As ever, the soul of reason. No hot-head, you. :-)
One of the most frustrating things about these stories is we rarely hear the rest of the story. The press is in the business of stirring things up and people are more than willing to be stirred up. And I agree that the police (like all groups, btw) will close ranks and protect each other. And people do damn fool things sometimes. And every one of us would be very angry if our dog was shot, even if we did something stupid that led to it or if the dog was menacing someone (or appeared to be).
I always feel sorry for the dog. And I sometimes feel sorry for the people. ;)