Dear [Decision maker] Please personalize your message.
Imagine returning home after work to take a shower before an evening meeting. Suddenly, your door is broken down, your two Labrador retrievers are shot, and you are interrogated for hours while handcuffed in your boxer shorts as you watch your beloved dogs bleed to death before your eyes. It sounds like the twisted plot of a horror movie about a home invasion, but these events actually happened in Prince George's County, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C. on July 29, 2008, to Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his family. If our cities' mayors cannot count themselves safe from the random violence associated with reckless drug raids based on bogus "tips" and rushed investigations, then no one in this country is safe. Obscene drug war tactics erode the people's trust and confidence in our own police departments -- ostensibly there for our service and protection. It's time to take a hard look at policing tactics. The U.S. Conference of Mayors has already taken a strong stance on related issues with its 2007 resolution calling for a "New Bottom Line" in U.S. drug policy, and this is one more piece of that puzzle. I urge you to condemn brutal, dangerous SWAT-style raids against people suspected of nonviolent drug law violations. The funds now used to pay for paramilitary weaponry would be better spent on expanding access to high quality drug treatment programs and other reforms outlined in the U.S. Conference of Mayors' New Bottom Line resolution.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]
[City State Zip] Please feel free to go to The Drug Policy Alliance Network to fill a ready made form
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