Now time for me to rant.
Quote CD: "It is not okay for the public to just go around shooting Innocent people's dogs."
No its not, but that is not what happened here.
Quote CD : "It's not okay for meter readers or postmen to shoot dogs."
I guess your not a postman or meter reader. Have you ever been attacked by a strange dog? Or had one come up to you on the street and startle you? Owning a pet is a responsibilty. You have a right to own a pet if the city you live in allows, but you also must accept the responsibility to keep your pet from doing things that could put it in danger, or others in danger.
Quote CD: " Unless the officer was serving a no knock warrant and actually being attacked by the dog, it's not okay to go around killing peoples beloved pets."
This comment is insane. The officers were in a public place doing their job. A large dog got loose ( because of an irresponsible owner ), and runs out and is claimed to be acting in an aggressive manner. Everything in the article is speculative. But for you to condemn the actions of the officer just shows you do not care about the law, just your opinion. Did you even read the article? Or just the headline?
Quote CD: " If he is that afraid of non life threatening situations, he needs to find a line of work that he feels safer doing. I would suggest something that does not involve carrying a weapon. A certain responsibility comes with that."
Another silly comment......
To the contrary, clearly it is you who does not care about the law. The law is not a policeman. The law is much larger than a single man. The law is written and codified for everyone to follow. I have the utmost respect for the law and our lawmen and women but I doubt that there is a law in Englewood allowing anybody to shoot animals that they may be afraid of. Yes, I have been attacked by dogs before. Each time I managed to fend them off without pulling a gun and emptying it into them. We live in a civil society. You just can't do that, even if you are a postman or meter reader. Imagine what it would be like if you could! You can bet that if you or I shot a dog in Englewood, we would be arrested and sued. The officer endangered everyone in that neighborhood shooting when he could have used mace or some other non lethals force. Probably could have just yelled at the dog. In fact, according to the article, he made no other effort to shoo the dog off, just shot it three times according to more than one witness. Witness accounts refute the office's claim that he was being attacked anyway.
Why would you claim that it is different for a policeman to shoot a dog then for anyone else? A policeman, if anything has a higher duty to maintain the peace and not just go shooting up the place.
The only point you successfully make is that the dog's owner should have been more careful to not let the dog get out the door. The owner should have been issued a ticket for that.
I suppose the owner should be glad that it was not a child that ran out the door with a toy gun or such.
It is this kind of a Barney Fife and those who blindly support them that give law enforcement a bad name. There is no need to shoot your way out of every situation and the force would be better off without him. He appears to be just a coward with an itchy trigger finger and a gun.