[countymounty]

Hindsight is always 20/20
The definition of this is its always easy to sit on your ass and talk about a situation you weren’t involved in……..I’m a training officer and if I ever saw on officer take a loaded gun and use it as a club they would never be around me again, when he is smacking the but of the loaded gun that won’t be on safe, where is the muzzle pointed? His head? My head? Our how bout your head? I have a friend that was forced into early retirement because someone else’s lack of gun safety, a pistol or shotgun is a tool and it has one purpose, and other use could result in severe consequences.
A better question would be how come he didn’t kick the dog………probably because in a high stress situation where he believe he just apprehended suspects in a car jacking or robbery and in the time it took you to click your mouse on the “post a reply” button, this officer had to make a decision of what to do when he had both hands on a long gun and he believed he was being attacked…….
I could look at a film clip of a professional race car driver wreck a car and talk about how he was a poor driver and he should of done this or that and the whole wreck could have been avoided but then again I’m not a professional race car driver and if I’m not behind the wheel when it happened I’m just shooting off my mouth.

[Twokingsracer]

I understand Keenr's point perfectly, and like I said, sometimes we make decisions, good and bad. That dog did not appear to be agressive, and yes, it is obvious the officer was scared. Bad decision IN MY OPINION. We had to address the issue of putting down animals at my department, because some guys made poor decisions to shoot animals that were not aggressive but overly active. I certainly wouldnt have butted the dog with a long gun, I agree that is completely unsafe. We had an SRT officer here try to clear a window with the butt of his MP5 while his team was stacked behind. Guess what happened...thats right, his buddy took two to the forehead. Thank god for Kevlar helmets. That cop is no longer SRT needless to say. It is unfortunate that this happened. I work a lot of internal stuff in my department and I feel this way...an officer is accountable for his actions. When he screws up on small level, that can be dealt with in a manner that befits the issue. Say a stern talk from his first line supervisor, or block of instruction on how to handle a particular incident. More serious manners require more attention. I dont care what the public thinks about what this officer did. If he was scared, well then he was scared. I dont blame him for defending himself, its just the way he did it. I saw what I saw on that video, I was not there. I could not see where the dog was, if it was on him or not, because I could not see where the dog was when he shot. Based on the angle of the weapon I would say the dog wasnt on his leg. But again, not knowing what the terrain was like, I cant say for sure. Bottom line, if the dog was non-agressive, non-threatening...then the officer should not have fired. If he thought the dog was, but in reality the dog was just being playful, he should not have fired. An officers perception of a situation does not guarantee him good faith immunity or protection from civil liability. So call me an armchair quarterback or whatever, but based on what I saw, it was not a good decision. It was not a good situation. Do I think the officer needs to be fired, probably not. My administration might think differently, but they think about from a civil liablity standpoint. Retraining on this type of situation, probably a good idea. That does two things, it shows the department is taking action to help prevent similar occurances, and it will give the officer some different options hopefully. I just know that I have only fired on an attacking dog once in my career, and there were actually two dogs, a rott-sheppard mix and a pit-boxer mix. And they got to me and bit me. They were protecting their home. I was there on a domestic and walked onto them. I was justified. If I would have fired because they were jumping around with their tails wagging...I would have been written up, suspended, or fired. I feel for the officer and the family. But cops are more accountable for their actions than others. We are held to a higher standard than the rest of the public. If we dont hold ourselves to this level, then people like 96TT have all the reason in the world to bash us.
By the way 96TT, I would guess you have never needed an officer to help you out. Let someone try to jack your 9 second twin turbo mustang. Who you gonna call? We dont know anything about the officer who shot that dog. He is probably a good guy who got scared in a tense and possibly dangerous situation. The only thing I am saying is that it is my opinion he made a bad call. Not all cops are bad guys, in fact, the overwhelming majority are very nice people, who have families and friends just like everyone else. They drive Mustangs, go to McDonalds, and whatever else normal folks do. They chose to take on a tough, and sadly unappreciated, job. Most people could not do our job, that is a fact. Some people should not do this job. Think about this, the same guy who probably wrote 96TT a ticket, would drive 100 MPH and take a bullet to save 96TT's life if it were neccassary. Just my .02.

Jeff

[BlueStreak03]

Man, that just blows. Being an avid dog lover and owner all my life I can definitely understand the family's pain and suffering. The whole thing coulda, shoulda, woulda been avoided had the officers listened to the family in the beginning when they were telling them that there was a dog in the car. But no, the officers had to be pigheaded and not listen to the "suspects" who weren't even the people guilty of what they were suspected for. I would definitely be absolutely livid at the those officers and be looking to have their badges on a silver platter. I think that whole thing was completely uncalled for. I make decisions on a daily basis in a seconds notice and have never screwed one up that badly. My brother is a cop, I've got several friends that are Sheriffs. I showed them all the video and they're pissed that stuff like this happens and give the outstanding officers a bad rap. That's just my 2 cents worth, and then some.