LA Police Officer Kills a Dog – VIDEO (warning GRAPHIC)

A friend of mine just posted this on facebook. I was hesitant to watch it – the title says enough. It’s not something I wanted to see. But I watched. And now I cannot help but share it.

Warning. It. Is. Graphic.

If you love animals and are not prepared to see one give its life protecting its owner, just skip the video and see the information below. If you are triggered by cases of racial profiling and police abuse of power, skip it and go to the information below.

If you’re in California, especially LA, make some phone calls; share this with friends and neighbors. This kind of thing should never have happened. Let’s do what we can to make sure it never happens again.

(NEW: sign the change.org petition: Hawthorne Police Department: Take officer Scott Swain off the streets.)

Call mayor Danial Juarez’s public line, (310) 643-6139, to tell him that this is unacceptable. The more people that let them know that this is not ok the better.

Other relevant numbers:
Roderick Wright, state senator: (916) 651-4035
Steven Bradford, assemblyman: (310) 412-6400 Inglewood, (916) 319-2062 Sac

In any case, this is so emblematic of much of what is wrong with America today, in my humble opinion. I’m not sure if the police felt threatened or outnumbered, or any of the other circumstances beyond what is shown in the video. But I do know that what we see in it is unacceptable and this needs to go beyond the particular officer(s) involved to see what kinds of systems create situations that lead to this.

The officer clearly approached the dog in a quick and menacing fashion; when the dog jumped up, the officer opened fire.

This is a very hard video to watch – and re-watch. I myself have been bit by a dog almost that size, on the wrist in a similar fashion as the officer almost was. I backed off after the bite and was fine – the dog was fine, everything was fine. It was a protective reaction by the dog – simply reacting to me invading its space.

This dog seems to be doing the same, obviously upset that his owner was being man-handled in front of him, but then mostly calm – sniffing around the ground even – until the officer came at it. In fact, at 3:21 in the dog is 3-4 feet away from everyone. And then the police officer stepped quickly toward it (and between the dog and its owner), gun drawn and pointed…

Two quick updates. Huffington Post quotes a police spokesman as saying:

“It looks like the officer tried to reach down and grab the leash, and then the dog lunges in the direction of him and the other officers there,” Hawthorne police Lt. Scott Swain said to the Daily Breeze. “And I know it’s the dog’s master, and more than likely not going to attack him, (but) we’ve got a guy handcuffed that’s kind of defenseless. We have a duty to defend him, too.”

And CBS-LA reports that Leon Rosby, the dog’s owner, has an attorney and would be suing the Hawthorne Police Department.

(NEW: sign the change.org petition: Hawthorne Police Department: Take officer Scott Swain off the streets.)