Brave me coming to protect you.
Posted on 01/08/2003 10:02:50 PM PST by spetznaz
COOKEVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Police video released Wednesday showed a North Carolina family kneeling and handcuffed, who shrieked as officers killed their dog -- which appeared to be playfully wagging its tail -- with a shotgun during a traffic stop.
The Smoak family was pulled over the evening of January 1 on Interstate 40 in eastern Tennessee by officers who mistakenly suspected them of a carjacking. An investigation showed James Smoak had simply left his wallet on the roof of his car at a gas station, and motorists who saw his money fly off the car as he drove away called police.
The family was driving through eastern Tennessee on their way home from a New Year's trip to Nashville. They told CNN they are in the process of retaining a lawyer and considering legal action against the Cookeville, Tennessee, Police Department and the Tennessee Highway Patrol for what happened to them and their dog.
In the video, released by the THP, officers are heard ordering the family, one by one, to get out of their car with their hands up. James Smoak and his wife, Pamela, and 17-year-old son Brandon are ordered onto their knees and handcuffed.
"What did I do?" James Smoak asks the officers.
"Sir, inside information is that you was involved in some type of robbery in Davidson County," the unidentified officer says.
Smoak and his wife protest incredulously, telling the officers that they are from South Carolina and that their mother and father-in-law are traveling in another car alongside them.
The Smoaks told CNN that as they knelt, handcuffed, they pleaded with officers to close the doors of their car so their two dogs would not escape, but the officers did not heed them.
Pamela Smoak is seen on the tape looking up at an officer, telling him slowly, "That dog is not mean. He won't hurt you."
Her husband says, "I got a dog in the car. I don't want him to jump out."
The tape then shows the Smoak's medium-size brown dog romping on the shoulder of the Interstate, its tail wagging. As the family yells, the dog, named Patton, first heads away from the road, then quickly circles back toward the family.
An officer in a blue uniform aims his shotgun at the dog and fires at its head, killing it immediately.
For several moments, all that is audible are shrieks as the family reacts to the shooting. James Smoak even stands up, but officers pull him back down.
"Y'all shot my dog! Y'all shot my dog!" James Smoak cries. "Oh my God! God Almighty!"
"You shot my dog!" screams his wife, distraught and still handcuffed. "Why'd you kill our dog?"
"Jesus, tell me, why did y'all shoot my dog?" James Smoak says.
The officers bring him to the patrol car, and the family calms down, but still they ask the officers for an explanation. One of them says Patton was "going after" the officer.
"No he wasn't, man," James Smoak says. "Y'all didn't have to kill the dog like that."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Liability lies higher up.
This article is indicative of a larger and growing problem - trigger-happy police officers who are punks with a badge and a gun.
And the most important thing between me and the criminals is my 357.
"Growing problem?"
I suppose you have something more than anecdotal evidence showing this is true?
Brave me coming to protect you.
It's also Bill Frist's state. What's your point?
The suspected carjacker gang.
They look dangerous to me.
This is absolutely sick.
Boy you sure killed that strawman off good didn't you
See post #60 it starts like this
"This is horrible, I'd like to see the cop who did this fired, or worse."
The good police (most of them) arrest criminals and put them behind bars so people's families are able to be protected. If there was no police you wouldn't be able to protect squat, you would be overrun.
Sadly the difference between most libertarians and anarchists always seems to diasappear under even minimal scrutiny.
No, it would be a libertarian thing to do to call all police corrupt for the actions of a few. That's why libertarians (anarchists) are largely cophating whackos.
Cops who do wrong deserve to be punished, but those who do right should be commended.
For I am quite sure all these who say we should do away with cops that can supposedly protect themselves and their families in a nation where laws could not be enforced. Probably would shit their pants walking through the inner city in the broadest of daylight if someone said boo to them, to say nothing of having to go into a darkened building at 2:00 am in the worst of all neighborhoods for a blue collar salary.
When my mother was robbed, cops (not libertarians) found the guys that did it. When my neigthbor's apartment was burglarized the cops (not libertarians) found the guy who did it.
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