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[Kilroy the Grand]

AUSTIN – The fatal shooting of a pet dog by an Austin Police Department officer over the weekend is sparking outrage near and far.
As of Monday evening, close to 22,000 people had hit the "Like" button on a Facebook page called “Justice for Cisco,” the name of  Austinite Michael Paxton's dog, which was killed by an officer.
 
On Saturday afternoon, a passerby called 911 around 4:30 to report a domestic disturbance. 
 
What the responding officer, APD Officer Thomas Griffin, didn’t know when he arrived minutes later is that the 911 caller mistakenly gave the wrong address.
 
Upon arrival, the first person Officer Griffin encountered was Michael Paxton and his blue heeler, named Cisco.
 
Austin police confirmed Monday that Officer Griffin got out of his patrol car with his weapon drawn.
 
In audio captured on Officer Griffin’s dashboard camera, you can hear the officer give Paxton commands to put his hands up and to control his dog. Austin police removed a few seconds of the tape where Griffin fatally shoots the dog.
 
“Why didn't you get your dog when I told you to get your dog?" questioned Officer Griffin.
 
"I didn't know! You just came around the corner and told me to put my hands up. What am I supposed to do?” replied Paxton.
 
"But you knew your dog was back there, correct?" said Grffin.
 
“I didn't know anybody was here. I was just walking to my truck,” said Paxton.
 
Griffin told superiors at APD that the blue heeler was running toward him in an aggressive manner.
 
Paxton says Cisco would never attack anyone but admits that the dog was running toward Officer Griffin.
 
“He did challenge him. He came out of the yard barking, running towards him, as he probably would for anybody,” said Paxton.
 
APD's policy regarding discharging a firearm due to an animal is as follows:
"1. In circumstances where officers encounter any animal which reasonably appears, under the circumstances, to pose and imminent threat to the safety of officers or others, officers are authorized to use deadly force to neutralize such a threat.
 2. In circumstances in which the officers have sufficient advanced notice that a potentially dangerous domestic animal (e.g., dog) may be encountered, such as in the serving of a warrant, officers should develop reasonable contingency plans for dealing with the animal without the use of deadly force (e.g., fire extinguisher, TASER device, oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray, assistance of animal control). Nothing in this policy shall prohibit any officer from resorting to deadly force to control a dangerous animal if circumstances reasonably dictate that a contingency plan has failed or becomes impracticable."
 
“We're sorry that the dog owner lost his dog over the incident," said Sgt. Daniels. "It's an unfortunate situation, but the officer was basically in retreat, and he fired his weapon in self-defense.”
 
Officer Griffin remains on full-duty pending an internal review of the incident, which is customary whenever an officer fires a weapon.

http://www.kvue.com/news/Public-outrage-building-up-over-Austin-Police-Officer-who-fatally-shot-a-dog-147681755.html

I for one feel safer, knowing the police are willing to kill those bloodthirsty killing machines.

[mainiac]

A couple years back the SWAT team raided the mayors house of a town near me, suspecting it was being used for drugs.  They didn't know it was the mayors house, they were soley going on the fact that it was near some drug activity (small town) and a lot of packages got left on the porch.  After tackling this elderly pillar of the community and his wife to the ground and cuffing them, they shot his small dog in the back as it ran away.

Thankfully someone was fired for that one.

[Glowcat]

If only we were all lucky enough to be mayors.

I'm losing track of how many home invasions from law enforcement resulted in an innocent person's dogs being shot. I'm personally a cat person but doggy genocide is going a bit too far.

[nenjin]

The only thing more dangerous than criminals are cops who are afraid of criminals.

[Delta Foxtrot]

What the fuck?

Austin police confirmed Monday that Officer Griffin got out of his patrol car with his weapon drawn.

Please, someone slap me out of this dream world I'm living if I'm the only one who doesn't equate "domestic disturbance" with the need to come out with weapons drawn. Just because you have a firearm doesn't mean it should be your first response in every situation.

I like the police. I think they should be a group to be trusted. Then this shit happens.

[Flying Dice]

I think they should be a group to be trusted.

