethany, st patty plans sacked,

4 years ago – much work, webjay, Danny invite, George, potential condo piccies (many mock the pre-move decor)

5 years ago – Astronaut Jones, Square Bear, speak and spell, Frank R paul, I create an fdle syndicated lj

6 years ago – iwo jima in the rock garden, I start using jarhead, wish for peace

7 years ago – facemaker, cab stacking, poem tag, timeline, roles I’ve filled, cool bunker

8 years ago – cartoon logic that works, alice, I want tasty snack food, lone gunmen, workplace desiresGeotarget