Okay, Maybe THIS Is Why People Think Cops Are Bad Guys

Two weeks ago, my brother asked how cops got a bad name in the media. I'd suggest that much of it is due to the fact that

* cops tend to Live In Reality, since they are in constant constant/conflict with the general public; * wealthy/privileged liberals tend to be insulated from the worst aspects of reality by their, you guessed it, wealth and privilege. Case in point, if you're interested.

As a consequence of the above difference in situations, the police find themselves having to justify their treatment of someone like Michael Brown to people who have never had to confront a Michael Brown (or, it should be noted, a Dylann Storm Roof) in their lives. They are continually endangered by the lawless thugs and scumbags (of all, or at least most, colors) who inhabit America's cities. They have to deal with those people in high-stress situations where they have limited time and resources to address those situations. And then they get Monday-morning quarterbacked by people who live in three-million-dollar Park Slope mansions. It's a tough situation, only partly ameliorated by the princely salaries and benefits that most police enjoy.

So I'm often inclined to give the police the benefit of the doubt... and then I see something like this.

The full story is here but here's the important part:

Parsley says a Columbus Police Officer came to his house to follow up on a hit-and-skip case Parsley says he was a victim of two weeks ago. He says when the officer stepped outside - a woman, two houses down, came running out and pleading for help.

“She was wanting medical attention for her sister,” Parsley said. “That’s why she called the guy over there.”

Parsley went back inside his house. A few seconds later he heard the gunshot.

“I did hear the gunshot – it was very loud,” he said. “At first I thought maybe he’d shot the dog, because she was saying something about ‘Why would you try to shoot the dog?’ and he said something like the dog was attacking him, or something like that. Then, she started saying ‘You shot my kid!’.”

According to CPD, when the officer approached the house the family’s dog charged him.

“The officer fires one shot at the dog, misses the dog and accidentally shoots a four-year-old in the leg,” CPD spokeswoman, Denise Alex-Bouzounis, said.

Let me go on record as saying I am 100% in favor of police, or civilians, shooting troublesome dogs. Just one days' walk (or BMX ride) through any low-income part of any town will show you just how out-of-control people let their various pitbulls, Dobermans, et al get. I'm not sure what kind of dog I despise more, honestly: the "attack dogs" that bite the faces off children in their own homes while their owners pull the "Dindu Nuffin" card, or the "fur babies" that twentysomething women use to enslave and emasculate their beta-male partners. I'm not sure when, exactly, dogs became equal to people and more important than fetuses/tissue/whatever, but it's a deplorable state of affairs, it's an indictment of our sick "culture", and it's the type of situation that is crying out for rectification via a Smith&Wesson.

Consequently, I have no issue with the idea of a cop who is entering a home at the request of a homeowner shooting an aggressive dog. But you have to be able to hit the fucking dog, man! There are two major errors being made here:

* Not being able to hit a dog at close range. Even if the dog is moving, this should not be difficult. I'm pretty sure I could do it 100 out of 100 times. It's easier than trapshooting. * Not knowing what's behind your target. This is Jeff Cooper's famous fourth rule and it is not optional regardless of what the author in the linked piece thinks. This would be a grievous error on the part of an armed citizen. On the part of a police officer, it should be grounds for immediate termination without recourse. This cop should already be a non-supercitizen as we speak.

Of course, that ain't gonna happen. Which is another reason people hate cops; they play by different rules than the rest of us. But if you read the comments on the original article, you'll see something that's even more depressing. Most of the commenters aren't worried about the kid who got shot. They're upset about the fact that the cop fired his weapon at the dog.

In other words, the majority of the people who care enough to read a news website are more worried about the welfare of a "mutt" than they are about the impact on a four-year-old of being shot.

Would you want to spend the rest of your life trying to enforce some sort of order, or behavior, on a society made of worthless human garbage like that?

It's enough to make you have sympathy for the police after all.