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Police in the US shoot dogs so often, an expert calls it an “epidemic” (2016)
- rolph 5y agothere are partial bandaid solutions price per loadout is steep for average dog owner. https://uarmprotection.com/shop/category/other-equipment/canine-k9/ https://uarmprotection.com/shop/category/other-equipment/can...
- decremental 5y ago> this time about the preoccupation of white Americans with their pets rather than the death of black Americans at the hands of police. Is it possible to read any article without being psy-op'd?
- rejectedandsad 5y agoIt’s not wrong though
- wyre 5y agoHow is this a psy-op? Seems like an sociological observation to me.
- cronix 5y agoOne that appears deliberately placed and really has nothing to do with the article subject, except to stir unrelated emotions.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- pjc50 5y agoIt can't be an epidemic, the CDC is banned from thinking about gun deaths.
- Rebelgecko 5y agoI think you're mistaken. First off, I don't think you can legally ban an organization from "thinking" about something (although I'm not sure what it means for an agency to think about something... Is that metonymnic for the thoughts of the people who are employed there?). On top of studying and tracking gun violence statistics, the CDC also spends around $30m/year on research and grants to reduce gun deaths
- panda-giddiness 5y agohttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/27/us/politics/gun-violence-research-cdc.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/27/us/politics/gun-violence-... > Federal money for gun research all but disappeared after Congress in 1996 enacted the so-called Dickey Amendment, which barred the C.D.C. from spending money to “advocate or promote gun control.” It was named for Jay Dickey, a former Republican House member from Arkansas, who proudly proclaimed himself the National Rifle Association’s “point man” in Washington. > [...] > In 2019, Dr. Rosenberg and Mr. Dickey’s former wife, Betty, a retired former prosecutor and chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, helped persuade Congress to restore the funding; lawmakers appropriated $25 million, split between the C.D.C. and the National Institutes of Health, for firearm injury prevention research. Congress stymied funding for 25 years, but it has since been restored.
- Wistar 5y ago"Although the Dickey Amendment did not explicitly ban it, for about two decades the CDC avoided all research on gun violence for fear it would be financially penalized. Congress clarified the law in 2018 to allow for such research, and the FY2020 federal omnibus spending bill earmarked the first funding for it since 1996." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_Amendment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_Amendment
- chmod600 5y agoThat is either misleading or outright false. You are referring to the Dickey Amendment, which which mandated that "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be used to advocate or promote gun control." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_Amendment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_Amendment
- kevinskii 5y agoI used to be a reserve deputy sheriff. One night we got a call about two "vicious Rottweilers" who had broken through their fence into the neighbor's yard and were mauling the pet bunny. It turned out that the dogs were two happy playful boxer puppies who didn't physically harm the rabbit in the slightest, and the fence was so rotten that a stiff breeze could have knocked it down. What stuck with me, though, was that a couple of the cops who showed up to the scene were disappointed that they wouldn't get to shoot a dog after all.
- toomuchtodo 5y agoThat tells you all you need to know about who we select for in law enforcement roles. Society needs peacekeepers and people who know how to and prefer de-escalation, not warriors. https://www.vox.com/2020/7/31/21334190/what-police-do-defund-abolish-police-reform-training https://www.vox.com/2020/7/31/21334190/what-police-do-defund... (Vox: We train police to be warriors — and then send them out to be social workers)
- samcheng 5y agoNot really warriors. Bullies.
- kcplate 5y agoI don’t think this is accurate. However, almost every person I knew in school that I would have described as a bully I knew growing up became a cop for some part of their life. So, I’d say from my perspective and experience, it’s likely a job that is probably attractive to bullies, as opposed a job that is creating them.
- robcohen 5y agoI hear you, but do you want the job? I always hear that “society should select this and that” for police and military jobs, but the people saying these things that society should do would almost never volunteer. So it feels like a hollow solution. That said, the training could be much better than it is. But people like low taxes.
- laurent123456 5y agoIt's on the owner too I guess. The article mentions rottweiler, pit bulls, and drug sweeps, and I'm certain some of these owners get these dogs specifically for defense, if not attack. That they end up dead is awful but I'm sure in some cases the owner is to blame more than the police.
- bdcravens 5y agoA few years ago I was getting some appliances delivered and installed. One of my dogs, a dachshund, got out the front door. As I'm corralling him, I see one of the installers sprint out the front door, slamming it behind him, in obvious fear for his life. Turns out my pit-lab wasn't in her cage, and she wanted to play with the new guy in her house. Of course, he didn't known that, and assumed she was a murderous beast wanting to go for his jugular. It's a funny story, but had he been in law enforcement (or at least armed, which will be very easy in Texas beginning September 1), I believe that same assumption would have resulted in the death of a sweet family pet.
- throwaway6734 5y agoIt's not a funny story. Maintain control of your dog or don't have one as a pet.
