Posted on 03/10/2015 11:28:42 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
A man convicted of fatally stabbing a Pittsburgh police dog has been sentenced to 17 years, 9 months to 44 years in prison.
A judge said Tuesday that John Lewis Rush must also serve 8 years of probation following his release.
Channel 11's Jennifer Tomazic reports the judge sentenced John Rush on each charge and the sentence will run consecutively.
The 22-year-old Stowe Township resident was convicted in December of torturing a police animal, aggravated assault on the dog's handler, who was stabbed in a shoulder, and three other officers and other offenses.
Police say Rush stabbed the dog in the back and wounded two officers trying to arrest him in January 2014 on warrants for violating probation and failing to register as a sex offender. Rush says he stabbed the dog in self-defense.
The incident prompted state lawmakers to stiffen the penalty for harming police animals.
Our august State Legislature being more than willing to get in on the act and respond to all of the heart-tugging coverage of a doggie funeral by passing a stiff mandatory sentencing law.
Wonder how he feels knowing that the guy in the next cell who killed someone's child or mother will be out on the street in half the time?
I see an appeal on the grounds of cruel and unusual punishment.
I’m guessing he won’t serve the 44 years, maybe not even the 17+ years.
The police sick a dog on a human being — and the public is supposed to feel distraught when the human being hurts the dog.
Wait a sec, that sentence also includes time the guy got for stabbing four police officers and failing to register as a sex offender.
They may be valuable and sentimental but dogs are still property not people. It is absurd to sentence someone to 44 years in jail for destroying property. What’s next, 50 year sentences for damaging police cruisers?
I will never forget the Xiana Fairchild case that occurred near where I lived at the time. Poor girl was missing, (later found murdered). At the same time some jerk killed a dog (threw it into oncoming traffic in a road rage incident). Reward posters went up for both criminals. The reward was higher for the dog guy, then for the poor girls murderer.
I love dogs as much as the next guy....but COME ON!
This was truly absurd! This dog had a convoy of police cruisers escorting his hearse, and bagpipers at the pet cemetery.
Penalty for failing to register as a sex offender in PA is 2 to 5 years, depending on the nature of the underlying offense.
On the other hand thanks to this glittering assortment of Democrat Dimwits, killing a police dog in Pennsylvania is now a Second Degree Felony carrying at least a 10 year sentence.
http://www.senatormattsmith.com/roccos-law
Remember this sentence the next time some cop shoots YOUR dog!
Unusual hyperbolic reporting by the MSM. The headline fails to mention stabbing 4 police officers in addition to the dog. Of course to drive ratings, the MSM is more than willing to wheel out a story about an injured dog. The MSM is just as vile and corrupt and sensationalistic in their reporting as back in the days of Hearst’s Yellow Journalism.
Why bore the masses with some arcane story about email servers. Most people, including the reporters, don’t know or care what an email server is. Give them a story that’s all about bread and circuses. That’s the ticket. That’s what the proles want.
A patrol car hits you, and you go to jail for denting the bumper.
The news coverage on a local level was absurd. After about 4 weeks of this in the news I looked at wife and said :”I wonder when that poor dog decided to join the police force?”
We do invest a lot into training police dogs. Killing them shouldn’t be the same as killing a random animal.
I would support heavier penalties for killing someone’s service dog (e.g. seeing eye dog) as well.
He also stabbed the cop in the shoulder and was convicted for that as well.
Not all the time is for killing the dog, though I know that is not the narrative you want out there.
What’s the penalty for stabbing a human police officer in the shoulder?
I seriously don’t understand how if a dog is sic’d on you, anyone would not try to defend themselves. If I were on a jury, there is no way I could convict someone on this charge... maybe another related charge, but even the best police dogs will bite and respond over aggressively (my friend is a police officer who trains the dogs for his county and for some Fed agencies).
The 17.75 - 44.00 year sentence is the total for at least 5 crimes...ONE of which is stabbing the police dog.
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