Killing of family dog unfolds on videotape (Dog shooter gets desk duty)

tennessean.com ^ | 1/9/03 | LEON ALLIGOOD

[Rebelbase]

Three minutes and seven seconds tells the story of a dog named Patton.

The dog, which was shot at close range Jan. 1 by a Cookeville policeman during a felony traffic stop, belonged to the James Smoak family of Saluda, N.C. At the time, the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected the Smoaks

[FreeTally]

Thanks for proving the obvious - that being a cop is a dangerous job.

[justshutupandtakeit]

No. There has been no proof of anything of the sort given merely speculation by Monday morning quarterbacks.

There was a case up here some months ago where off duty cops got tanked up and started chasing a couple who dissed them. They were shot at. These clowns had the book thrown at them and were removed from the force. That is only one of the clear cases of police misconduct of which I am aware and condemn.

Unlike the cop-hater brigade here I make my judgments based on facts.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Since I can only go by the story I don't know for sure. Unlike the cop-hater brigade jumping to conclusions with both feet. They just KNOW the cop did something wrong because ....well just because.

[American Blood]

I plainly said that many others, not you in particular, who have posted on this thread have shown contempt for all cops, not just this one. Apparently you haven't taken the time to read this thread thoroughly. I was not targeting you with my remarks friend.

If you haven't the time to peruse the entire thread I'll be happy to post some of the more disgusting quotes about all cops that have appeared on this thread. It's a disgrace.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

A police chief in Gaithersburg, Md.

While it's the usual SNAFU situation that leads to these incidents at least no human got snuffed. As for the dog getting shot I don't have much trouble with it if the officer was scared of being bit. But why do cops like the one here in Seattle get shot with their own weapon after trying to use pepper spray on a naked crazy druggie and other cops go straight for the gun when it's a dog?

Do dogs not stop when pepper sprayed?

I wouldn't feel too comfortable with a fellow police chief investigating something if I was the civilian but it's better than the local liberal bedwetters being an "outside panel" of investigators.

[HairOfTheDog]

.

[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

For the last time.

1. I saw the video. My pc is state of the art.

2. It was a small, playful dog, who like the boy later said was bouncing around, wanting to play with the beam of the flashlight. Perhaps you and the cop are pussies who are afraid of everything.

3. The cop is at best, a pussy, at worst, a brutal thug, who should not be a cop.

4. The situation became out of control due to the negligence and over reaction of the cops.

5. You are an asshole.

[Republic of Texas]

I haven't read every post of the 3 or 4 threads on this subject. But there are two inescapable facts in this case. Get the CORRECT information BEFORE you execute the felony stop. SHUT the car door. If either of those happen, there is no story. The cops were in charge of BOTH of those factors.

[adx]

Hey, remember when I asked this question a while back, about how us serfs are supposed to address our masters?

[Hatteras]

"I can guarantee you, when the officer pumped off that shotgun round, all those officers on the scene had a mental lightning bolt hit their brains."

So now that you looked back at the tape and saw that your statement that "you can clearly see" the officers jump was completely wrong, you're telling me you can now see what they were thinking?

"Once someone shoots, others are very likely to do the same."

The officer right next to the shooting officer raised his weapon to fire but he didn't shoot when he saw the dog go down. The father then lunged at the officers but they refrained from shooting him.

"I don't care how you chop it up, this looks pretty damn ugly."

Agreed. And I'm not fond of any of the actions of the officers on site. But, I want some more answers before I convict. I want to hear more about the dog, that's all.

One other note, the mother started screaming as soon as the dog started toward the police officer. Did she initially think that the dog could have been a threat? She appears to have been positioned where she couldn't see the shooting officer (There was an officer between her and the shooting officer) and the dog wasn't heading for the highway. Why was she concerned? I don't know but these are questions that I would like to see answered before I hang the cop.

[ladyrustic]

If your scenario were true to life, my car would be stolen (never to be seen again most likely), I would be hit head on by the drunk driver, because no cop could ever get there fast enough, and my loved one would still be dead. Cops don't stop crime, they show up after to fill out the paperwork. Only you can protect yourself.

Too many cops find their greatest joy in life is when they pepper spray, cuff, and strut in circles carrying shotguns around some hapless dope, now on his belly, caught driving without a license or something...

The good ones need to start getting rid of the bad ones.

[HairOfTheDog]

And your point now?

Smart mouthing a cop remains as dumb of an idea as it was then, and being reasonable pays dividends around all good people, even cops. And smart mouthing bad people rarely helps, for that matter, especially bad cops.

These people cooperated fully and had their world blow up anyway, so I don't really see how a a different style of addressing these cops would have helped.

[Hatteras]

"The officer who had his hand on the door as he looked into the car and commented that there was a dog inside, had absolutely no excuse whatsoever for not closing it."

Look at the video again. No officer put their hand on the open door until after the shooting. The boy gets out, turns around and backs up four steps and kneels down per the THP's request. Shortly before the dog comes out, the THP officer goes to handcuff the boy and the local cop to his right reaches over and appears to be handing the THP cop a set of handcuffs then he backs off. The voice you hear saying there's a dog in the car is the father's voice.

Look, you can string these guys up if you want. I really don't care but for God's sake, the video is right in front of you. Look at it.

[adx]

These people cooperated fully and had their world blow up anyway

Exactly the point. You can cooperate (not "smart mouth", which is a subjective call), be respectful (like me, "yes sir, no sir"), and stuff like this can still happen. That's why I consider it quite reasonable to be afraid of any LEO unless they prove otherwise, since they have the guns carried openly and us peons don't. And the saddest thing of all is how it all came to this, where average people not doing anything wrong and minding their own business have to be fearful of authority.

FYI, I want this guy to lose his badge.

[Joe Hadenuf]

LOL! Go back and look at the video again. Look at the whole scene. When the dummy shoots the small dog the scene goes from one of relative calm to total chaos in a split second, it could have triggered a chain reaction causing the police to actually shoot the suspects, or innocent family members in this case.

There have been cases where in the moments of a critical situation, one cop shoots at a suspect that made a bad, sudden move, and the rest of the cops open up at other suspects that were also being detained. This has happened many times.

There was also cases where a swat team had a house surrounded, and one cop sees something and fires off a round, causing 15 more cops to open up on the house. It's human reaction and it happens......

[HairOfTheDog]

Some people are jerks. Cops or not. Cops that are jerks are particularly troublesome, and should be gotten rid of and quick.

I live in an area with a good and fair sheriff's dept, and all of my brushes with them have been very good... even when I deserved a ticket. So I don't bash police-work as a profession, in fact, I support them by default, until they prove otherwise. This situation is one of those cases that proves otherwise.

But I don't see the idea of police, the whole of law enforcement, to be corrupt, I have friends that are cops! - so I bristle at general cop bashers on the threads, using a localized issue to represent a national problem on a national discussion board. Police attitude is much too local to make broad-based statements like that about a big country. It is probably innacurate to even make too sweeping of a comment about a particular police department. There are bad individuals in every profession.

[Hatteras]

"It's human reaction and it happens......

Gee, it didn't happen here now, did it? You can't convict a police officer of pointing a gun at someone. Convict the guys in the other cases you cited but that doesn't mean these guys are guilty of "almost" shooting somebody. Yes, it was a mad scene after the gun blast and yes, the father lunged at the officer, which could have been "perceived" as another threat, but look again. No other gun went off and nobody else got hurt. Could it have happened? Yes. Did it? No.