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[Lord Dullard]

Because the dog and his owner could have possibly known that...how? That's the injustice here. See, when you kill a cop's dog, it's homicide. When a cop kills your dog, it had it coming.

Its not injustice, it's just coincidence. It happens. Police officer had a gun, felt threatened, fired. Its nobody's fault. Not the dog's, not the cop's. Its unfortunate is all.

As The Fool mentioned, the primary focus here should be on why he had his gun out. Given the information we've been presented with, he had no reason for it. Responding to a call of domestic violence - to whose house, the Joker's? What the hell did he need his pistol out for? He was investigating what was probably a report that somebody beat up their wife, or maybe some loud shouting, or something similar. There is pretty much ZERO need to walk into that situation with your gun drawn.

[forsaken1111]

Because the dog and his owner could have possibly known that...how? That's the injustice here. See, when you kill a cop's dog, it's homicide. When a cop kills your dog, it had it coming.

Its not injustice, it's just coincidence. It happens. Police officer had a gun, felt threatened, fired. Its nobody's fault. Not the dog's, not the cop's. Its unfortunate is all.

As The Fool mentioned, the primary focus here should be on why he had his gun out. Given the information we've been presented with, he had no reason for it. Responding to a call of domestic violence - to whose house, the Joker's? What the hell did he need his pistol out for? He was investigating what was probably a report that somebody beat up their wife, or maybe some loud shouting, or something similar. There is pretty much ZERO need to walk into that situation with your gun drawn.

I agree with you there. We don't know what he was told, but having the gun out right as he gets out of the car is a bit excessive.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Because the dog and his owner could have possibly known that...how? That's the injustice here. See, when you kill a cop's dog, it's homicide. When a cop kills your dog, it had it coming.

Its not injustice, it's just coincidence. It happens. Police officer had a gun, felt threatened, fired. Its nobody's fault. Not the dog's, not the cop's. Its unfortunate is all.

No, actually, it is entirely the cop's fault for being a trigger-happy bloodthirsty asshole.

Well if you can make assumptions why can't I? It's entirely the dog's fault for being a bloodthirsty killing machine!

The dog isn't guilty of doing anything but walking up to the cop, supposedly in a territorial manner.

The cop, on the other hand, is entirely guilty of shooting the dog like a madman, right in front of his owner.

[forsaken1111]

Because the dog and his owner could have possibly known that...how? That's the injustice here. See, when you kill a cop's dog, it's homicide. When a cop kills your dog, it had it coming.

Its not injustice, it's just coincidence. It happens. Police officer had a gun, felt threatened, fired. Its nobody's fault. Not the dog's, not the cop's. Its unfortunate is all.

No, actually, it is entirely the cop's fault for being a trigger-happy bloodthirsty asshole.

Well if you can make assumptions why can't I? It's entirely the dog's fault for being a bloodthirsty killing machine!

The dog isn't guilty of doing anything but walking up to the cop, supposedly in a territorial manner.

The cop, on the other hand, is entirely guilty of shooting the dog like a madman, right in front of his owner.

Okay let's not make shit up now. The dog didn't just WALK up to the cop.

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.

He was running and barking, at the very least. Possibly in a territorial or challenging manner. The owner said that the dog was challenging the cop.

[Sowelu]

Wow, I really love your use of weasel-words.  The dog was supposedly dangerous, because clearly cops aren't trustworthy, right?  It's his word against a civilian's, and the cop is always wrong.  And the cop was like a madman.  That's just...I'm speechless.

[nenjin]

So what, cops aren't allowed to get scared? I'm not sure how you would stop that.

They're supposed to be professionals. They're trained to control their fear in dangerous situations so they can do their job, fire their weapon and keep a hold of their judgment while under stress. That's what makes them professionals. A domestic disturbance call and a neighborhood dog isn't anything compared to what they're really trained to handle. Except I guess when you feed your domestic police officers endless military and anti-terror scenarios, it shouldn't be a surprise when they blow something away they shouldn't have.

The dog was supposedly dangerous, because clearly cops aren't trustworthy, right?

