flynn23 wrote:
] What's more disturbing is the inequity of these situations. If
] a K9 officer is killed during duty, it is considered IDENTICAL
] in all respects to a human officer falling. Why is it that
] these situations are not handled like human fatalities?
] Shouldn't police be held accountable for shooting a dog just
] like they are for shooting a person?

Some poetic justice in having them held to their own stardard, which is obviously unreasonable. This point bears repeating because it puts the shoe on the other foot.

Some observations:

1. If I was the politician in question I wouldn't have released that video. Its too blurry to tell if the dog was really a threat. However, you can clearly see a family in terror. Bad move...

2. The dog was a fairly hard core dog. Its possible that the cop felt threatened. He does look like a coward for shooting so quickly. However, his mistake wasn't in shooting the dog. His mistake was in putting himself in a situation where that was a possibility.

3. This was a very unprofessional stop. They didn't have control of the situation. If they had, they wouldn't have been surprised by the dog. They had lots of time and they had the information. They should have dealt with it. That was mistake number one.

4. The bigger mistake is that this is the Cookeville PD doing a South Central LA style cowboy police stop on a family travelling for Xmas. If you are going to pull the cowboy crap you need to have a good reason. They didn't. There was no robbery reported. It was a figment of their imagination. Occum's Razor is an important part of a cop's mental arsenal. These guys let it slip.

5. The real irony is that the reason you pull a cowboy police stop is to ensure that you have control of the situation. The fact that these guys didn't certainly leads one to wonder whether this was, in fact, overzealous behavior.

6. The statements they are making sound really hallow. This is a small town police department trying to play the press. They aren't very convincing.

7. There are much more serious problems caused by police mis-steps then this. This is a minor incident. This is the product of stupidity rather then willful malice. Not having more information, I'd advise letting the police in question go and then focusing on better training with respect to points 3 and 4.

RE: CNN.com - Video shows police killing dog - Jan. 9, 2003