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[GlyphGryph]

Honestly?  I think the officer followed the rules that had been given to him.

If the rules given to him were "approach potential domestic disturbance with gun drawn, without calling for or waiting for backup, even when there is no sign of someone being armed and dangerous, and the man is already outside, in your visual range, and not an obvious threat" then I think the rules need to be changed.

[DJ]

That's a bit too long to remember. I'm pretty sure the rules are simply "Shoot first, ask questions later."

[jester]

Dont know if its been put up here yet (9 pages in 2 days? seriously?) but here is a bit on info on blue heelers, often used as cattle dogs here in australia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Cattle_Dog,  In my experience they arent a big dog, (bout knee height on a human), can be fairly vocal if someone they dont know is on the property but will do the good guard dog thing and stand off and bark rather than getting in the intruders face, they can be smart as hell and ive only seen them 'have a go' if they are really being treated harshly.  Frankly they are nothing a full grown adult should be seriously worried about, if you laid a boot into one you could get it airborn. 

  I find it almost impossible to have any sympathy for the cop, he was either shitscared in which case he should never have picked up the badge and gun in the first place, or a fairly twisted/powertripping individual (again, shouldnt have access to a gun and badge). 

  <10 seconds of calm speech without waving a gun around could have prevented the whole thing and if it was the house with the domestic, 10 seconds isnt going to make any difference to someone inside if there is no yelling or screaming.

Better than the usual caper when they are shooting humans though I suppose

[scriver]

The differing opinions here are probably due to how we all see dogs. Having been raised with them, and growing up along side a few great ones that were family members, I find it hard to punish a man for murdering a family member by having him reprimanded and sent to training. Some people see dogs, or simply animals, in a completely different light. Whether religious or not, some people follow the "god gave man dominion over all animals" thing closely, and others feel we have no right to harm them.

Please. My first cat was literally like a sister to me, and I'm probably one of the most extreme animal rightists on this forum (I barely even think people should be allowed to have non-dog animals in cities, and I absolutely despise the practice of keeping any kind of animal in a cage/terrarium/aquarium/other container for our amusement). I can still understand him shooting the dog, so don't pull that holier-than-thou stuff on me.

[Shinotsa]

I meant no offense, I was stating how these arguments are divided. When my dogs eventually pass away I get two types of consolement. One is the same that I'd get if it was a human relative, and the other is "it's just a dog, don't get too worked up." This has seriously happened many times, with both peers and authority figures such as teachers. I'm simply stating the way people feel and guessing as to the reasons behind it. I may be wrong in your case. In fact I certainly am, seeing as how you take such offense to it. But many people would not take any offense to that statement.

With that said a dog that was a maximum of 60 pounds is not exactly a danger to a fully grown human being. To put it in perspective police officers are trained by carrying sacks of similar weight up and down multiple flights of stairs. As I stated before, non-letal force should have been more than sufficient. As has been stated many times, there was no reason for a gun to be drawn.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

God knows a Blue Heeler is able to take down a moderately physically in-shape officer, they're slavering demon-dogs.

Though every Heeler I've known is about maximum of knee height and usually always territorial ankle-biters. Dangerous shit compared to a specific Pittbull which was able to tackle me on my shoulders from behind after tearing a chain from a tree after simply spotting me walking to my place [I lived right next to a trailer park at the time, violent dogs being a norm usually]. But I guess I'm just silly for thinking Heelers are harmless.

Also, if an officer of the law feels legitimately threatened by a dog that's a foot and a half tall, maybe that person shouldn't be the one claiming to defend justice in the face of danger, such as real criminals which can out-danger a dog of any breed by a factor of ten even while unarmed, so yeah.

[Leafsnail]

If the rules given to him were "approach potential domestic disturbance with gun drawn, without calling for or waiting for backup, even when there is no sign of someone being armed and dangerous, and the man is already outside, in your visual range, and not an obvious threat" then I think the rules need to be changed.

The article mentioned nothing about the rules regarding whether you can have your weapon drawn, and as such I can't say whether he followed any guidelines like that.  I would've thought it'd be mentioned somewhere if they did have specific rules against doing that.

[forsaken1111]

God knows a Blue Heeler is able to take down a moderately physically in-shape officer, they're slavering demon-dogs.

Hey according to MSH the cop was a trigger-happy bloodthirsty asshole so maybe the dog picked up on that and attacked him full on?

[MorleyDev]

I'll admit I don't 'get' pets at all. We had a few hamsters or guinea pigs or something when I was a child/teenager, but I barely noticed them and I think it took me a month to realise at least one of our hamsters had even died once (pretty sure they told me but like I paid attention to anything involving the rodents).

[The Fool]

I took the time to look up Texas police policies on firearms control.

2.10   LEARNING OBJECTIVE:   The student will be able to identify the reasons for various administrative mechanisms developed to reduce avoidable shootings.

A.   Avoidable shootings are those which, while justifiable and lawful, could have been avoided by some reasonable effort on the part of the officer without additional danger to that officer and others.

I also read through the deadly force section. Deadly force is allowed in cases where someone is defending their life, stopping a fleeing felon, stopping a moving vehicle, or stopping a threat to the public. If he sees him leaving his house he has to tell him to stop first before he draws his weapon. He broke protocol as far as I can tell.

If he thought he was a threat based on the call he should have had his baton ready, not his gun. Unless he was thought to be armed, but even then you need to know that he has a gun before you draw.

[GlyphGryph]

The article mentioned nothing about the rules regarding whether you can have your weapon drawn, and as such I can't say whether he followed any guidelines like that.  I would've thought it'd be mentioned somewhere if they did have specific rules against doing that.

Which, again, means those rules need to be changed, because nothing in this situation is appropriate police protocol in the rest of the country, and that protocol exists for a reason.

Of course, Now that the Fool has actually looked at the policies, its looking like this cop just broke the rules.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

That's a bit too long to remember. I'm pretty sure the rules are simply "Shoot first, ask questions lie in court later."

[mainiac]

Who watches the watchmen?

[The Fool]

Who watches the watchmen?

Internal Affairs.

[Neonivek]

I'll admit I don't 'get' pets at all. We had a few hamsters or guinea pigs or something when I was a child/teenager, but I barely noticed them and I think it took me a month to realise at least one of our hamsters had even died once (pretty sure they told me but like I paid attention to anything involving the rodents).

Here is a good way to imagine a pet. Take your best friend... Now imagine you felt that way about your hamster

Now imagine someone shot your best friend in the leg.

As I said the POINT of a pet (at least the dog and cat kind) is to gain this emotional connection. If you don't have that then there was no point in you having a pet.