Guess we'll never know, because that little bit of the dashboard cam is already gone, now innit. You know, the one that would probably provide the proof, or absence of proof, of a snarling dog threatening the officer's safety.

[forsaken1111]

Soldiers are trained professionals too, but even they get scared and make bad decisions. People are people and they have emotions no matter how much you train them.

[Sowelu]

Guess we'll never know, because that little bit of the dashboard cam is already gone, now innit. You know, the one that would probably provide the proof, or absence of proof, of a snarling dog threatening the officer's safety.

Alright, that's fair.

[nenjin]

Soldiers are trained professionals too, but even they get scared and make bad decisions. People are people and they have emotions no matter how much you train them.

They do. And they're sometimes even prosecuted for it. We should be demanding the best from the people who are supposed to be guarding us, literally, while we sleep. Not excusing the worst.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Wow, I really love your use of weasel-words.  The dog was supposedly dangerous, because clearly cops aren't trustworthy, right?  It's his word against a civilian's, and the cop is always wrong.  And the cop was like a madman.  That's just...I'm speechless.

Wow, MetalSlimeHunt doesn't like cops. What a revelation. We've had plenty of threads before in which I have expressed exactly how I feel about the American police force.

There is a limit to what I can tolerate from a group of people before I start writing them off as a matter of course, and the police crossed it years ago.

In addition, much in the same way that a person is considered innocent until proven guilty, I will in fact assume that a cop's eyewitness testimony is just as completely useless as anyone else's until collaborated by physical evidence. Physical evidence that we now lack because his buddies decided to edit the tape to their liking before giving it to the public. Cops have every reason to lie. They're practically encouraged to, "anything you say may be used against you" and all that.

They aren't trustworthy paragons of justice and they aren't looking to protect people. They're out to enforce the letter of the law and to enjoy having power.

[forsaken1111]

Soldiers are trained professionals too, but even they get scared and make bad decisions. People are people and they have emotions no matter how much you train them.

They do. And they're sometimes even prosecuted for it. We should be demanding the best from the people who are supposed to be guarding us, literally, while we sleep. Not excusing the worst.

Excusing the worst? He shot a freaking dog. It sucks. Its unfortunate. He maybe shouldn't have had his gun out. This is hardly the worst thing a cop has done. The man will be sad, and then he will get a new dog. Worst case, the city will pay for his therapy.

[lordcooper]

I'll start truly caring about cops killing dogs when they stop killing people.

[forsaken1111]

I'll start truly caring about cops killing dogs when they stop killing people.

This 1000 times.

[Lord Dullard]

I will give individual cops the benefit of the doubt. Here are the things I fault this guy for:
1. Shooting a dog that is 'running at you and barking'. That is pretty much all the info we have on the dog's behavior, and if that's ALL the dog was doing, sorry but no, not enough justification to shoot the dog, IMHO. Just about every dog in the universe will run at you and bark in their yard. If it runs at you and snarls and JUMPS at you or something, shooting it might make sense. If it bites your leg, shooting it makes sense. A dog running up to you and barking because you - guess what - waltzed into its yard in a manner that probably resembles stalking (given the fact that you've stupidly withdrawn your firearm) is no reason to shoot it.

I know some will disagree with me here and say that a dog running up to you in a 'threatening' manner is enough justification to shoot it. We will have to agree to disagree on that point, because I don't think a dog barking at you and running up to you in its own yard is unusual enough behavior to be considered threatening.

2. Having his gun drawn in the first place, which we've already gone over and seems to be more or less universally acknowledged as a poor decision.

Now, as for my thoughts about the guy:
1. I think he made bad decisions and deserves consequences up to and including the loss of his job, but I certainly don't think he deserves to be called 'bloodthirsty' or whatnot. Trigger-happy, yes, probably, but that's not the same thing. I would consider him a bad policeman if for no other reason than that in my judgment he reacted poorly under a very MINIMAL degree of pressure, but not a bad person.
2. I would not want this guy in my neighborhood, armed, because clearly he lacks the decision-making skills to differentiate which situations are and aren't appropriate for having your gun drawn and ready.

[DJ]

If a cop feels he needs his gun, he should wait for the backup.