- awillen 5y agoYeah, I don't really see why you're getting downvoted here. The poster let one of his dogs escape his house and left another one loose while an appliance installer who didn't know anything about the dog was there. When I have people in my house who aren't familiar with my dogs (who are friendly), I put the dogs away and let the people know exactly which door they should not open. If nothing else it's just very, very rude to leave your dog loose in the house when a worker comes in, unless they say it's okay. You don't know if they're allergic or scared of dogs, and they're there to do a job. Show them the respect of allowing them to do their job uninterrupted by your dog (and don't let your dogs escape your house... that's just basic stuff).
- Zamicol 5y agoAs a runner I've been bit by dogs in two states. Too many Americans do not treat their dogs as the potentially dangerous animals that they are.
- StreamBright 5y agoThis does not justify shooting random dogs in other situations, does it?
- MichaelGroves 5y agoSome of the shootings of dogs are justified, others are not. It depends on the dog and the circumstance, but of course every dog owner will claim their dog was a loveable puppy after the fact. I am expected to uncritically believe the owners, to believe that all these dogs are harmless and well trained and that they're all being shot for no reason. Well I believe that some of them are being shot for no good reason, but I've seen very little to suggest that most are. And from my interactions with the general public, I am inclined to believe most dogs are, if not dangerous, then at least poorly trained.
- Supermancho 5y agoThat wasn't the intent of the comment. The implied question, is if this is an unusually high incident rate. ie Just how many aggressively dangerous dogs exist and how frequently they are encountered in police action. The statement was an anecdotal sample of an area where people are running, you can get attacked without additional circumstance. 40 years in California, I'd only ever been assaulted by dogs a handful of times and that's because they weren't controlled. Dogs are generally allowed to run freely in their own yards/homes so it makes sense that strangers/police entering yards and homes in a stressful situation, encounter aggressive animals much more frequently.
- jmnicolas 5y agoAs a French hiker I can tell you it's the same here. People think that since the dog is nice to them it will be the same with strangers. Frankly it ruins my hikes so I go out less and less.
- matttproud 5y agoThe same could be said about the police’s treatment of ordinary people. Cowardice and impunity.
- dudul 5y ago3/4th of the tweets used as "source" for this hum, "article" are either unavailable or from suspended accounts. Why is this about "white people" caring about dogs? Non-white people do not care about dogs? Why is this a white people only thing?
- chmod600 5y ago"estimates that 25 to 30 pet dogs are killed daily by police" Approximately 10000 per year, which is about equal to the number of human murder victims, and about ten times the number of humans killed by police (justifiably or not) each year. There are about 4 times as many humans in the US as dogs: https://financesonline.com/number-of-dogs-in-the-us/ https://financesonline.com/number-of-dogs-in-the-us/ I really wish articles would make context numbers like this clear. I had to poke around. Judge for yourself whether this is an epidemic, but do so based on some numbers that provide some grounding. Disclaimer: I found these numbers quickly and probably made some mistakes, but I don't think they are wildly off.
- edgyquant 5y agoI really think they should be forced to use something like a tranquilizer or at least there has to be another response. Cops come into a home and the dog gets killed defending their owner. You can’t really tell a dog they aren’t supposed to do that.
- MichaelGroves 5y agoTranquilizer darts only work fast enough for self defense in video games.
- edgyquant 5y agoThat’s why I said “or another response.”
- adrianN 5y agoI'm a bit shocked that if I interpret your numbers correctly, police officers kill about 10% as many people as are killed in murders.
- chmod600 5y agoAs far as I can tell, that's about right. But to be clear, that says nothing about whether the police shootings are justifiable or not. It could be that, in many of those incidents, lethal force prevented the deaths of other people. But I don't have numbers to say one way or another.
- chmod600 5y agoIsn't it kind of hard to shoot a dog, especially a dangerous one? They move around a lot faster than humans. Maybe a lot of them are just barking and looking scary, but don't know enough to be afraid of a gun, so stand still?
- kevin_thibedeau 5y agoA vicious dog won't immediately attack. They'll make a stand barking and growling. If they're impeding your progress that's when you shoot.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoWhen there is a stranger in their territory (the home), many dogs will immediately attack.
- MichaelGroves 5y ago> A vicious dog won't immediately attack. It's trivial to find videos of dog attacks that contradict your absolutist assertion.
- adrianN 5y agoPresumably not every attempt to shoot at dog is immediately successful either.
- myWindoonn 5y agoAnd yet, you provided none. Curious. (I've been attacked by dogs multiple times, and indeed, they warn before attacking.)
- NoOneNew 5y agoAnd fear mongering at it's finest! Let's see, give a crazy stat that ruffles feathers, 25 to 30 dogs killed daily. But wait! Let's dig into the source of said numbers! It's right there after all. >No one keeps records on how many privately owned dogs are shot and killed each year by American law enforcement officers so there are no hard figures. But a perusal of the Web and social media will tell you it's a lot. Hmmm... based on self claimed social media... wow, that's some hardcore journalism skills let me tell you. Because only the truth is allowed on social media. Oh how knee jerky the HN community has become just for some virtue signal points... I swear, next you all are going to claim an api service will save the trees...