Cops are like a box of chocolates... They'll kill your fucking dog.

An explanation in two panels:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736…

I've been saying for a while that cops are scared as hell and that's why they're trigger happy. I don't know if there's been a change in their protocols, training, the perception of the threat the public poses, and they're more scared now than years ago, but it feels that way.

Shooting dogs on drug raids is almost standard practice - even goofy Goldens or yappy little ankle biters.

guns dont kill people, cops kill people (and 25 lb dogs)

barney fife should have also thought 'hey, if there was a robber here, why is this dog not barking up a storm at him?'

Turns out police cameras are good for exposing misconduct against all kinds of alleged perps. Who could ever have guessed?

For once Charles writes a reasonable post and I completely agree with him.

It's not that cops are scared. A lot of them are nuts. We put people in an environment where they see the worst of humanity day in day out, where the macho culture makes talking about feelings and emotions very difficult (if not impossible), and then we are surprised when they go crazy or become sociopathic. That's why they tend to self-medicate and tend to beat their wives.

And we tend to recruit from the military, which has it's own problems with macho culture and mental health.

@4:

It really started going down this road when police were transitioned from mainly walking beats to driving around in patrol cars. A beat cop spent most of their time engaging one-on-one with people on the street, on their porches, in their businesses; they developed personal relationships with them, got to know their families, and had a deeper awareness of their situations. Once they started spending most of their time inside their vehicles, they became both physically distanced from these sorts of close, interpersonal engagements, but additionally, the "armor" of a car presented both a false sense of security AND a sense of insecurity whenever they had to get out of it.

Add in the increased militarization of police thanks to the "war on drugs" starting in the early 1970's, and over a fairly short span of time cops that previously might have looked on poor kids in inner-city neighborhoods with a somewhat more paternalistic eye, and perhaps would have had a more direct impact on their behavior as a result, now began to view them as active antagonists, because you can't have a "war" without an "enemy" to wage it against.

It is hard to blame cops for being scared all the time in this country. Anyone might have a gun, the war on drugs and our outdated court/sentencing processes have made it more appealing for offenders to shoot at cops rather than be arrested (three strikes!), and the poverty gap is increasing, in addition to anti-police sentiments (which is kind of a chicken-egg thing).

Hell, just a few days ago a plainclothes cop, unwilling to fire on a dangerous, encroaching suspect, had his weapon taken and he as beaten almost to death with it while the crowd cheered and took photos. Later his attacker was praised on social media by similar assholes:

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.…

Not that any of this excuses such actions as the cop in the above article took, but being a beat cop is a much different beast than it used to be.

My cat hired the cop to do it. What can I say: that pussy's a BITCH!!

#10, in my experience you are right on the money. I know a man who was a beat cop on "The Streets of San Francisco" and refused to carry a gun. As a result, the neighborhood respected him. He could walk into drug dens with impunity to arrest rapists, murderers, etc. He was a responsible part of the community.

In the end he was drummed out of the force. He was told that the gun was part of the uniform, and that he had to carry it even if it put his life in greater danger on a daily basis.

Sorry Charles, but having watched the video I have to disagree with you. The dog covered a good distance and the total time between the dog barking, charging and the shots fired is less than 4 seconds, so it is not like the officer had ample time to consider his options. Dog bites are dangerous - they can get infected, require stitches, etc, and a 25lb dog is certainly capable of biting through slacks. And since the dog had no restraints the only thing the officer could have done to protect himself would be to get on the other side of the fence or a gate, which he did not have time to do.
Should the officer have done something different? Probably - although it is not clear from the video, it looks like the yard was surrounded entirely by a fence and if the officer had to walk through a gate he should have been prepared for the possibility of a dog confronting him. Furthermore, given the propensity of false alarms from security systems the officer should give greater weight to the probability of hostile pets than hostile people.

that last paragraph; so good.

"So, if you are a man or woman who places supreme value on your personal safety, then it is best to find a job that corresponds with that kind of self-valuation. What use is a firefighter who worries about his or her safety first?"

@14: I've been bitten twice by 25 lb. dogs and I'm still alive.

@13:

I remember a time, not so long ago - although sometimes it feels like it - when a cop could work an entire career, 20, 30 years or more in many cases, and BRAG about the fact they never once unholstered their service weapon in the line of duty. Nowadays it seems like cops draw more often then they change their underwear; it used to be a LAST resort, and now, sadly - and admittedly not always unjustifiably - it's often their FIRST, even when they have less-lethal options available.

Nurses that are 5'2" have to deal with mental patients that are 6'4" with no weapons (and contrary to the media they don't usually have orderlies either).

Yet a full grown man with hand to hand training can't handle a dog (or a human for that manner) without worrying about their safety more than we expect a nurse to while still appending the target without harming them more than needed.

Those kind of cops need to find something else to do, like maybe mall security, seems more their speed.

Oh and people keep referring to drug raid, this was an alarm check not at all the same situation.

@17-
The vast majority of cops will still never draw their weapon.

The real problem here is that good cops don't speak up against the small number of useless jerks on the force. Then the public has no idea what they're getting, so they get mad at everyone.

SPOG in particular seems like their number one cause is protecting the the most useless members of SPD at any cost. Our (good) cops should stand up and tell them to cut it out.

@14: Who has hasn't had a barking dog of that size run up to them before? I have, many times. It makes one a little nervous, maybe, but not panicky, and I'm not an especially brave guy. @14, you sound like you, too, are kinda chicken, and that's ok -- presumably you don't carry a gun around, so you won't be hurting anyone. I have this idea that policemen and firemen should be braver than me. If you aren't brave enough not to lose your shit when a barking dog of that size runs up to you, you really should be in a different line of work. I wish we could test for courage. Ideally, you also shouldn't be allowed to have concealed-carry permit, unless you test fairly brave. Most of the time after these stupid shootings, the cop, or the CCP shooter, says "I was afraid for my life." I believe them! But they should have had the self-awareness to know they were the jumpy type, and not hired on as a cop, nor sought a CCP.

In a perfect world, the police would be as courageous as a mail carrier... FFS

"What the video reveals is that, for some cops, the gun solves a wide range of problems."

No ... what the video reveals is that one cop used his gun to solve what he claimed -- incorrectly, or dishonestly -- was a single problem.

"Statements in the video and statements in the police report also reveal this widespread flaw in American policing: Many cops operate with the idea that what comes first in their work is their own safety."

No ... statements in the video and statements in the police report also reveal that this one cop -- and his superiors, and/or the investigating oficer(s) -- operated with the idea that what comes first in their work is his/their own safety.

Charles, you and your editor -- I'm hoping you actually have one -- wouldn't have made it out of Journalism 101 with unsupportable statements about what one incident in Wichita, Kansas "reveals." I share your views that there are major, widespread problems in America's law enforcement community, but I don't support your willingness to write such amateurish BS to state the case. You don't need to make broad-brush statements based on a single instance to convince me, or anyone else, of that!

Can't the staff at The Stranger quit being so sloppy and at least pretend to be "objective journalists?"

You can slip on wet leaves on a sidewalk, possibly breaking bones or sustaining a concussion. An officer confronting such a menace doesn't really have a choice in such a situation: s/he must shoot those leaves off the path. For those of you who have never walked in the shoes of a police officer, you really shouldn't be commenting about what constitutes proper behavior. When you do, you constitute yet another deadly threat.

@24 you can't actually expect The Stranger to be objective. Leave that shit for the real newspapers.