Posted on 01/09/2003 5:33:49 AM PST by Rebelbase
Edited on 05/07/2004 9:20:17 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
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
(Excerpt) Read more at tennessean.com ...
Gee, I said it "very well could of happened and has happened in the past".
Pulling the trigger on a small dog while your partners are pointing guns at the suspects is riding a razor edge in my opinion. The family members are lucky they were not shot too when the officer decided to blow the small dog away with a 12GA shotgun. But I am sure he felt his life was in danger by that vicious beast, while holding onto a 12GA pump.......
This family was pulled over on a suspicion of wrong doing. HOWEVER, they BEGGED the cops to have that car door shut so the dogs would not get loose. Unfortunately, that family must have been just a bunch of dumb ass felons who were to be ignored, eh?
And IF those dumb ass felons actually MADE the attempt to shut their OWN car doors to keep their pets safely penned in, I'm sure the story would be about HUMANS who made a threatening gesture or 'reached for a weapon', and were JUSTIFIABLY gunned down.
Those cops were wrong, negligent. THEY are responsible for setting up this family's traumatic experience with them. And they are responsible for sullying the respectability and honor for the GOOD cops out there. Imagine what YOU add with your 'dumb ass' degradations of non-LEOs.
Obviously, to someone, cash blowing out of a car is a felonious act. The more people in the chain of command, the more links in the communication, the more likely there is a nit-wit involved. So, who is the nit-wit? So now my family vacations can be ruined because someone driving down the road thinks I'm suspicious looking? Did they see me in the act of doing anything?
I'm afraid this happens more often than we know, only we never hear of it unless someone or their pet is shot. Many police departments seem more than willing to respond upon the flimsiest accusations not supported by evidence.
And if I am not mistaken, this shooting was not in East LA but on the 10 fwy in the Pomona area, the shooters had just commited armed robbery and were using the fwy as a getaway. Traffic had slowed through the area as two CHP officers had no idea what was going on and were clearing debris from an accident that had occurred, when the perps reached the area of the CHPs on the freeway, they thought is was a road block for them, so they opened fire on the unsuspecting CHPs....
Like fireman, police have a very tough, dangerous job and most perform that job with honor and professionalism. For us who do not wear the uniform, it is hard sometimes to draw that line between a bad split second decision or blatant abuse of force.
What tells me the cops blundered on this one is the following:
snip...
The action begins as the Smoaks' car is pulled over in Putnam County. A green sign pointing to the Algood exit is seen in the frame just ahead of the family's stopped station wagon. Tractor-trailers and cars whiz by in the flash of the cruiser's blue lights.
Thirty-eight seconds into the stop, State Trooper David Bush calls the driver out of the car.
One minute and 30 seconds after their car was pulled over, Pamela Smoak and her son, 17-year-old Brandon, are ordered out of the car. They comply.
By 2 minutes, all three of the Smoaks are kneeling on the ground, being handcuffed as the Cookeville officers, in their role as backup protection, train their shotguns on the three.
So within two minutes, the Smoaks are all under control on the ground.
"At 2:18, James Smoak asks: ''What did I do?'' He is suspected in an area robbery, Bush replies.
Seconds later the North Carolina man tells officers that dogs are in the car. A beat later Smoak tells the troopers again that dogs are in the car.
Until 3:05 into the tape, the felony stop is textbook. The suspects are handcuffed and contained.
But then Patton appears.
The light-colored canine bounds from the passenger side door, travels outside the camera's right view for a second and then reappears, following Cookeville Officer Hall, who is backing up with his shotgun trained on the dog.
At 3:07, Hall fires. The dog falls and rolls over, dead. Each of the Smoaks cries out in anguish as their pet lies bleeding just a few feet from where they are handcuffed. ''Why'd you shoot my dog? Why'd you shoot my dog?'' James Smoak can be heard crying repeatedly.
At 2:18, Mr. Smoak makes the first request for officers to close the door because of the dogs inside the car. The dog is shot at 3:07. 40 minutes passed by between those events. I have a hard time believing the cops took that much time to decide these people weren't armed felons. I have a hard time believing the police could not have let the young boy secure the dogs, or secure the dogs themselves by closing the door, in that span of time.
When Mr. Smoak informed the police that there were dogs in the car at 2:18, why didn't the police inquire as to what kind of dogs they were and were they dangerous, and take action to secure them?
What if the Smoaks were robbers and the dog was a "killer pit" as the shooter assumed ? Leaving the dogs unsecured for 40 minutes after being informed they were in the car was not a very safe move for the officers.
Lastly, I personally have met very few vicious or violent dogs that would have sat in that car for 40 minutes with the door open and their owners being manhandled by the police.
My second problem is all this started with a cell phone call from a lady who said a car was speeding down the interstate with money flying out of it's windows. There was no 911 calls reporting a robbery nor was there anyone that actually saw a robbery. So the police based the felony stop not on the eyewitness report of an actual crime, but because a lady thought something might be happening. That's pretty negligent considering there was no other reports of a robbery to back up the original call.
To conclude, the police were in the wrong because they did not maintain control of the situation that they were in complete control of, and they made a felony stop based on conjecture, not on the eyewitness report of a crime.
You are correct that THAT must stop at ALL levels.
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You're welcome. Sometimes people are quick to paint all police with the broad brush because of the actions of a few. I try to refrain from this because of the overall positive interaction I have with the local LE's.
However, we citizens do maintain the right to be critical when LE's go outside the boundries of law. I understand law enforcement is a very dangerous and demanding job that doesn't pay a lot, but nobody is forced to choose being a cop as a career.
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