The Smoaks appear on CNN
Posted on 01/08/2003 11:35:54 PM PST by JohnHuang2
The Tennessee policeman who shot and killed a family's dog during a terrorizing traffic stop took just three seconds to slay the animal after it jumped out its owners' car, reports the Cookeville Herald-Citizen.
Law-enforcement authorities released a videotape of the incident yesterday, which shows the three-second time frame on the tape's counter.
The Cookeville police officer who shot the dog, Eric Hall, has since been reassigned to administrative duties while the incident is probed.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the Smoak family was returning to their home in North Carolina on New Year's Day when three police cars swarmed their vehicle on Interstate 40 in what appeared to be a traffic stop.
The Smoaks appear on CNN |
A Tennessee Highway Patrol officer broadcast orders over a bullhorn for driver James Smoak to toss the keys out of the car window, get out with his hands up and walk backwards to the rear of the car. Smoak obeyed and was subsequently ordered onto his knees and handcuffed at gunpoint. Officers similarly handcuffed his wife, Pamela, and their 17-year-old son with their guns drawn.
As the troopers were putting the family members inside the patrol car, one of the Smoak family dogs, a boxer-bulldog mix named Patton, came out of the car and headed toward one of the Cookeville officers who were assisting the THP troopers.
"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," Pamela Smoak told the Herald-Citizen. "We had begged them to shut the car doors so our dogs wouldn't get out, [but] they didn't do that."
The Smoaks had been pulled over by mistake after someone reported seeing the car getting on the highway with cash flying out from behind the vehicle. James Smoak, it turns out, had mistakenly left his wallet on the roof of the car when he stopped to get gas. Someone within the THP reportedly thought a robbery had occurred, though it turns out none had.
Hall claimed he was acting in self-defense.
"I yelled at the dog to get back, but it attempted to circle me to attack, so I felt that I had no option but to protect myself," the officer wrote in a police report.
Police Chief Bob Terry told the Herald-Citizen, "We are aware there is a lot of criticism out there over this incident, and we want to take [Hall] off the road and let him perform other duties while we get this all resolved." Terry stressed that Hall was not being punished for killing the dog.
The Herald-Citizen reports that "to an average viewer, the scene recorded on the video may not demonstrate the aggressiveness or the threat the officer said he experienced as the dog came toward him."
Terry said he will have two unrelated police agencies perform independent reviews of the incident.
"We once again extend our deepest concerns to the Smoak family for their loss," Terry said. "We know this was a terrible experience for them, and we truly wish that we could undo the events that occurred on the night of Jan. 1."
The Smoaks recently told their story on CNN's "Connie Chung Tonight."
Speaking of Patton, son Brandon Smoak told Chung, "He's the gentlest dog that I've ever been around. He's like Scooby Doo. He wasn't mean at all."
Mean that a human life is more precious than a dog's? Of course I do.
I love animals, but I have seen dog attack injuries and have no Disneyland illusions about what a dog attack can do.
My worst true story is the one where the family dog ate the baby while the mother was out buying dog food.
Don't kid yourself. Dogs are wolves.
That's all the time he had. Most decisions to fire have to be made "in a snap."
If you think that a police officer should hesitate to defend himself from serious injury rather than kill a dog, then you might as well join PETA.
As I stated, grief first and then compassion, yes. But I'm an old Christian family doctor who has treated police officer injuries and dog bite injuries, so I concede that I am not a Disneyland kind of person.
Maybe police officers should just automatically slay any dogs in any vehicles they stop.
That way, the potential threat (from the dog anyway) would be reduced to zero.
Their safety is paramount, after all.
I knew I was going to take a lot of flak for my stand, but that's what makes FR fun.
I'm comparing your hatred of police. And no, I would not compare Hall, the other four officers involved in this stop, or all police in the US in general, to the Stasi or Nazi's either, as you have.
It's o.k. I deserved it. ; ^ )>
Gimme a break. There is no comparison between what this cop did to a family's dog and what the a-holes from PETA scream about when you bite into a Chicken McNugget.
