Posted on 12/20/2010 9:59:29 AM PST by Nachum
A Clayton County mother of six said the family dog did what he always did when he saw someone. He barked.
But when "Boomer" started barking and running toward a police officer Saturday morning, the officer shot the dog and killed it, Lawrene King told the AJC Sunday night.
“He’s a golden retriever," King said. "He barks, but he’s never bitten anyone.”
A Clayton County police officer was on foot patrol on North Shore Drive when the dog jumped off a porch and started barking and running toward the officer, Capt. Tina Daniel said. The officer ordered the dog to stop and when it didn't, the officer shot and killed the animal in its yard, Daniel said.
The officer, whose name was not released, was responding to a call reporting a suspicious person, police said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
It's a big responsibility that requires a good degree of knowledge in a wide variety of disciplines.
I, for one, would never want to be a cop, although a number of my family on my father's side were/are cops (his brother, in fact, was Chief of Police in a neighboring town).
That having been said, when you're packing heat and wearing body armor (the job is dangerous) while purporting to represent and protect those who pay your salary, you really should have at least a rudimentary grasp of public relations.
In the future, assuming nothing happens to the cop, how can he/she show his/her face in that neighborhood under any pretext? Those people no longer trust the cop in question, and now doubtless will be given pause in the future in dealing with anyone on the force.
I believe cops in many locales receive training (of the non-lethal kind) in dealing with belligerent canines, and if any of that training sunk in, had it been provided, it should have manifested in that situation.
It did not, and as a consequence there is at least one family in that town that no longer blindly trusts it's own policemen, and likely a fairly significant portion of that neighborhood that sympathizes with the affected family and has a little less trust in cops in general.
Put another way, this is the functional definition of "public relations nightmare" for the force.
The fact the cop admitted he "ordered the dog to 'stop'" before offing him only compounds the problem.
This is institutional stupidity on public display.
Why do I say that?
This police officer obviously has had inadequate training. In a real life-or-death situation, the question, which is real and palpable, is just how will this officer respond?
Fearfully, the answer appears to be, shoot first and ask questions later.
You may feel comfortable with that level of community service, but I don't.
CA....
And you are entitled to your opinion.
Do you believe his family should be subjected to public condemnation and judgement? Just wondering if you think there are people mad enough to take something out on a kindergartner, or wife at work because the “clown” deserves punishment? There are people here that think that is ok. Do you?
They stopped and asked if we had seen them. I asked them what kind of dog and they said "pit bull".
We told them where the routes were through community fencing and they went on their way.
I went in doors and called animal control.
Well, apparently the people found their dogs before the cops did so they still had them a few weeks later when they were out walking them.
Then one day I noticed they only had one dog to walk and he had on a muzzle.
More recently we came home one evening and that dog was there waiting for us and he tried to get in our car to get at a baked chicken we'd just picked up.
I haven't seen them out walking their dog for a couple of months now.
Those were such lovely dogs ~ just loved to run away and do dog stuff ~ and now they're gone. Funny, I don't miss them at all!
I guess we need to pull Janet Reno out of retirement and get the ATF to torch all pet shops.
There you go. Problem solved.
Really?
As you say that from the comfort of your mom’s basement hundreds of miles away from me.
And I wasn’t the one that put the policy in place you moron.
The cop was NOT invited on the property, nor under any exigent circumstances in chasing a guy a selling meat from a truck.
Totally bogus shoot.
Maybe the cops should just come on your property and shoot your wife for barking at them?
I have a real problem with cops whose first reaction is to fire a weapon in a residential area. No warrant, no report of crime, no expectation of violence ~ and there are better ways to deter a dog ~ simply pulling his pistol and holding it like a rock would have probably done the job.
You need to direct your question to Jim.
Most cop action is reactionary. They can't arrest anyone until they have done the deed.
Cops work to sweep the bad guys off the street eventually, not to protect anyone from the initial action.
The military is allowed to take preemptive action, but not the cops.
One is responsible for one's own safety.
Depends on the breed ~and~ the “training”.
The Doberman “Devil Dogs” were so successful in ‘Nam because they do not bark and therefore alert the enemy to the soldiers’ positions.
They tend to “stalk” silently if they’re really going to bite.
Go to YouTube and watch Schutzhund dogs.
They make no noise whatsoever before totally ripping their target.
A dog who has been -taught- to -never- growl is by far more dangerous than a dog who does growl.
A growl is a _warning signal_ offered by the dog prior to a bite.
Crush that normal and natural “early warning system” and you create a -very- dangerous dog because you have conditioned it to bypass the warning and go directly to a bite.
How can you be sure the dog knew where the property line was, and intended to stop? Maybe the dog hadn’t been privy to a copy of the deed or local property records ... so it wouldn’t know exactly where it should stop its attack.
Good grief. Its an invisible line. There is no reason for a cop to think a charging dog is going to respect property lines ... and there is simply no legal reason that he would need to wait for the dog to break the invisible property line before defending himself.
Do you honestly expect someone (cop or otherwise) to survey property lines when a dog charges them? Haha.
This is ridiculous. You’re talking about “calculus” and “logic” when your whole argument rests on a dog recognizing property lines ...
What a crock.
SnakeDoc
“I have a real problem with cops whose first reaction is to fire a weapon in a residential area.”
I am not arguing that point.
I have a real problem threatening LEOs family’s to teach them a lesson.
2 different discussions going on here.
We had to get one for my folks ~ the neighbors didn't keep their dogs under control ~ so we put this device in a flower pot with a plant and lo and behold those dogs could no longer cross the street.
They'd come to the road and bark and bark, but they wouldn't come close.
BTW, due to the importance of the hunting business in Indiana, these devices are unlawful there, but you can buy them mail order. They work just as good.
You apparently have a real problem with confusion between dogs on and off private property.
I am totally -not- in favor of involving his innocent family.
By naming him, yes, ~they~ could theoretically be ‘tracked down’.
They did nothing to deserve retribution for his stupidity.
Odds are, they already suffer enough at his hands.
Think about it.
If you don't want the letter carrier bothering your dogs just put a box on the street. Or, rent a post office box and go get it yourself every day.
However, when you place a mail box on your house you have INVITED the letter carrier to go up your path to the box.
Frankly, I think that's an antiquated way for delivering mail and should be eliminated, but legally speaking, the burden of any injury to the carrier is yours and the Postal Service will sue you for loss of his services while he recovers.
http://www.sportdog.com/Gear/E-Collars/All-Purpose.aspx
This is the one on my dogs neck. Huge orange collar with a big green shock box. Hard to miss.
And actually, the Goldie in question never left the property. A fact you continually ignore in your quest to rationalize this cops cowardice.
> Didn’t a completely deaf person get shot by a cop for “not following orders”?
> I could swear I read that here some time ago.
I was referring to this story posted a few days ago. But there may be others - probably are.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/426053_williams021.html
A police officer, as opposed to a gutless pig, is not surprised when walking through a strange neighborhood, that dogs bark at him or her.
A police officer doesn't shoot dogs when they're on their own property.
A police officer doesn't need ninja commando gear and 40 reinforcements to arrest somebody.
Police officers deserve community respect and support. Gutless pigs deserve community condemnation and shunning.
Gutless pigs like this one one should be fired and all bennies forfeited. I'm sick of these cowards. They're not police officers by a couple of light years.
It's a characteristic that might not be desirable in, for example, a guard working at a flammable fuels tank farm!
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