Demarkus PeeplesAround noon on Tuesday, Dec. 2, [Demarkus] Peeples was watching TV at home when he heard a knock at the front door. When he looked out the door’s top window, he saw a group of men standing on his porch wearing jeans and T-shirts, a couple of them looking a little ratty. To get a better look, he went to a side window and peeked through the drawn blinds. “Honestly, they looked like they were transients,” he said. The men, it ends up, were undercover narcotics officers who were there on a complaint about drug activity at that address—Peeples was later told that it had to do with a “chemical smell.” Peeples said the men—he estimates there were six—never announced who they were.
Peeples waited until they circled back to the front of his house, at which point he opened his back door to investigate. That’s when his dog, a three-year-old Staffy named Eygpt ran out. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem, except that one of the police officers had left the backyard gate open. The dog ran out, and down Peeple’s driveway toward the officers, at which point they shot it three times. Even the police concede the dog never attacked. It only gets worse from there. The police then arrested Peeples on the charge of assault with a deadly weapon—the weapon being his now dying dog. Peeples says they then euthanized his dog, despite his explicit instructions not to.
“Do not kill my dog; do everything you can to save my dog,” he remembers yelling. When he saw Chris Victor, his neighbor, he asked him to make sure Egypt was kept alive. Victor said he called animal control to let them know he’d cover any cost for Egypt’s care, but by the time his call got through, Egypt had been euthanized. DeSousa said the dog was put down immediately after arriving. The police didn’t find the meth lab they were presumably looking for. They did apparently find a misdemeanor amount of marijuana in Peeple’s garage—marijuana that, according to the article, was “so old that it disintegrated upon contact.”
Maybe when the city gets tired of lawsuits, this crap will end.
Thanks to Mister Justin
To those of you who say the police did nothing wrong…
The Constitution requires service of a properly executed warrant, supported by oath of specific wrongdoing to enter a property.
They can also enter in pursuit of a criminal or in direct view of a crime.
There doesn’t appear to be any of these here.
The fact that so many police have now served in combat zones as National Guard troops won’t help this situation at all. More and more, they will look upon the public as “the enemy” and as an “us vs. them” situation to be resolved with force at all times.
If you don’t like the rise of a separate, privileged political class,
Then stop supporting it.
Hold political employees and government workers to the law, people, the same laws they hold citizens to.
It’s up to us to WANT freedom and justice. Nobody can do that except us.
RTFA – They didn’t break down his door, the knocked. The guy peeked out the window several time (suspicious), then opened the door and a dog ran out and toward the police. Drug dealers often use dogs as weapons and since that’s what they were investigating, they figured they didn’t want the dog to take a bite of them. Its really funny reading all your liberal tossers comments. I can almost bet that most of you either use recreation drugs or feel they should be legal. That being the case you guys are nothing but over grown hippies or modern day stoners.
Old marijuana? So he was an old bad guy. Someday I hope I too can choose which laws I feel like obeying.
RBG
“RTFA – They didn’t break down his door, the knocked. The guy peeked out the window several time (suspicious), then opened the door and a dog ran out and toward the police. Drug dealers often use dogs as weapons and since that’s what they were investigating, they figured they didn’t want the dog to take a bite of them.”
So, guilty until proven innocent. I like the turn in the US. Is that an example why he rest of the world hates your freedoms? Aside from your slanting of the details, well done. You are a true state hero.
#25 – Reb Blue Green
>>Someday I hope I too can choose which laws I
>>feel like obeying.
Someday I hope we have laws worth obeying.
#23, gq,
They didn’t break down his door, the knocked.
OK, they were polite. Did they have a warrant?
The guy peeked out the window several time (suspicious), then opened the door and a dog ran out and toward the police.
Only you missed that part where they were in his back yard and he went out the back door. In normal cases the back gate was left closed and locked BUT the cops didn’t close it. Then what is suspicious about checking to see is knocking? There is no requirement that anyone open a door to strangers. Gee, the police even advise against it.
Drug dealers often use dogs as weapons and since that’s what they were investigating, they figured they didn’t want the dog to take a bite of them.
So they weren’t there with a warrant. So why were they on his property? Nope, you can’t get out of this one. They were criminally trespassing !!! The dog was still on its own property.
Its really funny reading all your liberal tossers comments. I can almost bet that most of you either use recreation drugs or feel they should be legal.
It is much better than reading some fascist assholes idea of a perfect world. My attitude on illegal drugs have nothing to do with some cops trespassing, killing a dog, and arresting an obvious innocent person. That you can even think of justifying this shows your mental condition and serious need for psychiatric intervention.
