Police shoot therapy dog as they raid wrong address

[FreakinDJ]

Police shoot therapy dog as they raid wrong address looking for man with expired vehicle registration

LEANDER, TX — Leander Police went to the home of James and Renata Simmons acting on a warrant for unpaid vehicle registration on June 17, 2013. The warrant, however, was for a completely different town – Cedar Park, TX, and was for a person named Bradly Neal Simpson, someone the Simmons family, who have lived at this address for the past nine years, have never even heard of.

Officers walking around the rear of the property saw Vinny, a German Shepherd therapy dog, running free within his fence along with another German Shepherd. Police fired at Vinny, firing 3 times with one bullet hitting him in the back of his neck.



http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/police-shoot-therapy-dog-as-they-raid-wrong-home-looking-for-man-with-expired-vehicle-registration/#prettyPhoto

[NYC_SKP]

1. When did expired vehicle registration become cause for home invasion by police?

[Live and Learn]

3. Exactly what I thought.

How has this country not become a police state if we can be subjected to home invasions by the police for non payment of fees? I find this very frightening.

[truebluegreen]

5. + a zillion

[Enthusiast]

8. That's what I was thinking.

Priorities. Duh.

[tclambert]

11. They may have wanted to question him for something else, and that was the only charge they had

to justify an arrest.

The "Hey, guys, wait a minute. This warrant says Cedar Rapids, not Leander!" moment, shows some serious laxity when it comes to paperwork.

[TexasProgresive]

14. Hmmm, if it was Cedar Rapids they had no jurisdiction

Cedar Rapids is in Iowa not Texas, Cedar Park is one of the suburbs of Austin, TX.

[CanonRay]

37. I was struck by this too. They have nothing better to do?

or just wanted to practice raiding? They kill a dog before it's even a threat? We have a lot of shittty cops out there.

[newfie11]

2. Assholes!!!!!

Same ole thing everyday. Shoot innocent animals , such as Rosie the Newfoundland.
Now they shot a therapy dog IN HIS OWN FENCED IN YARD!
I hope they do sue. The owners of Rosie did finally win their lawsuit.
It doesn't bring back an innocent pet that was tortured by cops!

[Oakenshield]

4. Sick bastards.

I'm no believer, but if there was a hell these dirt bags certainly belong there. And fuck any blue fascist who defends the actions of these sick bastards.

[NBachers]

6. What in the name of God made the stupid cop decide to shoot the poor dog?

[xchrom]

7. if you want to get the message across that the police are in charge

shoot a family member...shoot the dog.

there won'y be much argument after that.

[davidn3600]

10. Or plant drugs on 5th graders and sick the police dog on them

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/27/police-dog-bites-fifth-grader-when-cops-conduct-mock-classroom-drug-raid/

Seriously, it seems the biggest thing missing from police these days is common sense.

[meti57b]

18. I wonder if they would shoot my cat.

[Lizzie Poppet]

29. If a cop shot my cat...

...I would, eventually, die in a hail of police gunfire.

Eventually.

[ellie]

35. Me, too

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

26. Hey, that's simple.

It is Texas after all. They were part of that rifle carrying terrorist crew who held the Moms Against Guns Club hostage in the restaurant last week before they retired to Hooters to view them some hooters. Home invasion for a civil matter, weirder every day down there.

[OKNancy]

9. Previous DU thread from September

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023753286

[jamejest]

12. Lethal Mix

Sounds like that formula for disaster - testosterone plus a badge and a gun! A friend of mine went to Great Britain and found out that
part of the requirements to become a police officer or "bobby" is a 2 year long police academy. Hence, when you graduate you have an
associates degree. Here in America your stay in the academy is measured in hours. And you don't even want to talk about their culture
of macho delusions of grandeur.

[SwankyXomb]

13. Taking pleasure in killing animals

is one of the warning signs of a budding serial killer.

[FreakinDJ]

19. DING DING DING - We have a Winner

Good call

[marble falls]

15. To Protect and Serve. What a crock. There has to be cops on DU. And they never comment ....

on this crap one way or another. I'd love to hear a cop apologist defend this crap some time.

[FreakinDJ]

16. You should see the comments I get from Cops in threads about the shooting of 13yr old Andy Lopez

They fight and argue the truth incessantly until it finally comes out they are a member of Law Enforcement themselves.

