[Future Snake Eater]

I was absolutely adamant with my Soldiers in Iraq to only fire when you have a threat targeted. Not a general direction, not a "maybe", or "I'm scared and want to shoot", etc., but this guy/girl/whatever is a threat and has to go. Arbitrarily firing your weapon like that wreaks of pure panicky stupidity or a total lack of professionalism--neither of which should be tolerated in any police force in America.

I absolutely agree with you that there are definitely two sides to every story, but I am seriously not getting this whole thing with cops and shooting dogs. This is not exactly an isolated incident, you know?

[thefactor]

Well, I think it actually happens a lot LESS than it used to happen. Now they just write articles about it. I'm a New York City cop and let me tell you, the old timers talk about how they used to shoot pit bulls in the projects at the drop of a hate and no one said a word.

But we were taught "Do not shoot the dog!" in the academy except when the dog is absolutely about to cause you or someone else a physical injury.

I do think a lot of the cops we read articles about are a tad quick on the draw. That being said, we only read about those kind of cops. You never read an article about the thousands of cops who interact daily with dogs and do not pull the trigger. So let's keep it in perspective.

On an unrelated note, I'm going to FRmail you.