Hawthorne, CA police arrest man for videoing them, shoot his dog

Spocko sez, "What are the current rules for filming police in the state of California? This man seems to believes that he should be arrested for filming the police and offers himself up for arrest after clearly holding his phone up to film them. He places his dog in his car and is arrested. While… READ THE REST

That was sick, The dog was not a danger he was worried. He had no aggressive posture at all.

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What is it with cops shooting dogs? Is there a nationwide contest to see who can shoot the most dogs?

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Considering the fact that torturing and/or killing animals is considered a symptom of sociopathy, I’d say the cause has more to do with wanting to mentally torture the owner in a permanent-yet-legal way. Long after the cuffs are off and the man is sent on his way (without an apology), his dog will still be dead. Take that, citizen!

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I think this guy knows exactly what his rights are. He’s one black guy and they’re two white cops with guns.

And according to this article:

The 52 year old has six complaints against Hawthorne Police and has
even filed a lawsuit alleging that one officer broke his rib.

Rosby says that one of the officers named in the lawsuit spotted him.

… and so they killed his dog. The world really could use a proper slur against white people, because that’s the only thing that seems appropriate right now (and yes, I’m white). Disgusting.

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Not that I’m a fan of tasers or pepper spray, but they do work against dogs.

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I don’t know why I watched that video, I knew it was going to be horrible.
It does seem like these incidents happen just about every week. That dog looked like a sweetheart, but… he was a huge dog. I wish the owner would have had time to roll the windows up, but he clearly knew that the officers were coming to arrest him.

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I sure am curious if that policeman will see any penalty for killing the dog.
That could’ve been avoided in a million ways

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My God. This is one of the most upsetting things I have seen on the Internet.

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Gizmodo has answers!

"The law in 38 states plainly allows citizens to record police, as long as you don’t physically interfere with their work. Police might still unfairly harass you, detain you, or confiscate your camera. They might even arrest you for some catchall misdemeanor such as obstruction of justice or disorderly conduct. But you will not be charged for illegally recording police.

Twelve states-California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington-require the consent of all parties for you to record a conversation.

However, all but 2 of these states-Massachusetts and Illinois-have an “expectation of privacy provision” to their all-party laws that courts have ruled does not apply to on-duty police (or anyone in public). In other words, it’s technically legal in those 48 states to openly record on-duty police."

http://gizmodo.com/5900680/7-rules-for-recording-police

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Just googling “police shoot dog” or the like lets you know how often this happens, and how many times videos catch the police lying about it. It honestly does seem there’s a lot of cops out there that are looking to shoot dogs–either because they’re sadistic fucks or they see it as a punishment to the owner.

These cops should be thrown off the force and prosecuted for this kind of trigger happy bullshit. What fucking low threshold does shooting a dog require if this is considered a justifiable use of a firearm on a dog? What fucking low threshold does our society have for the kind of sociopaths we let wear badges?

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There’s a whole spectrum of possible responses between doing nothing and shooting. But shooting first certainly sends a message.

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The officer is a fucking thug.

The 52 year old has six complaints against Hawthorne Police and has
even filed a lawsuit alleging that one officer broke his rib.

Rosby says that one of the officers named in the lawsuit spotted him.

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Oh the officer did nothing wrong? What about arresting the dog’s owner in the first place? Then the whole situation would have been avoided in the first place. What about tazing or pepper-spraying the dog? What about shooting the dog only once? It’s not even clear the dog was attacking the cops.

I don’t blame you for being worried about your dad’s safety, but good to know that you think killing things is an ok way to solve all your problems. Thanks, but no thanks, Benito; and before you accuse me of pulling a strawman, you clearly stated:

I would always want him to do everything possible to protect himself -
including shooting a dog.

People are always more important than animals. Always.

Oh yeah, and I’m sure the fact that the dog’s owner had a pending lawsuit against one of these officers (it’s unclear to me which officer, however) had nothing to do with the cops behavior.

An innocent dog is more important than a corrupt pig.

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If I Iived in CA I would volunteer to help kidnap the cops.

This will end when the cops learn they are not above the rest of us.

I would say they are not above the law, but we all know that is just a cruel lie- they are.

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Here is a video link of the man, Leon Rosby, talking about his dog, Max, being shot.

I’m hoping for a video explaining why he was arrested.

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How terrible! Humane Society needs to sue these bastards.

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An update that I got from Gawker.

According to Rosby’s attorney, Michael Gulden, Rosby was simply
videotaping a police action in his Hawthorne neighborhood when cops
approached him to arrest him for “obstructing an investigation,” a
charge Gulden calls “ridiculous.” “[H]e was driving by and noticed the
police activity and stopped to watch,” Gulden told me in an email, “as
is common when this type of activity is going on in any neighborhood.”

So it looks like they are clling it “obstructing an investigation” and saying he was playing his music too loud.
They couldn’t hear what was going on in the armed robbery they were investigation. Interesting spin.
Also the man Leon Rosby is involved in a lawsuit against the police for excessive force. All in the Gawker article.

I posted this below, but here is a link to the video of Rosby telling his view of what happened.

The police have a lot of latitude when it comes to why they decide to arrest you. But they didn’t say it was for videotaping them, although that might just be them “getting their stories straight” after the fact since the people spokesperson was obviously involved. .

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This is terrible, I really think the people should campaign to get this trigger happy sort of behavior under control. Anyone know where one starts something like that? I think these cops should be fired. ( I personally wish much worse upon them for taking a life like that but that is my irrational response ).

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You appear to be deliberately framing this in a way to justify the police action. In the video, I did not see:

  • Any person approaching the police. I saw a man standing a half block away with a camera, until they decided to arrest him.
  • Any dog jumping out at them. I saw a dog approach them with an easy body language, back off easily, move in again without threatening. They had enough time that they could have tried a number of non-lethal options; they decided not to.
  • Any aggressive approach by the dog. See above. He showed no signs of aggression.

Claiming that they were “avoiding a potential mauling” is simply inflammatory. One could justify shooting most anyone on the basis that “they might attack me.”

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