If such rigorous defense was placed into "To Protect and to Serve" we would have a Crimeless Society

[marble falls]

17. You're right, I did see some on that issue. I've never seen logic that twisted. Shooting a kid ....

from the car window after a Dukes of Hazard power slide up to him. I'm surprised there were no high fives and trophy pictures. Cops anymore are occupying forces in most neighborhoods and here in Austin, TX 80% of city cops live somewhere other than Austin. That certainly is not a good thing.

[FreakinDJ]

20. Austin used to be a pretty nice town

Used to go up there on weekends when I was stationed at Ft Hood in the 70s. Especially liked "Armadillo World Headquarters" and Hippy Hollow.

[marble falls]

22. "used to" being the operative phrase. Portland or Eugene is looking pretty interesting to me.....

When I first got here there was a news article about a bunch of folks from out of town that rented a party barge that overturned when everybody rushed the rail to see the beach at Hippy Hollow.

[FreakinDJ]

24. LOL - coffee almost shot my nose I laughed so hard

We used to get a laugh at all the old fogies cruising by to get an eye full

[Lizzie Poppet]

30. C'mon out to P-Town!

Not something we tend to say to just anyone, but we can always use another Austin oddball liberal! You'll like it here...

[jsr]

21. Austin cop just retired with full pension after shooting an unarmed man in the back of the neck

http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2013-08-02/point-austin-broken-record/

[FreakinDJ]

25. Yep - the Victim is dead and the Cop gets a Tax Payer sponsored early retirement

Luv how that works - almost like an incentive plan

[Dash87]

23. This happens because they can't wait to shoot something.

They love it when they finally get to shoot their guns and hurt or kill someone or something. Sick...

[TexasProgresive]

27. So is there any new news to report on this case?

I couldn't find anything about whether LPD, Warrant Officer Woodson Blase was suspended without pay, fined or dismissed. What purpose does it server bring this kind of thing up again unless you have the rest of the story?

I did notice that this was picked up by freepers and is on Ron Paul's site as well as some progressive sites. So cops killing dogs at the wrong address seems to resonate with most people.

Here's the article from the Austin American Statesman with comments:
http://www.statesman.com/news/news/leander-police-officer-shoots-dog-at-wrong-house/nYPDY/#cmComments

[IrishAyes]

28. These LEOs are entirely out of control.

[gulliver]

31. Yay, there's a whole website for FTPers!

Last edited Sat Nov 16, 2013, 12:41 PM - Edit history (1)

Who knew? Policestateusa.com. I'm not clicking it, but I guess I am glad it is there if it keeps FTPers busy. Not wild about its "content" being posted here of course. FTPers are just misguided in my opinion.

Still I wonder what the ads on a site like that must be. I'll bet they are a trip.

[Taitertots]

32. This is insane, no reasonable person would think the dogs were an imminent danger of...

injuring officers.

He shot the dog IN THE BACK OF THE NECK. This fundamentally proves that it wasn't approaching, it was running away.

[hughee99]

33. Although it is tragic, at least this time they only killed the dog,

in other recent stories where they went to the wrong house, I remember they killed the homeowner.

As far as an unpaid vehicle registration, when the fuck did they start coming to your house for that? I thought you had to be caught with an unregistered vehicle ON PUBLIC ROADS for it to be illegal. An unregistered vehicle that just sits in your driveway or garage isn't even illegal, is it?

[whopis01]

40. The dog survived. n/t

[hughee99]

42. Even better... but still not good.

I read the rest of the article after reading your post.

[sakabatou]

45. Well, there's that. I hope that department gets it ass sued

[Dawson Leery]

34. Oink.

[Iggo]

36. Yay, Cops!

They're the best!

[otohara]

38. The NRA Says These Are The Good Guys

with guns.

Hard to tell who's good/bad in this country awash in guns.

[SwankyXomb]

41. It's not difficult

The bad guy with the gun is the one with the gun.

[CFLDem]

39. When did our society become so reckless

with firearms?

[NuclearDem]

43. Yay cops! You're the best!

[Savannahmann]

44. Quick someone post the picture of the cop stealing the milk from the Watertown family.

Let us know there are some good cops out there.