Another Highly Debated Cop Video: NYC Cop Shoots Dog

YouTube video

It is not graphic, just sounds horrible (you don't see blood, guts, or anything. Very clean shot).

Is the cop wrong?

I don't think he is. He was obviously called to the situation because the dog is clearly attacking people. It attacks passerby at the beginning of the video. Looks like it bites that person. The homeless man that appears to be the owner is incapacitated or something.

What is truly sad is the dog was just trying to protect its "pack-mate". The problem isn't what the dog is doing, it is how it was trained to act or it was acting on instincts. Humans are at fault for its behavior, not the dog. What the cop did seems pretty justified as he was being attacked and the view was clear to shoot (he waited for the dog to clear the homeless dude enough so it wouldn't hit the homeless dude).

So, I think the cop is justified but the situation just shows we don't treat animals as best as they should be: the dog should have been trained. But how much blame can you put on a homeless man? That dog would be very excellent to have when you're trying to sleep and some sleezebag is trying to take your stuff. Nice guard dog if you're homeless, right?

Oh well.

Was the cop right or wrong in shooting the dog?

For those that want to read the "story" from the youtube uploader:

According to a passerby named Johnny Rodriguez, he and several other people called the New York Police Department, when they observed the man, identified by police as Lech Stankiewicz, having a seizure at the side of the road.

When police arrived at the scene, Rodriguez said, they attempted to approach Stankiewicz, but the man's dog, Star, was attempting to protect her owner from being harmed. According to Rodriguez, Star had already approached another passerby, Larissa Udovik, who got too close to her owner. An officer fired a shot at the dog, leaving her and the sick man suffering on the street.

A police source called the shooting "justified." The "video of the encounter" said the source, "leaves no question that the officers acted properly."

But others have criticized NYPD for how they handled the case. Doug Halsey, the director of Ready For Rescue, a non-profit animal rescue group, told the Gothamist that with irresponsible owners creating problems such as this, city police "need to be better trained to handle the situation and be equipped with the proper tools and taught how to use them to control dogs and other animals in situations like these."

Halsey was criticizing the use of pepper spray by another police officer on the dog, an act he said, that would only aggravate aggression.

Christian Pimentel, 21 told the New York Post, "It was just protecting its owner," while another witness, who did not wish to be identified, said, "They just let the dog bleed on the sidewalk, right in front of children."

A worker at a nearby KFC said that Star and the homeless man were both friendly and harmless.

Remarkably, both Stankiewicz and Star survived. Star remains in the care of the Animal Care & Control in NYC, said the East Village Local, but there also seems to be some discrepancy on how the dog is doing. According to Animal Control, the pit bull is stable, but the police source said that Star's outcome "didn't look very optimistic."

Only watched about 30 secs and didn't read, but the *** has a taser and pepper-spray; he should have had those out.

Do those work on dogs?

The taser definitely does.

It's sad. Cop probably coulda handled it differently in hindsight, but the dog was rushing at him and snarling, it was clearly self defense. Dog survived, though, so hopefully it pulls through.

I could give two shits if the dog died or lived. It's just a dog.

Was the cop in the right? Yes. A snarling dog was charging him. The dog could have had rabies, or any number of things that could infect people if it bites them. Shooting it was perfectly acceptable in that situation. Not only is it acceptable, it should be the standard MO when dealing with dogs as a cop. If the dog is going to charge a 6'1 cop with gun, it will charge a defenseless little girl. Putting it down is simply doing the world a favor.

This isn't really a big deal. This is the kind of thing that should be settled between the cop and the dog's owner. The cop didn't break any laws (or do anything I'd consider unjustified given the circumstances) but in his position I might still apologize to the owner for the necessity of self-defense.

Totally unacceptable and cruel. That "officer" knew that he could have used his tazer or pepper spray to subdue that dog. So inhumane.

I did not know he had pepper spray or a taser. I thought they only had guns: I can't tell from the shitty low-res video if they had tasers or pepper spray on their person.

If they did, seems like a much better choice. But how permanent is that? Would the taser kill the dog (it is much smaller than a human). Some news site or something called for animal control for the police. With a city as big as NY, you'd think that they would know how to deal with mean animals.

At least the dog survived. Hopefully, it pulls through.

Originally posted by Impediment
Totally unacceptable and cruel. That "officer" knew that he could have used his tazer or pepper spray to subdue that dog. So inhumane.

Originally posted by Tzeentch._
You're joking, right?

Not in the slightest.

That cop had every right to defend himself, but he jumped the gun. No pun intended.

I don't agree. The taser could have very easily outright killed the dog, since the voltage is tweaked to drop 200 pound, 6'2 men, not 80 pound dogs, thus it wouldn't be any more "humane" than shooting it. As well, a taser only has one shot, whereas a gun has 10, so if he had missed with the taser he would have been ****ed.

The pepper spray could have simply not affected the dog at all, pepper spray is notoriously temperamental regarding its effectiveness from person to person.

A charging dog is the equivalent of someone running at you with a knife, with the intention to stab you with it. Deadly force is absolutely the most logical response.

My logic on the matter is that, ultimately, a bullet fired from a handgun has a near 100% chance of preventing a dog from biting or injuring someone- tasers and pepper spray do not. Is the dog's welfare more important than a human being's welfare? Is a dog's welfare worth enough to risk a human being's welfare? If a rabid pittbull was charging your child, and you had a gun and a taser on your person, you would use the taser, knowing that you have only seconds to act, and the taser has only one shot?

Originally posted by Tzeentch._
I don't agree. The taser could have very easily outright killed the dog, since the voltage is tweaked to drop 200 pound, 6'2 men, not 80 pound dogs, thus it wouldn't be any more "humane" than shooting it.