As for snap decisions...why wouldn't a warning shot be in order? And aren't these cops trained to assess these types of situations in seconds so that they don't have to use deadly force? If not, then ol' Barney shouldn't be carrying a firearm.
And if you've seen the video, you cannot tell me that the demeanor of the dog warranted the response it got. An attacking dog would have gone straight for him with its head lowered.
And one last question. If this overpaid, undereducated, doughnut eating flatfoot was so highly trained that he can assess a situation in "snap" and respond appropriately...why didn't he just closed the damned car door as he was requested to?
A fine idea, though.
Warning shots are not authorized, because what goes up must come down somewhere. Besides, firing a firearm, wherever it may be aimed, is using deadly force and there's only one justification for the use of deadly force.
And aren't these cops trained to assess these types of situations in seconds so that they don't have to use deadly force? If not, then ol' Barney shouldn't be carrying a firearm.
Shoot/don't shoot training, using laser or IR guns, is fairly common and has been for as long as I remember. Please note I am not a LEO, but have been peripherally in that community for a while. (Emergency management volunteer communications...)
Thanks for clarifying but I should have been clearer. I was thinking more of a shot into the ground near the dog before it approached. (If it did at all, which isn't extremely clear from the video.)
And what is the range of 50 or so shotgun pellets fired into the air? Certainly not that of a round even as small as a .22. Even if he did loose a round into the air, the area of the traffic stop looked to be fairly remote...on the side of a highway...no lights from any structures. There looked to be a lot of "somewhere" out there. Still, better safe than sorry? Who can say?
I am not a LEO either but my father-in-law is a 30 year police veteran, now retired. He spent most of those years on the street in New York. He has seen the video and also shares my opinion, which is this:
The officer panicked and fired. Period. He should be disarmed and removed from contact with the local citizenry. To defend his actions and hold him up as an example of a normal law enforcement officer, just doing his job, does a disservice to all other police officers with a brain...or a backbone.
There are of course a few who simply hate police and will be against them no matter what. On the other hand it is beyond my comprehension at the number of, well, idiots, (sorry but no other word apllies) who think it is perfectly alright for a cop to kill a friendly dog who approaches him.
They also think it is just ducky to terrorise (maybe that is not even a strong enough word) a family with no real information to go on. Heck that type of conduct is reprehensible even if they knew the family was a bunch of terrorists.
Somewhere, somehow, the police have got to use just a little bit of common sense. This was obviously a family on a trip. I repeat: This was OBVIOUSLY a family on a trip. Sure the police should still use some caution because on some really rare occassion it might actually be armed felons.
Just how far this country has slid can be implied by the following fact: In ancient Rome, it was illegal to shackle a Roman Citizen for any reason. The Romans were not a bunch of Peta, Hippie Loving Flower children either. They did understand the concept of dignity tho. Apparently a whole lot better than a lot of people on FR do.
I am not sure that PETA has any reason to have a problem with this. Because I am not sure that is any real chicken in that McNugget.
I guess these guys really do have donuts for brains! You don't have to go far in the south to find some rodeo with coyboys who would be more than happy to round up a cow for a very small fee, maybe for free! They must be really bored with their job. Even if they actually thought there was a robbery going on they overeacted at the getgo!
Good point. Got me. I was going to type 'chicken sandwich' at first but changed my mind. Don't know why. I suppose I subconciously yearn for some "pieces-parts".
Not only that. Every shot fired is a shot that can't be used again - why waste one firing at nothing? My training has been that if one's going to bother to fire a shot, it had better be on target and effective.
The officer panicked and fired. Period. He should be disarmed and removed from contact with the local citizenry.
I agree here, but then I begin to disagree...
To defend his actions and hold him up as an example of a normal law enforcement officer, just doing his job, does a disservice to all other police officers with a brain...or a backbone.
I fear that this officer is an exemplar of the attitude amongst the younger, more recently trained police. That is what is frightening...
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