Disabled vet, service dog kicked off boardwalk by police

[Are_grits_groceries]

A wounded U.S. war veteran and his wife visiting the Jersey Shore were asked to leave a boardwalk because of the man's service dog. Veteran Jared Goering says he was kicked off the boards and issued a summons all over his service dog named Navigator. "They said that my dog wasn't a seeing-eye dog and that one seeing-eye dogs are allowed on the boardwalk," said Goering.

Goering and his wife, Sally, were visiting New Jersey from Tampa, FL and were on the way to dinner Thursday night when police on the North Wildwood, NJ Boardwalk. The couple tried to explain that the dog, called Gator for short, is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which allows Gator to go everywhere Jared goes.

"Then he [the officer] went on to say that, ‘what do they do give every vet a dog now?' He [the dog] has a vest on him, he has a leash, and that's all that's necessary. He does carry an ID which he did give to the officer, and the officer gave it back and said, ‘that doesn't mean anything to me,'" Sally Goering said.

Jared retired from military service after 19 years because of injuries during multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has a traumatic brain injury from the IEDs and problems with mobility. Gator helps him walk and go up and down stairs.

"I respect cops, I respect what they do," Jared said. "I know they don't have an easy job, but my job for 20 years was to defend the country. I got shot at on a daily basis and then blown up, you know? Yeah, it hurts." The Wildwood, NJ police chief says he's looked in to the matter and there is more to it, but declined further comment. The summons has been dismissed.
http://www.wafb.com/story/23104049/disabled-vet-service-dog-kicked-off-boardwalk-by-police

Sooooo tired of things like this.

[hollysmom]

1. I am sometimes ashamed of people in my state.

Service dogs are exceptionally well behaved,the only ones that should be denied are the celebrity dogs which are named anxiety dogs just to get them up front plane rides. While there might be one or two, there is a spate of them now that are misidentified and dressed in people clothes, not service dog clothes.

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. I Tell Young People To Boycott Serving In The US Military.

I am a Vietnam vet and disgusted with this country and its attitude toward vets. When vets can get arrested in Wisconsin for singing and people aren't calling for retribution against thugs like Walker I am done.

[lpbk2713]

8. The most beneficial thing I learned out of four years of military service ...

ALWAYS question authority.

[awoke_in_2003]

10. "Support the troops"...

at least until they get home, that is

[TheMastersNemesis]

21. I Do. I Just Do Not Think Serving In The Military To Protect The Interests Of The Koch's

makes sense any more. ALEC and the oligarch agenda has pretty is pretty much destroying what this country stood for. And most vets will now come home to a crappy job market and there is NO real commitment by employers to employ or help them and the GOP wants to cut everything including vets benefits.

No new younger Americans should be risking their lives to protect the interests of people like the Koch's and multinational corporations. And I know that most Americans really don't care about our vets except to give them lip service.

[awoke_in_2003]

22. You misunderstand me...

I was alluding to the way our country glorifies soldiers, that is until they need help. Sorry about that.

[TheMastersNemesis]

31. I Understood And Support The Troops Having What They Need.

The problem is that our volunteer military was severely abused with "multiple tours" in hell. That policy was absolutely criminal. No one should serve more than one tour under such a situation. Many troops were sent back 4 or 5 times to the combat zone in a combat role. Long term fighting was common in WWII with soldiers having fought from Africa to the end of he war if they survived.
By the time we reach the "Battle of the Bulge" we were getting tapped out. America was getting tired.

Truman has been criticized for using the bombs but he knew we could not prosecute the war much longer. Japan had to surrender quickly and he was concerned that invading the Japanese mainland would cause up to 1 million casualties on the Allied side. In fact the military was getting ready to send European theater troops to the Pacific after VE Day.

Multiple tours was just plain cruel and was used to avoid a "draft" for political reasons. So our soldiers were sacrificed to continue the war and protect Bush actually. If he had pushed for the draft Iraq could have never happened. Very few Americans had skin in the game compared to Vietnam and the media eventually ignored our losses and the RW was able to "scream" about casualty counting because they wanted the truth hidden.

As a vet I see vets coming home being stigmatized as unbalanced, crazy or unstable in many subtle ways. And young college kids have no sense of war or what vets went through.

On top of that many government jobs that vets or disabled vets used to be able to get have been abolished. The private sector is not interested in these guys and gals and WILL NOT pick up the slack. As I see it being a vet has actually become a BARRIER to employment because of health care and other factors. And vets who go to school are victimized by these paper mills that are not regulated and overcharge just so they can get government money.

So why serve. And to add insult to injury conservatives want to scrap the military retirement system and replace it with a 401K systems. That means vets retiring in the future will have to wait until near 60 to get their money when they are out of the military by 50 in most cases. An the military is now getting into the same habit the private sector has gotten into by terminating vets just before they qualify for retirement. And on top of that there is a push to privatize the military medical system. An present vets are losing their medical coverage.

Believe me there are so many reasons NOT to go into the military. And the main one is that so many military jobs have been privatized so fewer vets are getting civilian related training. That policy is the "Rumsfeld" policy of ONLY HAVING COMBAT ARMS as a military occupational specialty. Contractors now fill almost all the roles soldiers used to fill. But that is another dirty little secret the media hides very conveniently.

[NightWatcher]

3. Cops are under assault all the time. Bad guys around every corner

Therefore when they encounter one of us non-bad guys on the street they still treat us like shit. I wished that they could compartmentalize, but more and more we hear about grannies getting tazed or kids beaten to death.

