In yet another sick story of a law enforcement officer shooting a beloved family pet another investigation is being conducted by authorities over an alleged dog murder. The incident took place back in August in Cleburne, Texas and was captured on video by a police body cam. That video is now going viral on the internet. This particular incident is bizarre in that the shooter was apparently making sounds of a non-threatening and even accommodating nature in order to draw the animal closer before he pulled the trigger.
According to a story from the website of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that is entitled “Cleburne police reviewing officer’s shooting of dog”:
Cleburne police are reviewing an incident involving an officer fatally shooting a pit bull that appeared to be aggressive — an event that was captured on video.
On Aug. 10, police responded to a 911 call from a woman who said that she, along with an elderly woman and a baby, were trapped in their car by several pit bulls.
In a news release issued Friday, two months after the dog was shot, police spokeswoman Kelly Summey said, “The city is obviously concerned about the video showing an officer shooting a dog. As is often the case, the short video does not tell the whole story.”
Summey did not return phone calls late Friday afternoon.
Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain said that the video was “bad” and that an internal investigation is underway.
“Obviously, the video is very disturbing, and I am very upset about the video,” he said. “We want to hear the officer’s statement as well as statements from witnesses, but I can assure you that if action needs to be taken, that it will be swift.”
When asked why information was released in October when the shooting took place in August, Cain said, “That is something I would like to know.”
The Cleburne shooting comes on the heels of a recent incident involving Fort Worth Deputy Chief Kenneth Flynn, who faces animal cruelty charges after he shot and killed a German shepherd with his city-issued weapon after the dog killed his cat.
“The officer was using his body camera. The dog was wagging its tail, but we need to look at the dog’s body language,” Cain said.
The dead dog’s owner, like Mayor Cain has questioned that why if the animal was shot in August did an investigation not take place until mid-October? Dallas-Ft. Worth television station WFAA 8 interviewed Amanda Henderson who states "I see him murdering my puppy, our family... our dog". The likely answer is that the release of the video online made the shooting impossible for the city to ignore any longer.
The cop’s account is that the animal was aggressive but if that were the case couldn’t mace or pepper spray have been used to subdue the animal? Why didn’t the police - with the call being placed specifically over the behavior of the dogs – call in animal control professionals to deal with the situation? In America there are any number of professions where dogs are encountered yet you rarely if ever hear of mailmen, meter readers, appliance repair personnel, leaflet distributors, delivery service employees or pizza carriers opening fire on an animal.
Maybe it’s the uniform and the accompanying allure of being a government enforcer that a percentage of sociopaths and power freaks are drawn to. Such individuals are able to slip through the screening processes and when they inevitably act out cities and counties have a public relations mess and litigation on their hands. Such incidents and worse happen with such frequency now that it is obvious that there is a systemic crisis underway.
The most disturbing aspect is the video itself, where the dog appeared to be lured by the offending cop with kissy sounds and then sent to the great beyond. If that is the case then it is a vile and sadistic act and should result in not only legal action against the City of Cleburne but also disciplinary action against the officer himself.
The phenomenon of cops busting a cap into a furry, four-legged animal is a sign of the times in these days of moral and social decline. This type of behavior coincides with the rise of the American police state after 9/11 and it won't be stopping anytime soon.
This stuff should just not happen in America and fittingly belongs in a banana republic somewhere.
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