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kx250rider
New member
I'm happy to hear from a cop, and I'm glad you said you'd likely have done things differently if you had been there. My point is that the suspect (who was acting cooperatively by placing the dog in the car, then returning to be cuffed per directions of the officers), was not given the chance to recapture the dog, which even had his leash trailing behind him! Obviously the suspect was not a flight risk, and was not exhibiting combative or threatening behavior, so why didn't the officers simply let go of him so he could stop the dog? So simple!!!!
I'm not a cop, but I have absolutely and on many occasions, been confronted by dogs of all sizes and demeanors when I was a TV repairman. In 46 years of life, I've never been bitten, and I've even gone into places where "attack dogs" were. I believe that the cop who shot, was simply scared of dogs. Period. Police officers MUST learn to deal with all situations without using deadly force, with one exception, and that's to stop an opposing deadly force.
And yes, I do believe there is rampant racism in many police departments, including the Hawthorne PD and the LA County Sheriff's Dept. I personally know several officers who are racists at heart. No matter what they commit to when taking the oath of being sworn onto the force, a belief is a belief, and it's there festering in the background. I have no idea what if any role that played in this case, but it's a possibility since the suspect had filed racism complaints (whether they were real or made-up). One more point I will make, is that racism is NOT the same thing as profiling. If I were a cop, I'd notice a Black teenager roaming around in a $300 car in an affluent community, and I'd notice a white yuppie in a BMW roaming around South Central LA. I'd also notice a white preppie driving around in a lowered Cadillac with purple fuzzy dice on the mirror, and I'd notice a Hispanic driving a car with surf racks on it and a DC sticker. Not because of color, but because it's a puzzle with a missing piece, and it would be reasonable to assume that the missing piece could be something I needed to address as an officer.
I understand that being a cop is a tough job, and believe it or not after all this I've ranted about, I appreciate the hard work of the police community, and I don't know what we'd do without you. But as with any other sector of society, there are bad apples, and we need to be willing to accept that, and to remove those bad apples from positions where people can be harassed under the color of authority, and where dogs get shot. I hold a valid CCW permit in Texas, and I guarantee you that as a civilian, they'd snatch that away from me so fast that my head would spin, if I even unholstered a weapon on a city street due to a dog approaching.
Charles