Ha. Ha. Ha. They should be, but they damned well aren't, and for good reason.

[RedKing]

In the cop's defense:

1. He doesn't know he has the wrong address. When he gets there, there's a guy heading to his truck to leave.
2. Dog runs at him. Yes, dogs do that. But dogs that are about to bite your ass do that too.

Should the cop have gotten out of the car with weapon drawn? Probably not for a domestic disturbance call, but then I don't know what that section of town is like, or what the situation had been described as. Maybe he was told "He's beating the shit out of his wife! He's threatening to shoot her!"

Should he have confronted the individual and instructed him into a submission position before asking some questions and trying to verify he had the right guy/house? Probably not, but again we don't know the details of what information he had been given.

All in all, sounds more like a tragic series of mistakes. I hope the person who gave the wrong address on the 911 call feels like shit too.

[Delta Foxtrot]

Ha. Ha. Ha. They should be, but they damned well aren't, and for good reason.

I'm ever the optimist. I'll admit, since coming to these boards my trust in the US police force has steadily declined. I could swear General Discussion has mandatory "bad cop of the month" thread pop up with some regularity.

[Urist McMalaclypse]

That's nothing. http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/Dog-Shot-Killed-By-Birmingham-Police-Officers/-/1719418/1788740/-/i8tbbs/-/index.html

A bit old, but a stronger story in a similar vein.

[Jopax]

Ha. Ha. Ha. They should be, but they damned well aren't, and for good reason.

I'm ever the optimist. I'll admit, since coming to these boards my trust in the US police force has steadily declined. I could swear General Discussion has mandatory "bad cop of the month" thread pop up with some regularity.

Actually the frequency has been increasing lately, it's something bi-weekly now I think, but yeah, I'm not sure if this is a recent thing or is this just the internet making stuff more available for the masses.

[King DZA]

You know, for the longest time now, I've had this strange feeling that giving normal human beings the ability to put on a uniform and gain automatic authority over almost everyone around them may not be the smartest idea.

[Sowelu]

Cop's actions seem 95% reasonable.  Sounds like the dog wasn't fenced, was coming straight for the cop, reaction time of just a couple seconds, and a guy who the cop who had every reason to believe was a potentially-armed wife-beating scumbag did not control the dog when commanded to.  We don't know what kind of "domestic dispute" it was, but if someone calls about active violence (as opposed to just loud yelling), or if someone calls about the wife screaming for help, then yeah...get out of the car with the gun drawn.  Can't say I argue with that one. 

If there's an animal running at you, and you're already in a potentially dangerous situation, and you have your gun drawn...  The cop made a perfectly reasonable split-second decision.  The department policy covered situations where A) you know about the dog ahead of time, and B) it's not about to jump you.

I like dogs, but I think the cop was justified.

[nenjin]

Just another example of the "It's coming right for us!" law in action, to me.

Personally, if I stepped out my front door to a cop pointing a gun in my face and my people-loving dog ran out the door to greet them....I doubt I'd be able to react fast enough for the cop either.

Just because there are procedures in place doesn't automatically justify a cop's use of deadly force.

[kaijyuu]

Given the information, I'll give the cop the benefit of the doubt as well.


However, the amount of information is piss poor. To be perfectly honest, any conclusion is an unfair jump right now.

It's perfectly reasonable to believe the dog was threatening and charging. It's perfectly reasonable that it wasn't. Can't tell.

[Sowelu]

Again, if you're responding to a maybe-violent crime in progress, and a loose dog is running at you and barking, and you only have a couple of seconds to respond or get potentially-mauled...you use whatever's in your hands to stop the dog.  If that's pepper spray, you spray the dog.  If that's a gun, you shoot the dog.

At the scene of a crime-in-progress, I'd treat a barking dog like a guy brandishing a knife.  If he's behind a fence, you can deal with him at leisure, ask him to stand down, take the time to pull out your pepper spray, whatever.  If he's running at you, you stop him.  Also, you can legshot a person...good luck with a dog.  Also, dogs run faster than people.  You can't maneuver to put space between you and a dog.