What the fuck.

I don't pay attention to drug related news as much as I would like, but that is because I don't use drugs, nor do I know anyone that does. Yet I am beginning to get worried about the level of power the local swat teams are getting. And then I read this.

One of the most appalling cases occurred in Maricopa County, Arizona, the home of Joe Arpaio, self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America." In 2004 one of Arpaio's SWAT teams conducted a bumbling raid in a Phoenix suburb. Among other weapons, it used tear gas and an armored personnel carrier that later rolled down the street and smashed into a car. The operation ended with the targeted home in flames and exactly one suspect in custody--for outstanding traffic violations.

But for all that, the image that sticks in your head, as described by John Dougherty in the alternative weekly Phoenix New Times, is that of a puppy trying to escape the fire and a SWAT officer chasing him back into the burning building with puffs from a fire extinguisher. The dog burned to death.

Think that sounds bad?

Last October police in Alabama raided a home on suspicion of marijuana possession, shot and killed both family dogs, then joked about the kill in front of the family. They seized eight grams of marijuana, equal in weight to a ketchup packet.

These people need to be reigned in. Seriously.

Yes the guy in the article laments how everyone else doesn't seem to care until people mention the Dog. The obvious reason is because in most cases, the person being arrested committed a drug related crime, and we are de-sensitized to innocent people being abused by the police. But animal abuse is something different completely.

Why the fuck doesn't PETA speak out against this?