For some reason, the story about a 2004 botched Maricopa County, Arizona SWAT team raid--in which the SWAT team burned down a house, killed a puppy, smashed a neighbor's car when they lost control of their SWAT military vehicle, and arrested one guy for outstanding traffic tickets--has been making its way around the Internet again. Radley Balko mentioned the raid in his piece for reason about how the SWAT team always kills the dog.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, remember, is the self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America." He was one of the first to acquire the tank-ish vehicle for his SWAT team, so it's only fair to point out that his boys lost control of the thing, and damned-near killed a bystander and her daughter.
In any case, in a Boing Boing thread on the story, one commenter links to a police discussion board thread about the raid. The headline?
Liberal news media slams Maricopa County Sheriff's Department....just wow
The thread then goes on to bash the reporter for daring to tell the story about how the SWAT team burned a home to the ground, totaled a car, and chased a puppy into a burning building to perish. No criticism at all for the bungling cops, mind you.
