Hawthorne

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

I finally brought myself to watch the actual video from the tragedy in Hawthorne, California.  For anyone who may not know what I am talking about, here is the link to the news story talking about that video:

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Witness-of-Hawthorne-Dog-Sh...

As far as the video itself ... disturbing is an understatement.  It has to be one of the saddest and most awful things I have ever seen.  So terribly heartbreaking.  Still, I'm glad I watched it.  We cannot afford to ignore this.

Mr. Rosby, the innocent bystanders that were traumatized by this event, the innocent shopkeeper and other, uninvolved offers being targeted in the backlash and everyone else affected by this senseless and despicable act of violence ... and most of all, Max ... I would like to keep them in our thoughts and prayers this weekend, as we celebrate our own freedom with our doodles and other family member and loved ones.

Cheers everyone, and happy 4th.

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

I don't think anyone reasonably thinks the owner was behaving in a wise or responsible manner.  Obviously he wasn't.  Some even suggest that he purposefully staged the situation to strengthen his pending civil rights violation case against that same police department.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I have worried about a situation in which I would become incapacitated at home and have to call 911 for help. JD is extremely reactive with strange men at the door. We are and have been working on this, and he is pretty good about "going to his place" and staying there, but that's with me right there commanding and enforcing those commands. If I were having a heart attack and was unable to physically or even verbally direct him, I worry about what might happen if EMTs or police officers came into the house on their own. 

[Kyoko]

This s absolutely disturbing. I wish I didn't watch it... :-(

I am sure that there were children around. This is how the cops loose trust from the community. Especially in black community, where the trust is not really there in the first place. While I agree that the owner should make sure that the dog cannot jump out of the car, still, the police did not have to shoot the dog. They have taser guns for this very purpose.  I feel that the many officers feel ENTITLED to execute the dogs that does what they do - protect the owners.  This feeling of entitlement, I believe is stemmed from the feeling of superiority and total authority, which is scary to me. I understand that this is not a racial issues, but, each individual officers' deep thoughts and feelings in regard to certain race, religion, sexual orientations, etc... does play a part since we are all humans. If the officer feels superior over someone of certain group,( white, black, hispanic, gay, catholic, whatever) off course that officer will disregard it's possession like a dog. I hope that there will be a fair treatment in regard to this event. And I hope tat some owners will learn better about their dogs and keep them from becoming a victim of situations like this... ( I would not even dream about taking Charlie to the stress inducing situation like this, because she will be the first one to charge at the officers.... )

[F, Calla & Luca]

Ah, the plot thickens. Still it's the owner's responsibility to protect the dog and this owner took his dog into harm's way. Several years ago a neighbor suggested that I check out why the FBI was on our block. She had seen them as she left for work and suggested I take the dogs for a walk to investigate. Well, I did go but I left he dogs home. I didn't want them o get in trouble : )

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

That's pretty much the best argument on the other side and is more or less the police department's position.  Basically that the guy had a prior criminal record, was acting foolishly by pretending to walk the dog as a pretense for shooting the video, etc.  It doesn't hold up, though, because it assumes that it's okay to punish the dog for its owner's actions.  The owner could be a serial killer or a terrorist, but that isn't the dog's fault.

As between the officer and the dog, it's pretty clear that the officer "started it" by twice advancing toward the dog with his weapon drawn (or at least about to be drawn, it's hard to tell).  There are all sorts of things the officer could have done to not antagonize the dog, such as offering non-threatening body language, taking the dog's leash, letting the man reassure the dog and put him back in the car, etc.  If all that failed, yes, pepper spray, taser or even a single well-placed gunshot would have been better than multiple gunshots.

Other factors include (1) the arrest itself being unjustified, and possibly a violation of the suspect's first amendment and/or other constitutional rights, (2) the fact that officers told the suspect to put the dog in the car before they arrested him, so they could have told him to roll up the window but did not, (3) apparently, the officer in question was previously involved in a police brutality and corruption case that was settled, (4) the police department's claim that they were acting partially to protect the suspect himself, even though the suspect seems to have been able to control his dog verbally even while handcuffed and (5) the officers' disregard for the dog's suffering immediately after the shooting as the dog writhed in pain on the ground.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Okay, I'll be the devil's advocate. The dog's owner was apparently harassing the police as they dealt with a difficult situation. Everyone was stressed. A Rottweiler jumped out of a car and charged at the police after they detained the owner. The dog should not have been left in a situation where it could escape. The police no doubt felt threatened. Perhaps they could have stunned the dog instead of shooting it. So I guess I look at this as partly the dog owner's fault. A tense situation is not a good time to question police about their hiring practices or racial make up of the police force. There are better times and venues for this. He should have not left his dog to get involved in a situation , which clearly agitated the dog. He should not have left the dog with the windows open enough so that the dog could escape. It is very sad that the dog was reacting as a dog and was killed in the process.

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

Post Office trains people for dog safety, I don't see why police departments can't do the same.  Seems to me there are (at least) a few different types of bad actors involved:  (1) people that are basically well intentioned but don't understand or know how to communicate with dogs, etc., (2) people that are just "bad apples", that are dangerous in general or feel that somehow killing a dog is justified as retaliation for something the owner did and (3) people that are not directly involved but make things worse by turning a blind eye, covering up or not punishing the ones who do these things.  Incidents caused by type (1) should be easy to fix - with training, etc., as you say.  The others point to more systemic, institutional problems - but until we address type (1), we don't know how bad types (2) and (3) are.  Long story short, I agree that training programs would be a huge step in the right direction.  And less expensive for municipalities than having to settle all these lawsuits, I would think.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I can't watch this.  There are seminars that employees are sent to that teach one to be more sensitive to one's co-workers in regards to race or sex.  Wish we had sensitivity training regarding animals.

[Jay, Lola and Colonel Esau]

Andy&Sharon - you are absolutely right, and frankly some of the backlash is almost as disturbing as the incident itself.  Death threats against people who had nothing to do with it, even.  Plus judging people isn't the issue.  Seems to me that what is done is done, you can't change what has already happened.  But we can have a sensible, rational dialog about it and find a way to keep it from happening more in the future.  In fact there are some police departments that have already set very positive examples for instituting training programs to try to prevent this.

[AndySharon BoomerShaynaMariner]

I also can not watch this.  Unfortunately this is probably just the tip of the iceberg.  How many of these incidents are not reported by the media? 

But we must not judge all law enforcement officers by the few "bad apples".