Nothing. By referring to the dog as one of those blood-thirsty pit-bulls, the media hopes to garner sympathy for this sh*thead cop.
Posted on 01/10/2003 11:54:17 AM PST by EBUCK
Man Wants Punishment for Dog Shooting By JOHN GEROME Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP)--A traffic stop following erroneous reports of a robbery ended in heartbreak when the family dog bounded out of the car, his tail wagging, and was shot to death by police.
Now, the dog's owner wants the police officers punished, and the officer who pulled the trigger says he's been getting death threats.
``I don't ever want to see this happen to anybody else. That's why we can't let this go away,'' said James Smoak, who owned the 1 1/2-year-old pit bull-boxer mix named Patton.
Cookeville Police Officer Eric Hall, who shot the dog, said Thursday that people are misjudging him.
``It's been very difficult, but a lot of people who've made comments don't know me,'' Hall said on WTVF-TV in Nashville. ``It's kind of taken a life of its own where people are judging without knowing all the facts.''
Smoak, a seafood salesman from Saluda, N.C., said he has contacted attorneys about the New Year's Day shooting and plans legal action.
He describes the family's ordeal as ``a nightmare we can't wake up from,'' and says he will never forget having to load the dead dog into the car for the ride home.
The incident began when Tennessee state troopers and Cookeville police stopped the Smoaks' green station wagon as they were returning from a vacation in Nashville.
Another motorist had reported seeing money flying from the vehicle as it sped down Interstate 40, and authorities feared there had been a robbery.
They later discovered that the money--about $445--was fluttering from Smoak's wallet, which he had mistakenly left on the car roof after pumping gas.
The patrol car videotape of the stop, released Wednesday by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, shows troopers ordering James and Pamela Smoak and their teenage son, Brandon, out of the car, and the three emerging with their hands up, getting on their knees and being handcuffed.
Then Patton bounds out, his tail wagging, and races toward Hall.
The video shows Hall stepping back, then firing his shotgun. Hall said he thought the dog was a pit bull and that he was about to attack him.
``I noticed that it trained in right on me; the dog's coming right at me,'' he said. ``I yelled at the dog as I was backing up. I screamed at it; it kept advancing and barking in an aggressive manner. It's unfortunate what happened after that.''
Hall, who said he has received death threats, was assigned to administrative duties pending an independent review. An internal police investigation found he didn't use excessive force.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol also concluded its troopers had probable cause to conduct the stop, though officials were still trying to determine how the Smoaks were suspected in a robbery that never happened.
Officers recovered most of the lost money, Smoak said, and officials later apologized, but he said the apologies rang hollow.
``At the scene they told us they made a mistake and that we were free to go,'' Smoak said. ``No one was moved to say they were sorry.''
``The dog was wagging his tail,'' he said. ``It was completely trained.''
Hall said he felt terrible when he learned that the Smoaks were innocent but maintains he reacted appropriately.
``With the knowledge I had at that time, I was so limited that I felt I did what I had to do,'' Hall said.
``If you could have felt what I felt after the whole incident was over,'' he said, ``I thought, 'Oh, my goodness, how unfortunate for that family.'''
Plus the fact that few dogs other than Lassie and Rin-Tin-Tin understand the meaning of "Get Back"
Bottom line, there's too much macho and too little brains out there among the "protect and serve" (storm)troops.
Maybe for a particular breed, but for dogs in general, he's wrong.
See the light brown dog? See his tail sticking straight up? He's not mad, he's happily waiting on the cheeseburger he knows is coming.
See that large(100 pds.) black lab? When she shows her temper,(and she's not afraid to do so), she maintains a low posture, the hair on the back of her neck and back stand straight up, and her long tail points straight down between her legs.
I pinged some other Freeper dog owners to come give their opinions.
"TN should probably offer the family $1000 compensation to make this go away."
I'm no law expert, but I'd be willing to bet the Smoaks will be rewarded 30 to 40 times that amount, if not more.
The situation could have been avoided by the police officers having the intelligence to close the door. It could also have been avoided by the police officers having better reason to suspect people of a felony before performing this kind of arrest. We trust police officers to have control of a situation, and these idiots clearly didn't have control.
Let's consider another scenario: The family begs the police officers to close the door because the dog is in the car. The police officers do just as they did in this example. The dog bounds out of the car. Instead of running towards one of the police officers, it runs way off to the side of the road and circles around the parked police cars. It is excited and then darts into traffic. Someone instinctively swerves to miss it and hits another car. Maybe one of the out-of-control cars hits the police officers and the innocent family. If they were killed, at least we'd have fewer brain-dead police officers. Maybe the wreck just kills some innocent people driving past in other cars.
Beyond Hall's inability to handle himself in a tense situation, the incident shows either stupidity in the way the police procedures are written or failure of the officers to follow good procedure. Why not close the door of a car if there is a dog inside but no other people? Were they afraid that the dog might pull a gun from under the seat and start shooting? A dog in a car may truly be a threat. However, the fact that a dog may be a threat is all the more reason for officers to close the door so that he doesn't get out of the car.
If I make a big mistake in my job and cause an out-of-control situation at my plant, I lose my job. For a police officer, his job is to protect the innocent and maintain control. Letting the dog get loose shows negligence. Conducting that kind of stop without better evidence of a crime shows negligence. Hall might be a nice guy. He's probably not even the one most at fault, but these guys must be held accountable.
WFTR
Bill
Well put and agreed to.
What a load of crap. Their jaws do not lock. They are tenacious and will hold on in a fighting situation but they release on command. I have never or never would condon dog-fighting but I have studied it in order to know my enemy. During the period when dog-fighting was semi-respectable if a dog did not release at the handlers command or worse turned on his handler when the handler was separating the dogs he would be put down. The point that the media and others are either ignorant of or deliberately avoiding of is that pits and related breeds were bred to be docile to humans.
Unfortunately there are creatures that twist the pits natural tendencies and train them to be human aggressive.
Nothing. By referring to the dog as one of those blood-thirsty pit-bulls, the media hopes to garner sympathy for this sh*thead cop.
I love dogs, but it's a DOG people. When did we start caring more about dogs than people? When did someone getting killed ever generate this much outcry?
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