Fla. Man Gets 8 Years For Kicking Police Dog

mycfnow ^

[chance33_98]

Fla. Man Gets 8 Years For Kicking Police Dog

Posted: 8:35 a.m. EDT May 11, 2003

BRADENTON, Fla. -- A man with a 20-year criminal history will spend another eight years in prison for kicking a police dog. A jury convicted Henry Sailes, 35, of Bradenton of the felony crime of injuring a police dog in February along with a charge of obstructing an officer.

Sailes was wanted on a series of warrants in May 2002 when he ran from police and a Belgian Malinnois named Jake, who caught him. The dog, a breed of shepherd, was not seriously injured.

Judge Rick DeFuria agreed Friday with prosecutors who argued Sailes should be considered a habitual offender because of his criminal past, which includes a 1995 conviction for burglary and trafficking in stolen property. Sailes served five years in prison for that crime.

Sailes testified he kicked the dog because he was scared.

"I'm really sorry for what happened with the dog, really," Sailes said. "The dog wasn't going for my arm or my leg. He was going for my face. I didn't want to do it. I had to do it."

[HairOfTheDog]

This does seem a little rough....

The instinct to protect yourself against a dog that has been sent to attack you is pretty basic.

The dogs are set on people who are resisting or running anyway, but once the dog is in the mix, the offender is now no longer most worried about arrest, but evading pain of attack. I think it would be human nature to try to defend against it, and the dogs are trained to expect and overcome those kinds of defensive blows... If he had injured the dog in an incapacitating way, it would be different.

If this police dept got a court to convict on this, I am going to have to assume there was more to the situation than this story presents.

[Cap'n Crunch]

No, your not in prison, I think your a reporter, your taking my words out of context to suit your agenda.

That's OK, I'm used to it.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Complaint filed with admin moderator.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Little vengeance parties inwardly, the department cannot see. Yet they shape attitudes and future behavior.

[PatrioticAmerican]

#3 - bump.

[Cap'n Crunch]

LOL, you attack me and run to the moderator too????

[HiTech RedNeck]

Kindly supply the missing context that you assert changes the meaning. You used ambiguous terminology at best.

[blackdog]

N'uff said...........

I wish citizens would understand that it is the duty of police is to apprehend people. This is not some proactive enforcement country. We have a constitution that is supposed to put policing into the reactive mode. Our police respond to crime after the fact.

When a policeman wants to arrest or detain you, do not be an idiot by lecturing the cop, putting up a fight, spitting in their car, kicking out the window, and so on..... It emboldens them and makes it much harder on the rest of us that understand that it is the courts that are our judges, not the cop. He or she just wants to go home in one chunk. Not much of a job for a sane person if you ask me.

[HiTech RedNeck]

You accused me of being a criminal.

[Cap'n Crunch]

It sounds like attitudes and behaviors have already been shaped.

[HiTech RedNeck]

In you, yet you can yet repent.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I would gladly see officers' salaries doubled. If accountability was also doubled.

[HiTech RedNeck]

it is the courts that are our judges, not the cop.

Tell it to cap'n happy-vengeance-is-my-name-crunch-is-my-game

[yarddog]

Sorry to hear how you got your nom de plume.

I always had you pictured as wearing a big blue hat and with a white mustache.

[tracer]

Beat their kids nothing. People get less than 8 years for killing another human. Da Sistim taketh care of its own.....

[Cap'n Crunch]

OK

You said that I was "punishing and delighting in vengeance." Which is in my opinion inflammatory.

You said that I "couldn't do your job, you should have quit." Which is in my opinion inflammatory.

And you also mention that the warrants may have been "offenses against civilians."

I've read some of your posts in the past. From what I remember, you don't like the police anyhow. In fact if I rememeber correctly we've had some exchanges that were not too pleasant. I should have known better than to respond to you. In the future I won't.

[blackdog]

I just love the concept of industry insider awards! I'm sure that Rampart, Lon Horriuchi, Janet Reno, and Wilson W. Goode have entire walls filled with awards. The desire for "official recognition" is a very strange concept which seems to be a holdover from Neanderthal times.

What you are is not to be made better or worse by awards. It's what they have to say at your funeral, those who attend it as a union function excluded.

[Amore]

I believe your underlying assumption is wrong. There are many, many factors which determine how a defendant might go to trial on one charge before another one. To intimate that the police dog case took priority over "civilian" cases shows a lack of understanding of the Florida legal system.

[Amore]

Oh great, now you tell me! :- )