Raid

Why is it that when a police officer kills innocent civilians there's never a public apology offered by the force ("Reisterstown fatality raises concerns about police raids," Aug. 9). Surely such a gesture not only would help console grieving, traumatized survivors but also assist the police public relations effort by humanizing the officers involved in the eyes of the public. Instead, with a disinterested air of assuredness and infallibility, police spokespersons and apologists all too often provide dismissive justification for the killings.

When members of Baltimore County's tactical unit burst into a Reisterstown home this summer, they were looking for potentially armed suspects in the attempted murder of a 15-year-old boy. But in the chaos of the raid, Officer Carlos Artson shot and killed the home's owner - who was not a suspect - after he thrust a large sword at the officer, police said. That raid - and its outcome - mirrored a 2005 Baltimore County police action, in which officers equipped with a battering ram and flash grenades stormed into a Dundalk home to search for drugs.

Acting on neighbors' complaints about drug traffic, Anne Arundel County police raided a home Thursday in Glen Burnie, where they seized drugs, a gun and drug paraphernalia, police said. Police said they found a little more than 56 grams of marijuana, a .20-gauge shotgun and drug paraphernalia at the residence in the 800 block of Bentwillow Drive. They charged Patrick Andrew Swain, 20, with possession of marijuana, possession with intent to distribute and possession drug paraphernalia, they said.

An article in the Nov. 23, 1912, edition of The Argus reported a raid on a local drinking establishment. Samuel Bloom saloon on Frederick road at Paradise was raided Sunday night at 7 o'clock by Patrolmen Hutson and Phelps , of the Canton Police Station. The patrolmen, who were dressed in plain clothes, say they entered the saloon and ordered bottle beer which was served to them. They then arrested Samuel Bloom , John Hall , a helper, and two other men as witnesses.

When police burst into a city transportation building last March and arrested nearly a dozen workers who they said were throwing dice and drinking cheap liquor, the raid grabbed headlines and triggered stern warnings from officials about "violations of the public trust. " But nearly a year later, the case has ended with prosecutors convicting just one person and dropping charges against all the others. Seven workers whose criminal cases were not pursued have returned to their old jobs.

Baltimore Inspector General has released his final report on last year's gambling raid at a Department of Transportation yard. Nearly a dozen workers were arrested, but prosecutors got just one conviction, prompting critics to say the operation was overblown. I interviewed David DeCarlo in January who said he was not involved in the gambling but was caught up as a bystander ( read story here ). He was fighting to get his job back. The IG, David N. McClintock, defended the raid to me in January: If gambling "was going on and it's not anymore, then it was worth it. ... The day everybody is happy with what we're doing is the day we're not doing something right.

The death of a Reisterstown man who was not the subject of a police arrest warrant during a SWAT team raid this summer unfortunately is nothing new ("Reisterstown fatality raises concerns about police raids," Aug. 9). Since President Reagan initiated the so-called "war on drugs" in 1981, these tactics have become increasingly common. SWAT teams were originally intended for violent situations. Today, however, they are deployed quite regularly, often to serve narcotics warrants as part of this misguided and racially biased "war on drugs.

A prescription drug clinic in Timonium was raided Tuesday afternoon by Baltimore County police and Drug Enforcement Administration agents, according to law enforcement officials. The raid followed a long-term investigation of the distribution and sale of oxycodone and other prescription drugs at the Healthy Life Medical Group in the 1100 block of York Road, according to Special Agent Edward Marcinko, of the DEA. About 25 police narcotics officers and DEA agents served a federal search warrant at the location shortly after 5 p.m., said Marcinko and Det. Cathy Batton, a county police spokeswoman.

After weeks of hype and recrimination, the public gets a look today at a Navy Seal's account of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden -- a book that already is selling better than "Fifty Shades of Grey. " The author of " No Easy Day," is identified on the cover as Mark Owen (with a ghosting assist from  Kevin Maurer) but he has been widely reported to be ex-Seal Matt Bissonnette, and even as the book is published, the controversy over it continues. The Pentagon recently said that Bissonette breached nondisclosure agreements, and it is considering legal action against him. I'm sure this will take months to resolve, and while the lawyers hash it out, the book will be perched atop the best-seller lists.

In her unabashedly pro-marijuana clothing and accessory store, Pamela S. Davis keeps a fishbowl filled with seeds, free for the asking.Unfortunately for Ms. Davis, an undercover Carroll drug officer .. walked into the store at Westminster Shopping Center, grabbed a small handful out of the bowl and sent the seeds to the state police crime lab.On Thursday, the crime lab reported that the seeds had sprouted into marijuana plants.And that was enough to persuade a Carroll Circuit Court judge to sign a search warrant for Liberation, Ms. Davis' counter-culture outlet where she sells handmade imported clothing, acerbic anti-establishment buttons and T-shirts, and a full line of marijuana books, pamphlets and newsletters.