In any case, he is too damn dumb to be in uniform; there was no ‘emergency’; no ‘official business’; no real reason to be where he was when he was, when he has a perfectly good radio and most likely, a GPS system; and MOST definitely, an excellent set of maps in his car...unless his idea was to not let HQ know where he was joy riding. That worked out swell, didn't it?
The dog had turned, and was going past when shot, to boot.
Only thing the homeowner didn't do right was keep her driveway posted, gated, and locked to keep idiots from believing they had an ‘open invitation’.
It all kinda makes you wonder if we’re being told everything about the reason why this guy stopped at the home of this particular (and not unattractive) woman, doesn’t it?
Unless you've got your property posted with not trespassing signs, as long as they just come up the driveway to your door, they aren't trespassing until you ask them to leave and they refuse to do so.
Kids going door to door selling magazines to take a school trip are not intruders. Neither is someone stopping to ask directions.
In any case, he is too damn dumb to be in uniform; there was no ‘emergency’; no ‘official business’; no real reason to be where he was when he was, when he has a perfectly good radio and most likely, a GPS system; and MOST definitely, an excellent set of maps in his car...unless his idea was to not let HQ know where he was joy riding. That worked out swell, didn't it?
You've never lived out in a rural area have you? The maps don't have house numbers or mark driveways off of the county road. Your GPS won't be able to get you to a house number either, just a general area, and often not very close.
The dispatcher won't be able to help other than to relay directions from someone at your destination. They might be able to tell you exactly where you are, but unless they have GPS coordinates for your destination all they can do is get you in the general area and then you look for names on mail boxes. Though a lot of times the mail boxes are clustered together in one area to make the job of the postal workers easier, so they aren't at the end of the driveways. Then you get to drive down driveways and look for house numbers. Where I grew up our mail box was about a quarter mile away with a half dozen others, and I never saw a police officer very far down our road in the twelve years I lived there.
The only officer in the county that could have found his way to our house right away without getting directions was a friend of my father.
The dog had turned, and was going past when shot, to boot.
I've looked at it a dozen times. It looks like he might possibly be starting to turn when he is shot, or that might just be the bullet changing his direction slightly.
The dog has to run just slightly around the front of the car when it is coming in, so his momentum isn't strait at the officer when he is shot.
A dog isn't going to run in close enough to nearly brush against the guy as he runs past. The dog will either turn in around the front to the car to go to the guy (either to lick him playfully or attack) or will turn away out of reach.
I can't really tell which the dog was doing from the video.
You can tell the video is being played at a slower than normal rate by how far the dog slides after being shot. The dog was moving fast, and hadn't turned away at the point when it was shot.
I would agree that shooting the dog was not the best choice for dealing with even if it was attacking.
Pepper spray or a good swift kick even would work if force was necessary.
However, if the dog was lunging at him to bite him it would have been put down even if he did drive it off with a kick or pepper spray. The days were you can have a dog run loose that will bite someone for merely being in your driveway are long gone. I'm not sure that's a change for the better, but it's reality.
Only thing the homeowner didn't do right was keep her driveway posted, gated, and locked to keep idiots from believing they had an ‘open invitation’.
You say it sarcastically, but in effect there basically was an open invitation to come up to the door.
What can't really be known from the video was if the dog was being friendly or aggressive. While most dogs are relatively friendly even to strangers, there are all sorts of dogs just like there are all sorts of people.