Posted on 01/03/2003 4:20:59 PM PST by Copernicus
'Felony stop' leaves family traumatized
Mary Jo Denton
Herald-Citizen Staff
It was the most traumatic experience the Smoak family of North Carolina has ever had, and it happened yesterday afternoon as they traveled through Cookeville on their way home from a vacation in Nashville.
Before their ordeal was over, three members of the family had been yanked out of their car and handcuffed on the side of Interstate 40 in downtown Cookeville, and their beloved dog, Patton, had been shot to death by a police officer as they watched.
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About that time, he heard the officer broadcast orders over a bullhorn, telling him to toss the keys out the car window and get out with his hands up and walk backwards to the rear of the car.
Still not knowing what he was being stopped for, Smoak obeyed, and when he reached the back of the car, with a gun pointed at Smoak, the trooper ordered him to get on his knees, face the back of the car and put his head down.
When he did that, the officer handcuffed him and placed him in the patrol car. Then the same orders were blared over the bullhorn to "passenger" and Pamela Smoak got out with her hands up, was ordered to the ground, held at gunpoint, and handcuffed. Next, Brandon was ordered out and handcuffed in the same way.
Terrified at what was happening to them for no reason they knew, the family was also immediately concerned about their two pet dogs being left in the car there on the highway with the car doors open.
"We kept asking the officers -- there were several officers by now -- to close the car doors because of our dogs, but they didn't do it," said Pamela Smoak.
And as the officers worked in the late evening darkness, their weapons drawn as the Smoaks were being handcuffed, the dog Patton came out of the car and headed toward one of the Cookeville Police officers who was assisting the THP.
"That officer had a flashlight on his shotgun, and the dog was going toward that light and the officer shot him, just blew his head off," said Pamela Smoak.
"We had begged them to shut the car doors so our dogs wouldn't get out, and they didn't do that."
As the dog was heading out of the car toward the officer, "we had yelled, begging them to let us get him, but the officer shot him," she said.
Grieving for their dog and in shock over their apparent arrest for some unknown crime, the family could only wait. At one point, one state trooper did tell them they "matched the description" in a robbery that had occurred in Davidson County, Pamela Smoak said.
The ordeal went on for a time after that, the family terrified and in grief over the dog.
Excerpted-Click here for complete account
Not yet, but it's getting closer each day.
This, is the essence of tryanny.
Do you all think you are free? Check your premise, flunkies.
I don't. You don't. Not all of us do.
tick...tick....tick....
That's nice. It's too damn late, now. Thanks for making all this possible!
Who needs to understand absolutes, when you can wrap yourself in emotion?
Problem is compensation only hurts innocent tax payers. These cops need to be fired and jailed.
Too often cops only get a paid vacation while an "investigation" eventually clears them, even when innocent people end up dead. (Though there are times when deadly force is necessary, too often police suffer no consequences for actions which would be serious crimes if committed by a citizen.)
Yes.
This is Cookeville, TN. It's the good-ole-boy, redneck capital of the world. An hour-and-a-half from Nashville and a million miles from the rest of the world. These people won't get a dime.
"They" can "be held personally responsible."
Hafer v. Melo, 502 U.S. 21 (1991) — State officers may be held personally liable for damages based upon actions taken in their official capacities.
If they were this would already be national news, reported every few minutes with interviews of various outraged Black leaders.
I worry about citizens falling into that trap... especially in "no knock" home raids. The police are more and more often wearing black t-shirts and baseball caps instead of uniforms, and if they come rushing into my house at night, by mistake, shouting unintelligible orders at me and jumping around, I would be afraid I would shoot. If I got the chance. They don't look or act like cops anymore.
Bankrupt them so bad that the local town citizens hunt these cops down and string them up.
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