Violet
Posted on 11/04/2009 11:09:11 PM PST by Chet 99
(Memphis 10/22/09) A woman who rescues dogs wants answers from the Memphis Police Department after officers shot at least one of her pets and the other ran away frightened and possibly injured.
Anna Bolton calls 7 year-old Violet the timid one, and 3 year-old Bing the playful one. That's why she can't understand why anyone would be scared enough to shoot Bing, let alone trained officers with the Memphis Police Department.
Worse yet, when she got the call and rushed home to a swarm of squad cars, "Nobody had told me my animal had been shot... It's shocking and horrifying to come inside and find my dog laying here with bullet wounds."
Blood had pooled in Bing's cage as well as in Violet's, but Violet was gone. Neighbors put up signs across the High Point Terrace neighborhood, not knowing if she too had been shot.
Memphis police say they "shoot to kill" and each officer fired one round. They came for a burglary alarm call. They checked the front, went around the back, and opened the gate. That's when cops say the dogs charged. The police department says the officers were just doing their job but admits the case is a tough one --saying nobody wants to shoot a dog.
"I understand that maybe they felt threatened. My dogs felt threatened that somebody was entering my backyard," says Bolton. "She has never, ever, ever attacked anybody that entered her territory."
Bolton says cops came once before for a tripped alarm and should have known she had pets when they came Thursday morning. Police blame the alarm company, saying they weren't told dogs lived there. Even so, Memphis police are trained to check for signs of pets. Signs, like an invisible fence placard clearly visible in the front yard.
"I just can't believe that this has happened in my own home," she says. "These are good dogs. These are absolutely wonderful dogs. They've never hurt a fly."
It is not uncommon for dogs to bite police, and Bing's shooting is the second family pet shot by Memphis police this week. Bolton thinks the MPD should take a closer look at how it deals with pets. The MPD promises to investigate this case just like any other shooting.
"They did not use wise judgment."
Bolton says she never got an apology from officers on the scene, and bottom line, Violet is still missing.
Uh.. strange man enters someone else’s property, what the hell is a dog supposed to do???
Just because this guy’s a cop, and he has a gun, he shoots her? Is he insane? And then they boast that “we shoot to kill”?! I just want to cry.
Is this something that is taught at jack-boot academy?
Trigger happy Memphis Po Po at it again, I think this is the second or third dog they’ve shot this week.
Looks like the City of Memphis is just having a bad day all the way around...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2378953/posts
Why’d they shoot her dog? Because cops are the 2nd most dangerous people in society. This crap happens all the time. Cops just love using their little bang-bangs on dogs.
Ya see, they know they can kill something with no consequences.
I was expecting a delivery from UPS one day this summer when I heard a knock at the door. It surprised me because I had been trying to watch for them. But you can't hear them pull in because for some reason they don't pull in my drive way and drive up to my house. Instead they back in just enough to get off the road and walk all the way back here.
When the guy knocked, Pockets, my little dog let out one tiny little bark. I was only 3ft from the door and it only took a second to open the door but when I did I got the surprise of my life. LOL!
I opened the door to see a grown man running as fast as his legs would carry him down my drive way to his UPS truck. I shouted out, "Don't you want me to sign something?
His feet never missed a step. Slap, slap, slap, slap, they went on down my paved drive as he shouted back, "No lady that's alright!"
This is a picture of Pockets with Perseval our late cat. She is the tiny little dog who's tiny little voice made a grown man run.
Well, there seems to be an epidemic of cops-afraid of-any dog disease.
I hope you aren’t trying to defend these a-holes.
LOL... We once called our black dog as Snow...
No! I would never defend them for coming in uninvited to that lady’s home and killing her dog. I don’t think they should kill anyone’s dog unless it’s actually attacking them. And making noise like it’s going to attack isn’t the same thing as attacking. A lot of dogs make a lot of noise but don’t attack.
It’s just the memory of the guy from UPS popped into my head for no real reason and I thought it was funny, so I thought I would share the funny experience I’d had.
That’s either a very tiny (and cute) dog or a very large cat! ;-)
I have that happen all the time. That’s what these delivery services do. If there is no signature required on a package, they put the package at the door, ring the doorbell and run back to the truck. Most of these guys are under a HUGE time requirement for delivering packages. What you had happen is the norm. It had nothing to do with the dog.
A lot of jerks are looking for an excuse to shoot something, hence they go for the gun instead of the pepper spray. Its natural behavior for a dog to bark and approach someone entering its territory, only a fool doesnt know that. Anyone who feels threatened enough by that to shoot should not be cop. There are cases where vicious dogs attack cops but that does not seem to be the case here.
Sue the bastards.
This line had me laughing. I live in Memphis and if what we have as cops passes as training, then I need to learn a new definition for the word.
About had a similar outcome earlier this year, as 6 cops came to my house and tried to go in the backyard. They were at the wrong house, 3 blocks away from where they should have been. I was lucky.
The SPCA offers courses to police departments on dealing with dogs. In Danville, VA they actually took it. And they fired a creep who shot a toy dachshund. So, there is hope for the less jaded of us.
Frankly, I think pet shooting is a calculated effort to escalate any situation into violence. It's fun for the bloodthirsty and a good way to win medals. That's how Ruby Ridge started, you know.
Has any politician ANYWHERE spoken about this (besides Chey Calvo)????
There is no situation that can't be made worse with the presence of a police officer.
Don't have alarms that call them.
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