I would bet that running into every situation with your gun drawn and ready to fire at a moment’s notice increases the danger for everyone on either side of the gun. It escalates an already potentially dangerous situation, and leads to trigger happy situations like this. Would you be so quick to defend this situation if it was a man instead of a dog? It happens. A lot.
“There are cop killers out there” is a bit of a straw man; cops should be trained to prevent violence whenever possible, even if it means risking their own lives. Excusing them when they do a fatally bad job does a disservice to everyone, including themselves. That kind of attitude leads to lunacy like small town sheriffs buying tanks. If it’s a war zone out there, it’s in no small part because they made it that way.
It is possible that the officer’s remorse is real. It certainly should be, because he absolutely created the situation.
He was approaching a vehicle that might contain a person who was suspected of watching children from it, if it was actually the same van.
Let that sink in for a minute. Do you see the number of conditionals? Every one of them called for restraint.
He managed to amp up the threat, in his mind, so that he approached the van not just prepared for violence, but ready to inflict lethal force in an instant. He drew his gun.
Then, with violence in his heart and death in his hand, he sneaked up to the open window to peer in.
Of course the dog barked at him, he managed to surprise it. Of course he killed it without a thought, he was primed to shoot anything that vaguely resembled a threat.
I hope he is remorseful, I hope it tears at his heart, because it could just as easily have been an innocent human that he killed as that innocent dog.
My suspicion is that he shot the dog simply because he could.
I would argue that he felt no threat, he quietly had an urge to use his gun. The priming he had was from completely inappropriate training, a work place culture that encourages aggressive behaviours and mixed messages from society over acceptable use of force. I would also argue, wrong tactics, wrong strategy, wrong tools and inadequate supervision.
I had this discussion on the SLC dog thread, but I will repeat here.
I was unable to find a single case of a police officer being killed, either directly or through complications, by a dog. In fact, cop or no, according to Wiki, being killed by a dog is incredibly rare in general.
As was stated on many messages here, if cops had proportional fear, they’d shoot every car they see, as the cars are far more likely to kill them than the dogs.
Well, in the interest of fair reporting: An average of 10 letter-carriers suffer from dog-related injuries every day.
So it really isn’t just cops that dogs have it in for. The problem is that dogs will lunge at strangers (because they’re scared/protective), and cops are armed. So while mail carriers get bitten, cops end up killing dogs.
Often (like in this case) I’m on the side of the owner — because usually there was a way for the cop to walk away from the animal. Unfortunately cops aren’t trained to do that. They’re trained to be in control of the situation, and an animal that doesn’t listen to them is (in their eyes) a problem/threat.
That said, there are cases where people have violent dogs or aren’t controlling their animals in a public location, and in those cases, we really need to reserve judgement. I’m only saying this as a reminder that we need to not generalize our anger about specific instances to all instances. I wholeheartedly agree that right now, there are far too many instances of dogs being killed when there is no valid cause.
While death from dog bite is rare, a dog bite isn’t a minor issue. Here’s what you left out when you posted your information (also from the CDC):
• About 4.5 million people per year are bitten by dogs.
• Almost one in five of those who are bitten, about 885,000, require medical attention for dog bite-related injuries; half of these are children
• In 2012, more than 27,000 people underwent reconstructive surgery as a result of being bitten by dogs.
•In 2013, 32 people died in the U.S. from dog bite.
In 2010, “(G)uns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings.” The same year, 73,505 Americans were treated in hospital emergency departments for non-fatal gunshot wounds(.)"
So if you look at all the numbers - dogs are far less likely to kill you than a gun, but you’re more likely to end up in a hospital because of one. Also, they’re more statistically life-threatening than sharks.
Random thought. Where are the dog bites located most of the time? If legs, then at least for the most exposed professions (mailmen, for example) it could help to wear kevlar- or leather-lined trousers. (Leather is a bit too heavy, kevlar in its pierce-resistant variant could be more comfortable.)
Most dog bite victims are children, and they’re bitten in the arms and face. As to the carriers, it isn’t just their legs. Often the bites can be severe.
Just so people know: I spent the weekend at my aunt’s house with four dogs - I’m not a dog hater. I just want people to have fair information.
Sure, but if people shot & killed everything that might require a hospital visit, we’d have to have a witness protection program for rusty nails and kitchen knives.
The key concept to me is “proportional.” Shooting an animal that in all likelihood will not kill you seems a bit…Monty Python?
Mosquitos are dangerous. I’m sure they still can give you west nile, malaria, yellow fever…
How many times in your life have you been bitten by a mosquito? I bet it’s more than five. In fact, It’s a fair bet you’ve probably had a day where five mosquitoes have happily fed on you all at once.
From your own source (the CDC) here’s the result of a dog bite.
" one in five of those who are bitten, about 885,000, require medical attention"
In other words:
To make this sparklingly clear - I’m not saying that deaths/hospital visits from mosquito bite don’t occur in the U.S. With the advent of west nile, we do have deaths here. I’m saying that they are proportionally far rarer than the proportion of injuries requiring medical attention and deaths by dog bite. (That overblown statement by you is what makes it a straw man argument.)
Here are the 2013 numbers for total cases and deaths of west nile in the U.S. in 2013 (source CDC):
Cases 2,469
Deaths 119
Just think for a second about how many mosquito bites happened in 2013 in the U.S. only 2,469 resulted in cases of west nile. That’s half the number of letter carriers bitten by dogs the same year - 5,581.
Right on. Appreciate you saying so. The character attack part comes in where you assume something as likely about a person or dog you’ve never met. Sorry if I was a pendantic jerkface, thanks for not escalating the rhetoric!
And that’s usually what happens in construction deaths. Either somebody else fucks up, or the equipment fucks up. The last several construction deaths around here were not the fault of the victims.
When ever I read about cops shooting dogs or questionable use of force against people (esp. when it results in death), I will ask myself the question, “If that were me, and I didn’t have the protection of the ‘Thin Blue Line’ and being buddy-buddy with the DA, would I have gotten in trouble?”
If the answer is “no”, then his/her actions were probably justified.
If the answer is “yes”, then his/her actions were probably not justified.
A “maybe” is a grey area - one where I’m willing to give cops some leeway.
Shouty cops are definitely better than shooty cops. Maybe some awareness posters for them: ‘Shouty Cops are better than Shooty Cops. The difference is U!’
I think what you just did, is to paraphrase Qualified Immunity, which is a well established doctrine in federal law.
I support the test you proposed as a good working model.
But that model comes with the implicit cost that we (society as a whole) must be constantly vigilant so that cop culture does not equate leeway with license.