Guess what cops, we're not all killers and thugs, so dial it down a few and try to remember the thing about "protecting and serving". We don't all deserve the wrath you reserve for murders.

[Recursion]

7. Being a cop is the safest it's ever been

A smaller absolute number of police officers (not just per capita -- absolute numbers in the context of a much larger police force) were killed in the line of duty last year than in any year since IIRC the 1910s.

[NightWatcher]

9. Their mindset is the "us vs them" mentality

They think they are the "thin blue line" between law and order and lawless mayhem in the streets. If you're not a cop, you're a potential bad guy to them.

[awoke_in_2003]

11. Serving and protecting the shit out of you. nt

[pitbullgirl1965]

28. Law Enforcement isn't even in the top ten of dangerous jobs

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/09/20/americas-10-deadliest-jobs/
At yet they whine about how dangerous it is. Get the hell out if you hate it so much. I work with dairy cows and getting kicked and squashed is part of the job.
Sorry, I am so sick of cops and their fan club. The few bad apples is too readily accepted by us.

[sulphurdunn]

13. Actually, I think it has more to do

para-military training, Homeland Security grants, the DEA and steroids than it has to do with bad guys.

[NightWatcher]

15. Hell yes, they act (and look) like soldiers in a bad land

Hey Buzz, this is Orlando Florida not Baghdad Iraq. Treat the citizens accordingly. Put down the AR15, its just a parking ticket.

[SomethingFishy]

19. Could be... Did you see how fast they locked down Boston?

Cops had freakin half tracks in the streets.. The police are becoming an extension of the military.

[sulphurdunn]

24. They are trained to deal with violence.

They are not trained to deal with peaceful demonstrations. That's why they use agent provocateurs and storm trooper tactics to ensure an opportunity to do what they're trained to do and are expected to do.

[RKP5637]

30. Yep, they feel empowered as superior and special beings ... a brief glimse at

history shows the period this is reminiscent of ...

[Dawson Leery]

4. Oink.

[lpbk2713]

5. Take it to court.

Demand a jury trial if necessary.

These jerks are clowns in police uniforms and the more press they get the better.

[Skittles]

6. ??? Service dogs work for more than just blind folk

the cops need to catch up with the times

[blackspade]

12. Is there a stupid test for cops these days?

Because this asshole passed with flying colors.

No wonder most folks don't trust cops. Why would you?

[Triana]

14. Does anyone proofread online media articles anymore?

<RANT>

"They said that my dog wasn't a seeing-eye dog and that one seeing-eye dogs are allowed on the boardwalk,"

What? "One seeing-eye dogs are allowed on the boardwalk" - the sentence makes no sense.

"Goering and his wife, Sally, were visiting New Jersey from Tampa, FL and were on the way to dinner Thursday night when police on the North Wildwood, NJ Boardwalk."

When police WHAT? What did the police do? It doesn't say.

Does anyone proofread these articles before or after they're posted for at least a semblance of complete and readable sentence structure?

</END RANT>

*Ahem*. OK. That said, this is unconscionable. Goddamned cops around this country are getting more arrogant and stupid by the day. Damn.

[RebelOne]

18. You would not believe the blatant errors I see in most news articles

I read. I was a copy editor for 30 magazines, so I catch those boo-boos all the time, but there is nothing I can do about it.

[GiaGiovanni]

25. Editing has been outsourced to places like India

http://www.cjr.org/short_takes/outsourced_edit.php

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/06/25/oc-register-to-outsource-editing-to-india/

An Indian company will take over copy editing duties for some stories published in The Orange County Register and will handle page layout for a community newspaper at the company that owns the Pulitzer Prize-winning daily, the newspaper confirmed Tuesday.

Orange County Register Communications Inc. will begin a one-month trial with Mindworks Global Media at the end of June, said John Fabris, a deputy editor at the Register.

Mindworks' Web site says the company is based outside New Delhi and provides "high-quality editorial and design services to global media firms ... using top-end journalistic and design talent in India."

Editors at Mindworks will work five shifts a week for one month, performing layout for the community paper and editing some stories in the flagship Register, Fabris said. Staffing at the company will not be affected, he said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/06/25/oc-register-to-outsource-editing-to-india/#ixzz2bhyUeyW0

[Triana]

26. Well that figures. "top-end journalistic talent" my ass...

....the damn stuff is almost unreadable.

Pfft.

Well. You get what you pay for and these $20/week Indian editors are a real bargain, aren't they?

[GiaGiovanni]

32. It's all about maximizing profits

and minimizing quality

[Shrike47]

16. The cop probably read last week's article about fake service dogs.

[Blecht]

17. You only have as many rights as the uniformed bully with a gun says you have

"That doesn't mean anything to me."

That really pisses me off.

[surrealAmerican]

20. Is there any kind of nationally recognized identification for service animals?

If not, perhaps there ought to be.

At least they dismissed the summons in this case, but it should not have been issued in the first place.

[Turbineguy]

29. So this guy gets fired

and they replace him with somebody equally stupid? The guy was a jerk but it might be better to teach these people something and make them better at their jobs. He's not guarding the crown jewels.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Sir sue them for the ADA violation

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. kick

[bullwinkle428]

34. I bet good old "Officer Friendly" has a "support the troops" bumper sticker

on his car.

An excellent example of competition-level douchebaggery.