Posted on 10/14/2011 1:22:07 PM PDT by Immerito
ARLINGTON, Texas - A dog owner claims an Arlington police officer overreacted and shot his dog five times as his children watched.
Buck Yandle said two police officers and an animal control officer showed up at his home on Lake Jackson Drive last week. They were there about his dog Bucky, a basset hound and Rottweiler mix.
Neighbors said Bucky nipped a boy in the back after school. The dog never bit him, but it was enough to scare the 10-year-old.
Yandle stepped outside to meet with the officers. He said he closed the door and left his four children inside the house with Bucky. But the dog ran out because his 3-year-old son opened the door.
Bucky got agitated as police were talking to Yandle. Although he insists the dog did not lunge at or attack any of the officers, one of the officers shot and killed him.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxdfw.com ...
Where did you get that statistic - FBI’s website says that in 2009 it was 48 (through felonious action) and probably twice again that number in accidents.
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2010/october/LEOKA-report
I’m not saying that this isn’t tragic, but really, law enforcement isn’t as dangerous a profession as the thin blue line would like you to believe. The lowly garbage collector has more deaths for capita than cops, and farming or logging are both more dangerous. Since I would wager that garbage collectors visit more domiciles in a given week than even the most ardent police officer, and stories aren’t rampant about them killing family pets on a whim, it seems to me that an argument could be made that maybe these dog-shooting cops are sometimes way the hell out of line.
Mixing meteaphors, but it’s sort of like the ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ mentality of the media types. These sorts of topics generate discussion. Good news topics, not so much.
Good cops getting killed in the line of duty has NOTHING to do with THIS story. Because cops get killed in the line of duty, that makes it ok for other cops to kill pet dogs in their own yard?
This is abuse of power and evidence of an unwarranted predisposition to use their firearm.
Yeah, my first bubble was burst when during my FTO period, my supervising officer said, “We’re gonna follow this guy because he’s colored.”
I’m white as can be, and am certainly not all on-board the race-baiting political-correctness bandwagon, but this struck me as just over-the-top, especially considering he wasn’t doing anything wrong.
While there are good and bad seeds in every organization, I found in WA State anyway, you’ll probably almost always be treated professionally by a State Trooper (but don’t expect to get a warning - They’re out to pad their statistics: Most DUI’s = Trooper of the Year, and they get to pick their car color). City cops vary by chief and environment. You can have a city where the chief is ardent about “community policing” and is always watching out to get the mayor who butters his bread re-elected, or you can get towns that use their police as shake-down artists. (Fife, WA anyone? I can’t think of any other local towns that write tickets on 2mph over the limit in a 40mph zone where conditions and construction aren’t mitigating factors).
Deputies are the real wildcards. We used to say that while troopers deal with 90% good people going to and from work, deputies deal 90% with a lot shadier folks with less backup (and less supervision). No offense intended to the good deputies out there, but the worst behavior I’ve ever seen out of law enforcement has ALWAYS ALWAYS been either county or big city (Seattle).
Sorry for the wall of text.
Some officers never discharge their weapons during their careers, some are left with no options and do discharge, where the options left v. threat imminent and severity of attack likely.. let a review board decide. adopt another dog.
I hope my two poodles won’t get it one day over a wrong address. They both bark and lunge, usually playfully.. Is it the size of the dog? a
As to the perps , they as much as asked for it the moment they strapped on weapons.
A sad day for the officers in that department, any single day an officer dies in the line of duty too much, to have more than one, .. Prayers for the families who grieve because brave officers die for our freedoms.
What is this guy's name? Let's hound (on purpose) him into unemployment.
The issue is not just cops shooting dogs. It seems that many of these gun-happy cops aren’t giving the owners a chance control their dogs, they just shoot on sight. While most of the dogs shot have been pits and rotties, many of the dogs were the non-dangerous types like labs, retrievers, and chihuahuas.
There is a suspicion amongst many of the Freepers that the cops aren’t doing it because they are in danger, but they are doing it to create a compliant populace.
If the cop was not a cop but a civilian with a CC permit doing this, he would be in deep S. He needs to be a civilian again and without a permit.
Some years back a rookie cop maced my dangerous Jack Russell because it was barking at him when he came in the yard. Sure it pissed me off and I told the kid about it. I also called the police chief and the rookie was back to apologize inside an hour.
After that we never had a problem again. The kid learned that this is a small town goes 20 or 30 years between violent crimes and that kind of aggression isn’t really needed from police. I like to think the kid became a better cop because of it.
I'm thinking they had already decided jail was not an option. Prayers for the wife and kids of Officer Slot.
“let a review board decide. adopt another dog.”
WHAT? Pets are members of the family. Loved as much as children.
Review board? Who needs one? It was a small to medium sized pet DOG. He wasn’t even being attacked. Maybe next time he could swat the dog or kick him instead of unloading his GUN on the dog. Is this the type of BRAVE cop you want protecting society? Unwarranted discharging of his weapon in the presence of children? This guy needs to be FIRED, not defended.
One of them was released from probation because he didn’t pose a “foreseeable risk” to public safety.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/10/robbery_fatal_chase_suspect_de.html
You’re right. I went to his Facebook page and he pretty much looks like a dachshound—not material for the police to be shooting.
“What is this guy’s name? Let’s hound (on purpose) him into unemployment. “
What a mature,rational post. /s
Are you nuts?
That distinction about deputies is interesting as Sheriffs are quite different animals than Chiefs of Police from a historical legal viewpoint. State Troopers do seem to be the cream of the crop though.
What you say sounds like Truth to me. I had an experience (not really personal, more observing) with deputies in a small town in TX that def opened my eyes. Another experience in a large town in TX involving city cops that did the same!
1) This is a Rottweiler basset mix. Not a very tall dog. Rottweilers are not “scary scary” dogs, they are dogs. Some are well-bred, socialized and trained. Some are not. But to refer to a dog as “scary scary” is as silly as to refer to a firearm as “scary scary”. You’re talking about a herding breed, a breed that pulled carts of meat for the town butcher.
Do a search for Jake the Rottweiler, who chased off a criminal who was sexually assaulting a woman. I’m sure to the criminal element, they are “scary scary” dogs. But there is no reason for the non-criminal element to use the phrase to describe them.
2) The neighbors thought the kid was nipped, but the article clarifies that the dog didn’t bite the kid. Whatever happened to agitate the dog, the kid was scared. Either the dog was misbehaving (and needs to be better socialized around people) or the kid was misbehaving and the dog reacted to it. Fewer kids are taught to read a dog’s warning signs and they don’t understand proper behavior around dogs. We don’t know which of those two situations is accurate (unless further information comes out).
3) There are three other children, at least one, presumably, is older than the three year old. Apparently their father (admittedly shortsightedly) didn’t consider that one of the kids would open the door. It probably never occurred to him, before it happened, that the officer would shoot his barking, dancing dog.
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