Posted on 08/26/2011 7:53:56 PM PDT by hoosierham
I know. My point was people start dredging up all the dog stories as if there’s some problem with all police.
“ONE unnecessary occurrence is too many.”
Typical emotional liberal response.
“If we can save just ONE life....”
See Thomas Sowell. He knows better. Things happen - you can’t avoid that reality amongst millions of people.
Cops are out of control in this country. Every time I read about them shooting someone’s cat or dog it makes me so upset, when almost all of the cases seem unjustified. I know it would result in the homeowner being put in prison, but just once, I’d like to see one of these homeowners stand up to the cops who do this. I’m sure many of us in this country would applaud them.
Thomas Sowell would not be on the side of the police here...
I’m not talking about a particular case. I’m talking about generalities that “police are vicious dog-killers” that is on FR all the time. Sowell as well as Williams have written about the silliness of “if just 1 person is saved....”, which is the same thought process from the post above.
True, but I would argue that a substantial percentage of police officers (perhaps as many as one-quarter) are unfit to serve, either because of corruption or because of major personality defects.
I do fear there is a bit more poor character going around. I just have no real proof.
Certainly, most (nor most departments) are not a problem, but more & more are becoming so. If you believe it is just a perception due to more cases becoming reported, then that in itself shows the extent of an extant problem.
As for the smeary "typical liberal response", the operative word is "unnecessary". These are not "accidents", or omissions due to lack of omniscience, but deliberate acts of commission; often without a shred of justification or common sense. Even worse, often the officers involved (and as likely as not, their superiors) have a history of questionable behavior, with a lot of rug-sweeping over the years.
It culminates in unwarranted human deaths of innocents...and I don't mean the technically "innocent until proved guilty"...in SWAT raids, with even more whitewashing.
But, hey, WTH; a "mistake" here and a "mistake" there, is fine; there's millions more where they came from.
We're not talking of the real, S-Happens mistakes that Sowell is referencing, but sheer "because I can" thug behavior.
The post I replied to insinuated that such things should get a pass, because of all the times a "mistake" isn't made, and that is nonsense.
You are still ignoring the fact that it’s not just “accidents” that happen - EVERYTHING bad happens, including bad people who do bad things deliberately. I wasn’t treating it as an accident. I was recognizing that there are ALWAYS going to be bad people, bad crimes, poor people, etc, as well as accidents. You simply cannot avoid that with millions of people in the Real World.
It’s a matter of statistics. If there really is a rise in % of shootings, poor characters, etc, then there probably is a standards issue. Just having media cover some shootings doesn’t mean it’s on the increase. Show the proof.
That is my point.
People are lambasting police forces without real solid evidence.
‘The post I replied to insinuated that such things should get a pass, because of all the times a “mistake” isn’t made, and that is nonsense.’
There is no such insinuation. You are jumping to conclusions.
I said nothing of this particular case (ie., that the policeman should “get a pass”). I am simply stating that police departments as a whole don’t need to be vilified unless there is solid evidence that there is a real corruption/standards problem. A few shootings from around the country over a few years does not constitute solid evidence that most police are untrustworthy.
Now in many cases, I think the policemen in question should be investigated and booted as necessary. But painting all policemen as bad on these few is not right.
When they came for the dogs, I didn’t complain, because I am not a dog.
When they came for the cats, I didn’t complain, because I am not a cat.
When they came for the citizenry, I complained that I never saw this coming.
(or something like that. :-) )
As far as statistics, I am aware of no statistics on the number of dog shootings—whether righteous (dog attacked a person and deserved to be put down) or unrighteous (cop shoots a tied up dog which cannot reach the cop.)
There are undoubtedly, many more stories that don’t make the media and other stories who do which don’t make it to Free Republic.
However, there are already so many such stories of late as to establish it as a disturbing nationwide trend—and one that needs to be stopped. Yesterday.
Before some Freeper posts a vanity to the effect of: “I came home from work to find my dog was dead. My neighbor saw a cop——”
I see we both had similar ideas. :-)
Unions ruin everything.
No accountability.
Can’t get fired unless you don’t pay your dues.
Right; we have no data and only anecdotal evidence. Point made.
I can’t remember - do you believe the Pit Bull Terrier stories or not?
It would be more accurate to say that we have not *found* any data on the subject. That doesn’t automatically mean no data is available.
I judge all dog shooting accounts on a case by case basis. Sometimes they are justified. Sometimes they are not.
In this case, a cat is not a serious threat to a police officer. Moreover, this shooting was illegal.
“Lebanon police told her the officer was only following procedure in their manual. But killing a cat is direct violation of state law and Lebanon’s own city code. “The operations manual should change to conform to the Ohio code and the city code. This should not be allowed.”
Heads should roll at the police department over this. Since the department is defending the officer who broke the law, it is unlikely that they will.
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