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."
I can't speak for anyone else, but you're wrong about me in this regard. I own several guns and have, on occasion, put down an animal with a gun. I have also had to call police to put down a dog - in city limits were it was illegal to discharge a firearm. I appreciate the law enforcement officers who have to do this from time to time - I know that they neither relish nor shrink from the duty.
They would also defend the police stealing Joe Q.'s gun.
Wrong again.
I guess some would want a little wiggle room but for most, it is obvious the cops can do no wrong period.
The most disturbing thing about the whole incident is the police may have not been too far outside guidelines. The fact is, these guidelines have expanded to the point where cops have near carte blanche to bully, injure, shackle, intimidate, and just plain frighten the public. It is all done to "protect" the cops. That excuse covers just about any indignity they want to inflict on the public.
Most will not take advantage of the power, some will only when they are angry, but many simply look for the chance to be bully boys.
One more thing. I have noticed several people mention cops on steroids. At first I didn't realize what they were talking about. I began to think about it and it suddenly struck me, how many cops are into body building. I believe there is a link between these types and the conduct we are seeing more and more frequently.
That would be a pretty stupid bet.
Actually, a decent bet is that most of the cop haters here would gun down a cop in cold blood if they thought they could cleanyl get away with it.
I'm glad this poor excuse for a "law enforcement officer" didn't have three seconds to size up my intentions (or yours on those of anyone else). His thought processes are defective. He should never again be allowed to be judge, jury and executioner of anything. If other parts of the Tennessee law enforcement community share the responsibility for this travisty then they should suffer the consequences.
Mosquitos? Flies? An armed robber holding a gun to your head? A rottweiler attacking your child?
Well, maybe you'll at least give him permission to kill the first two.
I am talking about cops who brutalize an innocent family with no justification. By no justification, I am not talking about whether they are innocent or not. No one who is not resisting needs to be treated that way.
The real knee jerk nuts are the ones who can't see the obvious. Who excuse even the worst police excesses. Who see the same video everyone else sees and see things which are not there or do not see things which are.
In short they are dishonest.
There is a big difference between a stray and rabid dog, and a family pet.
This episode is simply the latest in a long string of abuses by the police, followed by extensive coverup, deception, and spin.
"We the people" are getting tired of the militarization and misconduct of the police. The justifiable anger is showing up on this thread.
Basically, I break the police down into three groups.
The first group takes their oath to the Constitution seriously. They personify "protect and serve", and treat decent Americans with respect. Their primary concern is getting the violent felons off the street and helping out people.
The second group are tax collectors. They sit in their cruisers all day, and look for opportunities to steal money from people and transfer it to the state. Instead of giving tickets for dangerous behavior, such as 'following too closely', they target those who speed or those who run a red light instead of breaking hard at a light.
The final group are the jack booted thugs. They wear masks and love pointing guns at women and children. They get off on the fact that they can make other people do whatever they say. The enjoy ruining the lives of decent Americans because of some bogas law passed by a corrupt politician. They believe their uniform gives them magical powers and makes them fit to rule over us peasants.
Until groups #2 and #3 are weeded out by the police leadership, expect the level of disrespect, distrust, and anger to increase.
Doubt it, I think they are mostly "armchair" cop haters.
A better bet is that the cop had kicked the dog and knocked out a tooth, there would be many serious calls for the cop to lose his job (i.e. he kicked too hard, etc)
Pretty weak dramatically.
Pit Bull, would make it seem much scarier.
Rotts and Dobermans are so passe now.
It's obvoius to me that you and I don't have the same perspective on law enforcement imperitives during a felony stop, nor the reasons for the procedures they follow. Neither do we have the same perspective on the duties of an officer providing backup, which the Cookeville officers where clearly doing.
Looking at the video, Officer Hall is totally focused and provided backup in a professional manner. The problem was that it shouldn't have been a felony stop, but that wasn't his fault, as I have discussed earlier. It was also not his fault that the dog got out of the car and ran toward him. IMO, the THP Lt. could have forseen the dog problem and should have shut the car door.
His thought processes are defective.
Only if his was omniscient.
And a cop is supposed to think about all that before obeying a radio command from headquarters to stop a car and check out the people and contents of the car?
IG Designs New Punishment for Killer-CopsThis is what happens when the police cease to be accountable to the people they are supposed to protect.
By Godwin Ifijeh and Yemi AkinsuyiThe Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Tafa Balogun, yesterday warned policemen against indiscriminate shooting of innocent citizens.
The IGP who addressed men and officers of the Zonal Command at the Police College, Ikeja, Lagos, on his second day of official visit to the area, said the indiscriminate killing of innocent citizens has got to a point that the force might resort to parading culprits with the corpses on their heads.
"We have tried to make you change your ways at all cost, so many are on orderly room trial, many others have been dismissed, since it appears we are not making any headway, we might be compelled to decide henceforth that any policeman who kills an innocent citizen would be made to carry the corpse round the streets.
"Of course, you know that where that happens, you can hardly take some steps before you are lynched by members of the public.
"AS we have always told you, it is better to allow 10 armed robbers to go than shooting to kill one innocent citizen. Of course, we know that the armed robber would always be caught up with," the IGP said.
He told them that the police have been receiving accolades from members of the public, the presidency and the National Assembly in acknowledgment of the good work they have been doing lately but regretted that the rise in the tempo of indiscriminate killings of innocent citizens was fast eroding whatever successes they have recorded in the area of crime combat lately.
"Everybody has now acknowledged that you have been doing a good job in the area of crime combat.
"Very unfortunately, this attitude of indiscriminate killing of innocent citizens and the corruptive attitude of collecting [money] from motorists is not helping our course and image and we will henceforth take severe sanctions against those found to be involved in such acts.
The IGP asked him to assure him that henceforth they would no longer shoot indiscriminately and he got their word for that.
Democrats use character assassination and slander to win their talking points.
It is also possible he was bitten by a dog as a child and was more frightened than the average cop would be. We could do psychoanalysis all night, but neither of us has had the officer on a couch. Assuming the worst about a man's character from a specific action is not Christian.
No one has answered my earlier question about his choice of the shotgun in the first place. What was he intending on doing with a 12-gauge shotgun during a traffic stop? Was he intending on blasting off someone's head? Is it routine for a policeman to point a 12-gauge shotgun around at people at no more than a 10-foot distance when they have been pulled over on the highway?
I agree with your post from the point I quoted to the end.
From the infomation in the links I posted previously, I believe it is entirely possible that Officer Hall is part of the first group you wrote about, and was unfortunately put in a situation which was screwed up from the beginning by an incompitant dispatcher and worsened by a confluence of circumstance which were not under his control.
INSPECTOR-GENERAL of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, yesterday declared that henceforth any policeman that "kills innocent person through accidental discharge would be executed publicly. He said the police force would no longer accept "accidental discharge "as an excuse from any police officer for killing innocent people. The police boss in a chat with newsmen in Lagos said that the police was worried greatly at the spate of extra-judicial killings across the country, adding that it was better to allow robbers to escape than kill innocent persons.How soon before we have to "call our police to order"? Obviously our situation is no where near as bad as Nigeria's, but if don't stop the militarization of our police force, how soon will it be until we see it?"The police is greatly disturbed about the degree of extra-judicial killing among trigger-happy policemen. It is better to allow 10 armed robbers to escape than kill one innocent person in the name of fighting crime. And I have always told them that anybody found guilty of illegally killing innocent persons would be treated as a murderer and would face prosecution," he vowed.
Rising cases of extra judicial killings have forced Nigerians to ask police authorities to call their people to order.
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