ASSHOLES BEHIND THE BADGE

When I introduced my blog in November 2005, I emphasized that "Police officers can make their jobs easier by applying the Golden Rule whenever possible - treat others as you would want to be treated yourself." Some bad incidents cannot be avoided, but many problems between cops and citizens can be attributed to the poor attitudes of some officers, the assholes behind the badge.

Two incidents, both involving dogs, come to mind. Most people who own dogs (or cats) see their pets as beloved family members - many love their dogs as if they were their children. The emotional bond between dog owner and dog can be overwhelming. That is something every police officer should know.

The first incident happened a couple of weeks ago in Berwyn Heights, Maryland. Here is how the Associated Press reported the story:

"Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table.

Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple's two dogs and seizing the unopened package.

In it were 32 pounds of marijuana. But the drugs evidently didn't belong to the couple.Police say the couple appeared to be innocent victims of a scheme by two men to smuggle millions of dollars worth of marijuana by having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients.

The two men under arrest include a FedEx deliveryman. Investigators said he would drop of a package outside a home, and the other man would come by later and pick it up.

Calvo said police apparently killed the Labradors 'for sport,' gunning down one of them as it was running away."

Now, I've participated in numerous drug raids, with a few of them having involved a wrong address. Mistakes happen and when they occur, all you can do is to apologize profusely to the innocent victims. Many of the raids occurred in the presence of dogs, usually Dobermans, Shepherds, Rottweilers or Chow Chows, breeds with a reputation for viciousness.

Only during my last raid were we ever attacked by one of the dogs, in that case a Pit Bull which an officer was forced to shoot. In the other raids, the dogs usually ran around and did a lot of barking, but were not agressive. I remember one raid in an isolated rural area where a marijuana plantation was guarded by two Dobermans. All of us ended up petting two appreciative tail wagging dogs. What I'm trying to get at is that officers should never shoot a dog, except as a last resort to keep from being attacked.

Although the mayor was obviously distraught over the death of his Labradors, was it outrageous for him to charge the officers with gunning down his dogs "for sport?" Not necessarily so. After all, there are quite a few asshole cops, some not beyond shooting a dog just for the fun of it. Narcotic officers do not enjoy the best reputation in law enforcement and the senseless shooting of two dogs in a mistaken raid only serves to reinforce a negative image of "narcs."

The second incident took place several days ago in San Marcos, Texas. Here is how two news organizations reported what happened.

ABC News: Officer Paul Stephens spotted driver Michael Gonzalez speeding down Interstate 35 and pulled him over for clocking 100 miles per hour. After a brief pursuit, Gonzalez pulled alongside the highway and emerged from his car, saying, "He's dying." "Who's dying? Relax," Stephens said as his cruiser's dashboard camera captured the interaction. "My dog," Gonzalez said during the Aug. 5 traffic stop. Gonzalez and his girlfriend said they were speeding because they were rushing their choking teacup poodle Missy to an emergency veterinary clinic for treatment.

But on the video, Stephens sounded less than empathetic as he berated the driver for putting others' lives at risk as he sped down the highway. "You're driving down the highway at 100 per hour," he said sternly. "It's a dog, it's OK. You can get another one. Relax." For 15 minutes, Stephens kept Gonzalez on the roadside. "He said, 'You need to chill out. It's just a dog.' And I said, 'It's not just a dog; it's my family,'" Gonzalez said. Missy died as Gonzalez waited for Stephens to issue a citation.

Though Stephens' supervisors found him not guilty of misconduct, they did agree he handled the situation poorly. "His world was collapsing. And what the officer says to him, basically, is, 'I don't care,'" said San Marcos police department chief Howard Williams.

The San Marcos Daily Record: As San Marcos resident Michael Gonzales recalls, one of the first things a police officer said to him after pulling him over for speeding early Wednesday morning was asking him "what he was on." Gonzales acknowledges he was hysterical after being pulled over on IH-35 going well in excess of the speed limits. But the reason, he said, was plain to see — the two- year-old teacup poodle in his girlfriend’s lap was gasping for breath, and the couple were rushing to an after-hours veterinary hospital in New Braunfels.

Gonzales and his girlfriend Krystal Hernandez say the dog, Missy, died during the time it took for officers to cite him for speeding. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the couple say police repeatedly told them it was "just a dog" and that they could buy another.

Gonzales and Hernandez say they had gotten home late and fed the 3.3 lb. dog but that she ate too fast, started choking and having trouble breathing.They called their local vet, who referred them to the New Braunfels facility. They saw the red flashing lights of the SMPD near the Centerpoint exit. After finding a place to pull over, Gonzales said, "I proceed to tell him what the problem was and he had the nerve to ask me what I was on, because basically I was hysterical. The dog’s already stopped breathing and going limp and (the officer) is wasting my time."

Gonzales said he pleaded with the officer to write the ticket quickly, or let him settle it later. "I’m like, man, can’t you please hurry, can’t we finish this? Do whatever you need to do, document it on your (vehicle) camera. And he wouldn’t do anything. He said at that point that ‘it’s just a dog. You need to chill out. You can get another one.’ I felt really disgusted at that."

He said about 19 minutes elapsed from the time he was pulled over until the officers released him. "Those minutes were crucial. It was devastating." Hernandez said she even offered to leave Gonzales there and drive the rest of the way. "I said ‘please let me go.’ They told me no. We waited like 20 minutes and they never did anything and my dog ended up just dying there."

There is just no excuse for how the officer handled this situation. He didn't give a shit about the dog or the feelings of its owner. Although Gonzales should not have been speeding, Stephens' pompous lecture on putting others' lives at risk was uncalled for under the circumstances. If the San Marcos PD allowed it, he could have escorted Gonzales to the emergency veterinary clinic and then issued him a speeding citation.

Stephens also gave his opinion on driving "at 100 per hour" by saying that Gonzales "had better have an actual child in that vehicle, not a damn dog." He just doesn't get it! That "damn dog" was really a child to Hernandez and Gonzales. And in Stephens' warped sense of right and wrong, driving at 100 mph would have been justified had that been a child Gonzales was rushing to a hospital.

I suppose the only way some jerks can amuse themselves is by making others feel miserable. I don't understand how these self-centered assholes get to be cops in the first place. All they do is undermine the public's confidence and trust in law enforcement and hurt the reputation of all police officers. I hope Mayor Calvo and Michael Gonzales will get good lawyers and sue their respective cities and the offending officers who were responsible for the deaths of their beloved pets.