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Cops Again Shoot Innocent Dog While Owner Watches

Remember the cops in Tennessee who shot a family dog while the owners watched and freaked out last January? Well, I certainly do, and it really pisses me off that it's happened again, this time in Milwaukee:

At the time of the shooting, she and her dog were in the backyard around 2 a.m. Saturday waiting for police, but when squad cars arrived, Sprite bounded toward the officers.

Seconds later, the 6-year-old, 38-pound Sprite was shot in the head.

"He fell over and flinched,'' said Mueller, who was standing about 10 feet behind the dog when the officer fired. "To see him fall over flinching and die right there, it's just hard to explain.''

The incident happened when police responded to the 911 call reporting a man contemplating suicide. By the time officers arrived, the man, Mueller's friend, had calmed down.

"I told them, 'The dog is harmless, don't hurt the dog,''' said Dave Williams, another friend of Mueller who witnessed the shooting. "Three seconds later, they shot the dog."

For more, click here.

All I can do is repeat some of what I said about the dog killing back in January:

I now realize that when I read about police brutality toward humans (that is, as opposed to dogs) I get angrier in my head than I do in my heart. I suppose the image of uniformed men with guns blowing away a family pet while the helpless family freaks out is, at the very least, difficult to digest. But what about the countless individuals, human beings, most of them ethnic minorities, that have been brutalized, harassed, and beaten by the police? Things are much, much worse than the sadistic killing of a dog might suggest. I ought to be angrier in my heart.

Increasingly, I am.

American police culture is out of control. (I say “culture” because I believe that there are lots of well-meaning, good individuals that are cops. But many of those “good cops” end up doing bad things or remaining silent when they witness acts of corruption and brutality performed by their less well-meaning cop brothers.) Newspapers report HUNDREDS of instances of police misconduct every year but miss the big story: THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF KNOWN INSTANCES OF POLICE MISCONDUCT EVERY YEAR! How many Richard Jewells and David Koreshes must it take? How many murdered dogs? When will mainstream (that is, white) America wake up and realize that it is no longer such a gross, radical exaggeration to say that we’re not too far from Nazi Germany? (That is to say, Arayans equal whites; Jews equal non-whites...hey, there really is a comparison there!) The only thing out of the ordinary about the killing of the Smoak family dog is that the Smoaks are white. People of color know the score but lack enough clout and power to address the injustices. Whites, for the most part, live in ignorant bliss—when a white American gets screwed by the cops it is viewed as an “isolated incident” that is not representative of the overall situation.

Of course, that’s a lie. Authoritarianism and violence are simply a big part of what cops are. I hate cops. Because, you see, cops really are pigs.

'Nuff said. (for my full post on cops from January, click here.)

Thanks to J. Orlin Grabbe for the link.

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