Felony Stop Leaves Family Traumatized

Herald-Citizen ^ | 01/02/03 | Mary Jo Denton

[Copernicus]

'Felony stop' leaves family traumatized

Mary Jo Denton

Herald-Citizen Staff

It was the most traumatic experience the Smoak family of North Carolina has ever had, and it happened yesterday afternoon as they traveled through Cookeville on their way home from a vacation in Nashville.

Before their ordeal was over, three members of the family had been yanked out of their car and handcuffed on the side of Interstate 40 in downtown Cookeville, and their beloved dog, Patton, had been shot to death by a police officer as they watched.

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About that time, he heard the officer broadcast orders over a bullhorn, telling him to toss the keys out the car window and get out with his hands up and walk backwards to the rear of the car.

Still not knowing what he was being stopped for, Smoak obeyed, and when he reached the back of the car, with a gun pointed at Smoak, the trooper ordered him to get on his knees, face the back of the car and put his head down.

When he did that, the officer handcuffed him and placed him in the patrol car. Then the same orders were blared over the bullhorn to "passenger" and Pamela Smoak got out with her hands up, was ordered to the ground, held at gunpoint, and handcuffed. Next, Brandon was ordered out and handcuffed in the same way.

Terrified at what was happening to them for no reason they knew, the family was also immediately concerned about their two pet dogs being left in the car there on the highway with the car doors open.

"We kept asking the officers -- there were several officers by now -- to close the car doors because of our dogs, but they didn't do it," said Pamela Smoak.

And as the officers worked in the late evening darkness, their weapons drawn as the Smoaks were being handcuffed, the dog Patton came out of the car and headed toward one of the Cookeville Police officers who was assisting the THP.

"That officer had a flashlight on his shotgun, and the dog was going toward that light and the officer shot him, just blew his head off," said Pamela Smoak.

"We had begged them to shut the car doors so our dogs wouldn't get out, and they didn't do that."

As the dog was heading out of the car toward the officer, "we had yelled, begging them to let us get him, but the officer shot him," she said.

Grieving for their dog and in shock over their apparent arrest for some unknown crime, the family could only wait. At one point, one state trooper did tell them they "matched the description" in a robbery that had occurred in Davidson County, Pamela Smoak said.

The ordeal went on for a time after that, the family terrified and in grief over the dog.

Excerpted-Click here for complete account

[babygene]

Sorry, but your attitude really p!ssed me off.

[HairOfTheDog]

Maybe you look for those headlines and not others. They interest me too.

I just can't buy into your armchair psychology that anyone who becomes a cop has a defect in their personality, or that "more police are crooked than members of the general population" or they were all beat up in school and are on a revenge trip. That is insulting to a really tough occupation. My job is not that hard. If I screw up at work no one dies. I think you have to be above average to do the job, and that if a cop were as broken as you say, they would not make it long.

[Swordmaker]

Well, you kinda even things out.

Thanks, Hair.

[cajun-jack]

lots of places do have these laws....

[Swordmaker]

Well, you kinda even things out.

Thanks, Hair.

[Swordmaker]

Sorry for the double post... FreeRepublic hicoughed.

[HairOfTheDog]

[hic]

Good night...

[babygene]

" The police CANNOT safely assume that such events ARE innocent... for their own safety and that of the public, they have to assume worse than innocent."

The problem with your stupid statememt is that almost everything in life IS innocent...

[babygene]

"I just can't buy into your armchair psychology that anyone who becomes a cop has a defect in their personality"

I didn't say that.

I would say though, that someone who works for 30K a year and takes all those risks, ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer...

[Bogolyubski]

I think you misunderstood my previous post a bit: I'm only too well aware of the flaming hypocrasy of the ACLU on any number of issues, including both abortion and the 2nd amendment. I'm just a bit incredulous, given the ACLU's long-standing tradition of siding with criminals, that they wouldn't have shot down a law charging someone with a capital crime for killing a police dog. I am not in favor of executing people for killing dogs. As much as I love dogs, they still aren't equal to humans. I'm just wondering if some of the posts stating that it's a capital crime (e.g. a death-penalty offense) to kill a police dog are in fact urban legends.

