Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Untitled topic

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 128 posts

Re: undefined

#61

Post by fixxer »

cpursley wrote: post #40

Qualifications to be a police officer: A.) Be pretty good at football, but not enough to go pro or college. Edit: to the comment below, my old next door neighbor's 'star football player' but C- son got fired as a prison guard after beating the pulp out of an inmate who 'insulted his mama' just 6 months after graduating HS - the stereotype is true, especially so in the southeastern USA. This is just one of many exampl…

I saw you got a downvote for this comment. I think the reasons for that downvote are fair and I'm not going to defend you... but, funny story regarding your point "A":

I grew up living next door to a moderately famous federal judge. She was like a grandmother to me; brilliant woman (she passed away years ago).

She was a conservative (Reagan appointee) and definitely on the side of law enforcement. To qualify this statement without naming her, let's just say she might have presided over a case that sparked some civil discontent in Miami a while back when a cop shot a guy on a motorcycle.

Nevertheless, she always joked that "police departments are filled with those dumb guys from high school that were always lifting weights but never good enough to get a football scholarship."

So, it appears you're not completely alone in your view.

Re: undefined

#62

Post by epochwolf »

xjtian wrote: post #38

It's a sad situation, and the officer never should have fired his sidearm at the dog, but to be fair to them, they didn't just shoot the dog with no provocation - the dog lunges 2 or 3 times at the officers with clear aggressive intent before it's shot. There are a million different things these officers could have done a lot better in this situation, like not arresting the videographer in the first place, or using p…

No, no, no. You do not use pepper spray on a dog. Pepper spray gets everywhere. The officer using it is going to get hit with it too. Pepper spray would make the dog more aggressive and put the officers in jeopardy. Once the dog started attacking their only option was to shoot.

Re: undefined

#63

Post by VladRussian2 »

bch wrote: post #18

This story/video needs a warning. Warning: there is a graphic disgusting killing of an animal in the video.

Warning: behaving like a free man in a free country will get you arrested and your dog killed.

The government power (at all levels) has become really intrusive and unchecked during the last decade i've been living in the US. You guys going the same road - 2 castes, one above the law and one under.

Re: undefined

#64

Post by angersock »

cpursley wrote: post #40

Qualifications to be a police officer: A.) Be pretty good at football, but not enough to go pro or college. Edit: to the comment below, my old next door neighbor's 'star football player' but C- son got fired as a prison guard after beating the pulp out of an inmate who 'insulted his mama' just 6 months after graduating HS - the stereotype is true, especially so in the southeastern USA. This is just one of many exampl…

Yeah, that's neither fair nor reasonable. Save your vitrol for folks who deserve it.

Re: undefined

#65

Post by epochwolf »

djent wrote: post #58

Animal control is not 10 feet away ready with tranquilizer darts. Police need to defend themselves from aggressive animals. They can't take the chance that it's "just jumping up on them a little." They certainly can't release the man under arrest so he can restrain his dog; that potentially would have been an even more dangerous situation. Something about killing aggressive dogs makes people seem to forget that they…

Darts take minutes to work. Even if they had them ready it won't work in time.

Re: undefined

#66

Post by whiddershins »

eggbrain wrote: post #57

I hate to be "that" guy, but: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. There is nothing Hacker News related here. At BEST we can tangentially relate it to our civil liberties, but that is a stretch. Let's keep things like thi…

You think it is a stretch that this relates to civil liberties? That's kinda interesting.

Re: undefined

#67

Post by mayanksinghal »

to3m wrote: post #52
perryh2 wrote: post #8

Why are guns even used on dogs? Shouldn't there be a way to sedate aggressive dogs? I just don't understand. Getting shot by a gun as a human or dog is almost always going to be fatal.

What are you going to do? Put chloroform over its nose? Inject it with a sedative? Spray it with something? May I ask whether you have you ever owned a dog? ;) I can't think of any quicker and overall safer means of sedation than simply shooting it in the head. It's sad that a dog has to die, but compared to the mess an angry dog can make, its life is simply not worth much. Not that I really want to sound like I'm de…

I have owned a dog in past, and I was able to calm him down when he used to get angry. And I believe that would have been the case with the dead dog and the person who was in cuffs for no reason.

Re: undefined

#68

Post by jessedhillon »

machrider wrote: post #39
jessedhillon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a dog lover through and through. But it is very tough to see what the police could have done differently, except maybe taser him/her instead. That dog looks like he was 70+ lbs, and he was lunging at the officer, in my view. It's very, very sad to have seen this -- I wish the window had been rolled up. That said, yes the police did instigate this in the larger sense by (I guess?) arresting him for taping the inc…

The police could have not arrested him for committing no crime. I'm pretty sure that option was on the table.

Yes, I agree and said as much. Once they did begin to arrest him, and the dog did jump out -- from that point, I don't see that they had much choice but to shoot the dog.

Re: undefined

#69

Post by angersock »

mehmehshoe wrote: post #56
aidenn0 wrote: post #47

I'm a bit conflicted; on the one hand I think the officers were correct to shoot the dog once it was jumping at them and was undeterred by being kicked. On the other hand killing a dog is going to get a lot more people mad at (and raise awareness of) the over-the-top reactions of officers to people videotaping cops.

My first thought was firing a gun with so many people standing very close. LEO's have other non lethal means that could work on a dog.

What, taze the dog (obligatory hot-dog joke here)?

Firing a gun without knowing your backstop is generally bad, but angled down and in self-defense it's not the worst thing in the world.

The dog in question was large and probably could've done some decent damage. It's not right what the officers did, but it wasn't unreasonable either once the animal went nuts.

Re: undefined

#70

Post by mixmax »

LowKarmaAccount wrote: post #6

Unless you have a real emergency and need assistance, it's best to avoid the police whenever possible, even if you've done nothing wrong. Local police forces have many officers that are poorly trained and believe that they have plenary power or act as if they do in any situation. Of course, this isn't true about all local police officers, but if you don't know which officers are the good ones, you should just avoid a…

If the best advice in the US is to avoid the police you've got a very serious problem. It sounds like travel advice from a third-world country.
Post reply on HN