I think that most everyone has heard about, if not seen, the video that hit youtube earlier this month showing officers of Hawthorne PD in California shooting a killing a 3 year old Rottweiler. The video shows a gentleman filming officers as they are responding to a call for armed robbery while he is walking his dog by the scene. During the video two officers ask the gentleman to turn his radio down in his car due to the noise interferring with their ability to hear what was going on on the scene. The video then shows the man talking back to the officers, the officers claim that the man was being non-compliant and refused to turn the radio down at first. Later he is seen walking to his car and securing the dog in the vehicle with the windows down and walking to the police officers as they approach him. The gentleman turns and allows the officers to cuff him and arrest him. While the officers are cuffing the man the dog jumps out the window and begins running at the officers. During this time a third officer has joined the scene and attempts to gain control of the dog by grabbing the dogs leash, however when the officer attempts this the dog lunges at him. The officer tries another attempt at controlling the dog and the dog lunges at the officer again. This time the officer fires a shot at the dog which injures but does not kill the dog. Firing three more rounds the officer kills the dog. The officers involved in the incident are catching a lot of heat for this incident. While the force is performing a investigation on them, the rest of the world seems to be yelling for their termination. Do you feel the officers should be terminated? After watching the video I was slightly disturbed being an animal lover, however I do not feel that the officers acted hastily or too harshly. If I had been in a high stress situation and then had a 130 pound dog lunging at me I probably would have reacted in the same way. And amidst the public outcry for justice for the dog no one takes into account the owners previous record and history with the Hawthorne PD or the fact that he already has a lawsuit against the PD for racial mistreatment and was there to "safegaurd everyones civil rights" by filming the incident to begin with or that he was interfering with law enforcement. Just wondering what everyone else's take on the situation is.
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