GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The Grand Forks Police Department says an officer shot and killed a pit bull dog over the weekend.
Doesn't seem to be any obvious misconduct in either case, but more evidence that protocol seems to be shoot-first in cases where non-human animals show any aggression. Have to wonder if these dogs received enough care at home.
Boyle, his neighbors, and the police can't seem to agree on any aspects of the story at all. The police claim that they've responded to incidents involving Buddy at least twice in the last two years. They say that the dog was aggressive, "off his owner's property, and on the attack" when they shot him.
However, folks from the neighborhood tell a different story. They say that Buddy was on his porch and causing no problems. When the police approached, Buddy ran away to the side of the house and was shot dead.
Boyle and the cops can't even agree on Buddy's breed. The police, perhaps in order to make the dog sound intimidating, claim that he was a Rottweiler. Boyle says he was probably a black lab-shepherd mix.
Boyle says that Buddy was his best friend and is demanding an explanation. Police originally arrived at the house because of a complaint that Buddy was on the loose.
Two neighbors who witnessed the incident reported that Lucky walked towards the officer but was not aggressive. Police officials say Lucky "ran at" the officer, who feared he was in danger.
In addition, on Sunday, two police officers in Pekin, Illinois were called to a scene where two humans were trapped by three large dogs who had escaped from a garage. An officer's bullet grazed one dog's paw, ricocheted off a parks SUV, splintered, and hit his partner in the face. The officer was able to return to work the next day and the dogs have been returned to their guardians, who were away on vacation. In the future, the dogs may be require dot be tethered and muzzled when their guardians are gone.
Of course, officer have a right to defend themselves if they are really attacked, but these stories highlight the dangers of introducing gunfire into a situation. Was there really no less violent response available?
A North Las Vegas cop shot and killed a dog yesterday morning. The dog allegedly attacked the officer, who was pursuing the dog's person. The man was fleeing the scene of a fight, in which he was a suspect.
As Radley Balko points out, it will be difficult to say whether there was misconduct here unless we get more information.
On February 11, 2010, a Columbia, Missouri SWAT team shot a family's pit bull and corgi in front of a small child while aggressively serving a search warrant on their home. In a video of the raid, the distressed home owner can be heard saying "What the fuck did you shoot my dog for? That was a good dog. She was probably trying to play with you."
The pit bull was killed, but the corgi, who was shot in the paw, made it.
After sitting on their warrant for eight days, the cops found only a misdemeanor amount of weed. As long as we keep sending SWAT teams to serve search warrants on small time dealers, the casualties will keep piling up.
A sheriff's deputy in Alameda County (home to Oakland and Berkeley) threatened to shoot Jason Rivera's dog unless he consented to a warrantless search of his home.
"We can do this the easy way and you can take us to your house to look around," Rivera recounts the deputy saying, "or we can detain you for six hours while we get a warrant and go to your house and shoot your dog."
Mr. Rivera is a paraplegic medical marijuana user. The officers' warrant gave them permission to search the man's recording studio, but not his home.
The Fourth Amendment protects us from "unreasonable searches and seizures." However, in United States v. Mendenhall, the Supreme Court ruled that the cops may detain a person for questioning and ask to search her belongings without a warrant as long as a "reasonable person" in her place would have felt free to leave and/or refuse the search. The decision opened the floodgates to waves of police misconduct and abusive searches by failing to recognize the coercive power inherent in one's status as a police officer. Would a "reasonable person" feel free to decline a search after a cop threatened to shoot her dog?