Yonatan Zunger said it with greater elegance than I ever could.
Yonatan Zunger said it with greater elegance than I ever could.
Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger
Remember the cops in Hawthorne who arrested a man for (legally) videotaping them, and then gunned down his dog and let it twitch to death in the street for barking at them? Apparently, they've been receiving death threats from around the nation. And they "have been pulled from street duty to avoid any confrontations with angry pet lovers."
Not, you will note, pulled from street duty pending an investigation of wrongdoing on their part. Not pulled from street duty because they were arresting a man for trying to film them in the course of their uniformed and public duties, even though this is entirely legal. Not pulled from street duty because it is alarmingly clear that these men should not be wearing a badge or carrying a gun. No, they are being pulled merely to protect them from a public which is sufficiently outraged by their behavior that their very lives are in danger for showing their faces in the street.
Are the police supposed to be able to do their jobs when they cannot command even this much respect from the public? Remember that the job of the police officer is one of the greatest public trusts we give -- they are trusted with tremendous powers of arrest, force, and legal standing. Whenever a police department has lost the respect of the public it claims to protect, it is no longer able to do its job.
And from the incident and the official response, the only thing we can conclude is that it is not merely these three officers who were at fault, but their entire chain of command, who created the culture in which this could happen, and who after the fact have gone to lengths to protect them.
It is not enough that these officers be removed from duty and held to account. The entire command structure must be held to account, up to and including the captain of the operations division and Chief Robert Fager. Whenever a police department finds itself in such utter disrepute as a consequence of its own actions, fixing that must be its highest priority.
http://rt.com/usa/california-dog-shot-aftermath-712/
Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger
Remember the cops in Hawthorne who arrested a man for (legally) videotaping them, and then gunned down his dog and let it twitch to death in the street for barking at them? Apparently, they've been receiving death threats from around the nation. And they "have been pulled from street duty to avoid any confrontations with angry pet lovers."
Not, you will note, pulled from street duty pending an investigation of wrongdoing on their part. Not pulled from street duty because they were arresting a man for trying to film them in the course of their uniformed and public duties, even though this is entirely legal. Not pulled from street duty because it is alarmingly clear that these men should not be wearing a badge or carrying a gun. No, they are being pulled merely to protect them from a public which is sufficiently outraged by their behavior that their very lives are in danger for showing their faces in the street.
Are the police supposed to be able to do their jobs when they cannot command even this much respect from the public? Remember that the job of the police officer is one of the greatest public trusts we give -- they are trusted with tremendous powers of arrest, force, and legal standing. Whenever a police department has lost the respect of the public it claims to protect, it is no longer able to do its job.
And from the incident and the official response, the only thing we can conclude is that it is not merely these three officers who were at fault, but their entire chain of command, who created the culture in which this could happen, and who after the fact have gone to lengths to protect them.
It is not enough that these officers be removed from duty and held to account. The entire command structure must be held to account, up to and including the captain of the operations division and Chief Robert Fager. Whenever a police department finds itself in such utter disrepute as a consequence of its own actions, fixing that must be its highest priority.
http://rt.com/usa/california-dog-shot-aftermath-712/
Comments
To be clear, I firmly believe that particular dog breeds are not the problem; their owners are. Blanket blaming or typecasting entire breeds for problems caused by individual animals & ignorant or malicious owners is not the right approach. I currently have an Akita and grew up with a Pit Bull. Both of those dogs never hurt anybody because they were & are properly raised and cared for. I have been bit by a friend's Rottweiler, but it did not break the skin and the situation was completely my fault. The dog was doing exactly what it was trained to do.