That being the case you guys are nothing but over grown hippies or modern day stoners.
At least hippies and stoners don’t go around shooting innocent dogs and arresting innocent people.
It has often been used as an excuse, but is anyone really aware of a cop who has put his life on the line for the people?
No warrent? Not sure.
In several regards this was clearly handled badly. I’m not saying anyone should be fired but it does need to be noted so if someone keeps on having bad days they can be encouraged to find work more suited to their abilities.
On the other hand everybody posting here is going to call the cops if they get robbed or whatever.
The story implied but did not state that the weed may have been around a lot longer than this person had lived there. You can run into the same problem with a car.
A simple drug test can determine if you have been using.
30,
Yes. I see your point. People with guns that can kill you AND/OR make your life miserable with trumped up charges should be given “bad day” gifts similar to the Laura Secord cashier who short changed you 75c. Good logic there.
As for robberies… well, of COURSE you’re going to call the police. You have to get an “official” report for your insurance company. It’s not like you expect the police to show up BEFORE they rob you. Or whatever. Cops are a necessary evil. Unfortunately, they can be as evil, or worse, than the people they are supposed to protect us from.
part of the problem is that there are WAY too many undercover cops. a bunch of derelict-looking guys appear on your porch and go prowling around on your property, WTF are you supposed to do?
and #24 – looking out your window at said derelicts is “suspicious?” yeah, right …
$29 – Mr. Fusion
>>It has often been used as an excuse, but is
>>anyone really aware of a cop who has put his
>>life on the line for the people?
Of course not. I’ve seen ‘em on TV (Law & Order, CSI, etc.) but not in real life. Heck, with all the dogs there are to shoot, all the guys with 20-year-old weed in their garage, and all the speeding tickets they have to write out after reviewing the traffic-cams, there’s not much time left over for heroics.
Don’t people get it. Cops can do no wrong. They don’t uphold the law, they are the law.
“On the other hand everybody posting here is going to call the cops if they get robbed or whatever.”
My house got robbed once, and did call the cops telling them that I thought I kneew who did it. They refused to investigate him and said that I didn’t have any witnesses.
I canvased the neighborhood and actually found someone who saw the person committing the robbery. The cops said it was my “problem” and refused to do anything.
Of course, my cops are LA county…not good enough to make the LAPD.
I’m not sure this was ever on DU. Another example of a “justified” police shoot dog incident-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/30/AR2008073003299.html
For many people pets are equal members of the family. No apology or monetary compensation can replace them.
Stop arguing about this. Ze police are always right! And none of YOU are qualified to know what is in your best intrest!Only the police and the governament are qualified to rule over you.
Now go back to sleep and pay no attention to this!
#28 you don’t need a warrant to go up to someones door and knock. Entering and searching are another matter. Where you do get your law knowledge anyway? If the PD was just there to question him, it didn’t say in the article, then it would be permissible, he could always had said no, and closed the door. And he DID have Marijuana in his garage, so he wasn’t exactly innocent.
“On the other hand everybody posting here is going to call the cops if they get robbed or whatever.”
Actually, doing what I do, that depends entirely on both where I was robbed and what cops would be called. No fucking way will I call the cops either where I live or where I work. Some of the smaller nearby towns, sure, but small town cops tend to be more less troublesome.
“Only the police and the governament are qualified to rule over you.”
Sorry – I’m paid by the government to tell them they fucked up (although they, strangely, don’t appreciate it when it’s done in so concise a manner.) So I’m really just doing my job.
“#28 you don’t need a warrant to go up to someones door and knock. Entering and searching are another matter. Where you do get your law knowledge anyway? If the PD was just there to question him, it didn’t say in the article, then it would be permissible, he could always had said no, and closed the door. And he DID have Marijuana in his garage, so he wasn’t exactly innocent.”
All true – well, trueish. The article implies that the police *were* on his property, not just knocking on his front door, and therefore were trespassing. But assuming you’re right, the police themselves stated in the article the dog wasn’t assaulting anyone. They simply shot it for no reason.
So please don’t try and pick and choose which facts to ignore on this one. The police did do wrong here. (By your position, police would have the right to kill *anyone*’s dog, simply because “drug dealers use drugs as weapons”. The totality of the circumstances here fails, as the dog was only doing what dogs tend to do – that is, run around and play.)
Cops are pretty bad. No cops is worse.
Government is pretty bad. No gov is worse.
Doctors are pretty bad. No Docs is worse.
Canned/preserved food is pretty bad. No Food is Worse.
Military adventurism is pretty bad. No Military is worse.
We ain’t getting out alive.