[Doctor Stochastic]

OK class; Can anyone tell me how a once Constitutional Republic, whose founding motto was "WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness", has turned into a police state where an innocent law-abiding family, minding their OWN business, can be subjected to such cruelty under the color of law?

It's for The Children.

[babygene]

" I'm just wondering if some of the posts stating that it's a capital crime (e.g. a death-penalty offense) to kill a police dog are in fact urban legends."

They are urbhan legons... The Supremes would have a say about it...

[optimistically_conservative]

Coloradan - Caste system alert: Shooting a police dog is a capital offense in some places, carrying the same penalties as shooting an officer.

Bogolyubski - I was not at all aware of a charge of capital murder being applied to someone who kills a police dog - you learn something new every day.

Don't believe everything you read. I couldn't find any federal or state law carrying a capital offense charge for harming a police canine. But perhaps coloradan can provide which places he had in mind.

Under the Federal Law Enforcement Animal Protection Act, which went into effect in 2000, anyone convicted of purposely assaulting, maiming, or killing federal law enforcement animals such as police dogs and horses could be fined at least $1,000 and spend up to 10 years in prison. Prior to this police canines were considered official property, and as such, resulted in relatively little punishment for harming or destroying them.

[Bogolyubski]

Thank you for pointing this out, Swordmaker. We should all remember that this account of the events in Cookeville, TN (which has always struck me as a nice little town, BTW) is a newspaper article written a reporter/journalist. It may or may not be accurate as to the details and sequence of events - hence the clause in my earlier post to the effect of 'if they events described are true.'

This is why we have courts of law and civil suits. While I centainly deplore and denounce corruption and incompetence of the police, and even advocate that they be held to a stricter standard than everyday civilians, sanctions and penalties should be applied only if the officers in question are found gulity of incompetence or wanton brutality after due process. If the report is true, it strikes me that requesting a felony-stop was not the correct repsonse to a report from a motorist of a wallet with money falling onto the road. Perhaps the Tennessee State Patrol should seriously review their policies as to when they call for a felony-stop, if nothing else.

Like you, I'm disturbed by the sheer emotionalism of some of the reponse to this story. Before anyone accuses me of being a government toady, please realize that I think the FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi should be in prison for 2nd degree murder at the very least, and possibly facing a lethal injection for capital murder. (I'm not even getting into the Waco debacle.) Those entrusted with the public responsibilty of life and death must be held to the very highest level of accountability. Our goverment's abject failure to do so is a stain upon this republic which has justifiably generated a great deal of mistrust from law-abiding citizens.

Even if the officer who shot the dog was truly a brutal, sadistic, small-penis jerk, he still is deserving of his day in court - which I expect will be a very unpleasant memory on his part for years to come.

[Sorcha]

I can't find the references at this time. However, my point stands with the federal law you cited: killing a police dog is at least a federal felony, while police routinely kill family dogs as SOP. The police in this case were repeatedly told to close the car doors, but instead of doing that they simply killed the dog when it finally exited the car. Can the case be made that the police "knew or should have known" that the dog might leave, and if it did, they might have to kill it? Yes. Willful criminal negligence, at the very least - having the humans cuffed and face down in the dirt should have afforded some slight measure they had the situation under control and could "risk" closing the doors. But they didn't.

[Travis McGee]

More of your heroes in action.

[Sorcha]

(Previous message posted by coloradan from Sorcha's computer.)

[Travis McGee]

Thanks for the ping. Very disturbing story. What is going on with so many cops today?

[Travis McGee]

JBT Ping.

[Travis McGee]

WE have heard this before, from the black community. And, many of us have discounted it.

Kindly speak for yourself. Drop the "we" and the "us".