Posted on 09/22/2007 5:57:57 AM PDT by philo
Oklahoma Teen Bitten Between Legs By K9 Cop
By Russell Carter
KFOR/NBC News Channel
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK -- Oklahoma City police are facing allegations of brutality, after a 15-year-old boy claims officers used a K-9 to help arrest him and then bite him between his legs.
15-year-old Mark Adkins is now facing several charges after taking a joy ride in stolen car and getting into a short pursuit with police in southwest Oklahoma city. But along with the charges he's now facing an uphill battle with his health after being captured by a K-9 officer that tore away flesh along with his scrotum.
Mark says "the doctors told me they didn't think they would be able to stitch me back together."
Mark's mother, Michelle, says "he was in trauma for 7 to 9 days and I've just never seen anything like this done to a minor."
Capt. Steve McCool of the Oklahoma City Police Department says "obviously they're not trained to bite in this particular area of the body."
Officers say Mark was not handcuffed when the dog attacked, and claim the animal was just doing what it was trained to do.
Capt. Steve McCool says "you had the officer on top of the individual, they're on the ground, the guy's resisting, the dog is trying to assist the handler with this aggressive behavior the best he can."
Mark says "I can't explain how painful it was. It was like being tied up and eaten alive."
But Mark says he was no longer resisting. His mother now hopes legal action will help the police admit they were wrong.
Michelle says "there are some good officers out there and there are some bad ones, but I think in order to clean it up let these officers take responsibility for what they do to the public."
Police are still investigating the incident and as of Thursday, neither the dog nor his handler has faced any disciplinary action.
From all I have read, seen, and discussed with dog handlers, they are not.
They are actually trained to go for a hand or arm to help incapacitate one upper extremity so the officer can handle the other one.
With "had" being the operative word here.
Amazingly, you proved my point. We’ll see if the woman prevails or not.
the arm attack is a by-product of many German dogs having done Schutzhund training which uses an arm sleeve for the protection work.
Many K9’s are now trained with bite suits where they are also trained to attack the legs. A leg bite is almost a certain way of bringing a suspect to the ground quickly - it allows the dog to quickly win the fite and to incapacitate the suspect, and is generally a better attack.
They are not trained to bite that area, but a good dog will get what he can when he attacks.
Just reading the headline, that doesn’t sound like a good thing for the cop to do.
Should have just let the dog do it. :^)
I agree, and you are probably correct as to the origin of the arm bite.
I was just saying that according to my information they are not "trained" to go for the groin area.
It made sense to me that they would go for an arm therefore allowing the LEO to control the other arm with both of his.
It's really hard to aim and shoot a firearm or use a knife effectively with the foot. ;^)
Your quote is NOT from me. Please do not mis-attribute. People are misquoted/misunderstood enough as it is.
Just joy riding in a stolen car..
No sympathy.
Why it’s a red nosed Rudolph reindeer rib.
Another one who deserved what he got, right?
The kid was only 15. If this happened to a 30 year old that was a legitimate threat, I would not be sympathetic. But a 15 year old is still young enough to grow up and be a good citizen. I don’t completely understand what happened, but it seems to me the dog should not be attacking someone that is on the ground with a cop on top of him. Also, how much of a threat is a scrawny 15 year old punk? It smells like excessive force to me.
We disagree! On just about everything.
Now, what he said was, "Sic 'em, Chopper." But, what I heard was, "Chopper, sic balls."
Her baby sister is still in the really goofy puppy stage, and will hide behind ME if there's trouble!
If he's out stealing cars and running from the cops, and his mamma doesn't see fit to criticize that behavior but just blames the police for their actions while arresting her little felon, he may well already be on his way to a permanent life of crime.
If your kid’s principal amputated your kid’s hand because he caught your kid stealing pop from the cafeteria, would you scold your kid for stealing pop?
1. It was not the theft standing alone, but the fleeing and attempting to elude in a dangerous half-ton piece of stolen metal, plus fleeing on foot and then fighting with the officer.
2. Stealing a bottle of pop is not the same as an underage and presumably unlicensed driver stealing a vehicle and then leading police on a chase in which innocent pedestrians or drivers may have been hurt or injured. I handled a case a couple of years ago in which a little girl walking home from school was struck and killed by a kid who lost control of a stolen motorcycle (he was also drinking stolen beer).
3. A dog is not a human being, and lacks the discretion to decide that a 15 year old is not a threat. MOST people will not struggle with a police officer when a police dog is present. The dog will defend his master and will bite whatever's handy.
. A dog is not a human being, and lacks the discretion..
~~~~~~
This is where your logic falls apart. If the dog is not operating under authority of the dog handler and the dog handler doesn’t have control, then the officer shouldn’t have the dog in the first place. If they are claiming the dog did this by accident, the cops are negligent. If they are claiming the dog did it on purpose, they are guilty of excessive force. They are guilty one way or another.
Any cop that can’t tackle a 15 year old and subdue him without the assistance of a dog ripping off parts of his anatomy has no business being a cop in the first place. Any cop that has a dog like that, that he can’t control, has no business having the dog in the first place.
Who's supposed to hold/control the dog while the perp is fighting the dog handler? I have a splendidly trained retriever, and it takes every ounce of my concentration to hold her in "sit" while the birds are falling all around. If a fleeing-and-eluding felon were wrassling with me, I would not have my full concentration on my dog.
And why would the handler command to dog to "sit" or "leave it" while a perp is struggling with him? He doesn't know that the perp is 'only 15', doesn't know if he has outstanding warrants (after all, he fled, and 9 times out of 10 the guys who run from the cops are wanted), for all he knows the guy is running from a murder warrant. It only takes a few seconds for the perp to get hold of his sidearm and shoot him AND the dog stone cold dead.
Bottom line is that this kid was dumber than dirt to resist arrest and fight the officer with a K-9 on the scene. As I noted, MOST criminals just surrender quietly when they see the dog.
And I notice you ignored the other two points.
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