The pepper spray could have simply not affected the dog at all, pepper spray is notoriously temperamental regarding its effectiveness from person to person.

A charging dog is the equivalent of someone running at you with a knife, with the intention to stab you with it. Deadly force is absolutely the most logical response.

There's also the problem of it having attacked that lady right before it went after the cop. Looks like it bites her leg. Cop was probably fearing for his life or some-shit. "It's either me or the dog."

And, yes, I have read on the interwebz that spraying an enraged dog with pepper spray could cause the dog to flip out and bite everything and everyone around it, including the master it was originally trying to protect. Just depends on the dog. But, for the most part, it is very effective against dogs.

so many killings and shootings going around
you'd think the news would focus on a more postive note*
Man shoots mans best friend? I dont want to see this... WTF! I want to see GRamma turns 115* surrounded by her family, I dont want to see death and distruction all the time.. I want to see homeless man wins lottery or they found a cure for little timmy..

I mean whats the point of living if we are all going to hell?

Originally posted by Tzeentch._
I don't agree. The taser could have very easily outright killed the dog, since the voltage is tweaked to drop 200 pound, 6'2 men, not 80 pound dogs, thus it wouldn't be any more "humane" than shooting it. As well, a taser only has one shot, whereas a gun has 10, so if he had missed with the taser he would have been ****ed.

The pepper spray could have simply not affected the dog at all, pepper spray is notoriously temperamental regarding its effectiveness from person to person.

A charging dog is the equivalent of someone running at you with a knife, with the intention to stab you with it. Deadly force is absolutely the most logical response.

My logic on the matter is that, ultimately, a bullet fired from a handgun has a near 100% chance of preventing a dog from biting or injuring someone- tasers and pepper spray do not. Is the dog's welfare more important than a human being's welfare? Is a dog's welfare worth enough to risk a human being's welfare? If a rabid pittbull was charging your child, and you had a gun and a taser on your person, you would use the taser, knowing that you have only seconds to act, and the taser has only one shot?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves, now. Was this dog a pit bull? Was this dog rabid? (Looked like the dog was doing its job, defending its owner) Was there a child in immediate danger? Let us assess the situation at hand, not some other that didn't happen.

This cop clearly overreacted like a trigger-happy retard fresh out of the academy. Tazer would have brought the dog down and has a massively less chance of killing compared to a bullet. He probably could have kicked the dog and made it stop if it came to that. There was also at least one other cop there backing him up, while the dog had a collapsed bum as back-up. The cop was in minimal danger at worst.

To further prove this cop is an idiot, people are saying the dog didn't die, so he's also clearly incompetent, as he failed in his mission. Guy should be ranked down to meter-maid duty.

Originally posted by Robtard
[B]Let's not get ahead of ourselves, now. Was this dog a pit bull?

Was this dog rabid?

Was there a child in immediate danger?

Tazer would have brought the dog down and has a massively less chance of killing compared to a bullet.

He probably could have kicked the dog

No. The cop did the absolute right thing in just shooting it.

Originally posted by Tzeentch._
Does it matter? Not really. Pitbulls aren't more innherently badass than, say, a labrador. An angry dog is an angry dog.

Who knows? It belongs to a homeless guy. Who knows how healthy it may or may not have been.

There was a crowd of people surrounding it and from what I understand it had tried to bite someone earlier.

One shot means if he had missed he'd be ****ed. As well, a tazer would have likely killed it. I carry a tazer on my person every day and am trained and authorized to use one. Are you?

LOL. Tell that to the tons of people who get their throats ripped out every year. "Well they should have tried to kick it!

No. The cop did the absolute right thing in just shooting it.

Size and breed matter a lot when it comes to dogs and their potential to inflict damage. Would you shoot a charging pomeranian as you would a charging adult pit bull? No, if you're sensible.

Not only is rabies rare, it's curable. So the cop didn't know and if we're being intelligent, it's not likely that a fear or rabies was on his mind and factored in.

You see the dog snap at a pedestrian that got too close to the bum on the floor, yet backs off when the person did. The dog seemed to be protecting his downed owner, not going Cujo.

No, but I can read and rationalize just the same. Tazers aren't classified as lethal, guns are. That's the point of cops carrying lethal and non-lethal weapons. While there's a chance the tazer could have killed the dog, there's a ridiculously higher chance of the gun doing it. If he missed, he still has a gun and a partner, if need be.

LoL, wut? 31 people died via dogs in 2011; 71% of those were by pit bulls. So again, properly assessing the situation is vital, especially if you're a person entrusted with a gun.

The cop lost his cool and overreacted, especially considering the dog was most likely just defending; not an attack raging adult pit bull or other large breed and the cop had back-up if shit got serious. Dude's a dunce who failed at Cop 101, properly assessing the situation.

Originally posted by Robtard
[B]Size and breed matter a lot when it comes to dogs and their potential to inflict damage. Would you shoot a charging pomeranian as you would a charging pit bull? No, if you're sensible.

Not only is rabies rare

it's curable.

The dog seemed to be

Tazers aren't classified as lethal, guns are.

If he missed, he still has a gun and a partner, if need be.

31 people died via dogs in 2011

Dog got what it got and the cop did what he was trained to do. It's easy to sit here on the internet and say "hurr he should have rationalized the situation" but 1 you weren't there and 2 you obviously aren't aware that we in the law enforcement/security business are trained to assess dogs as potentially lethal threats, so if you want to blame someone because some homeless guy's animal got put down, blame the guy's training.

I would have shot it too.

Actually, looking at it again, I would have front kicked it in the face.

Originally posted by BackFire
It's sad. Cop probably coulda handled it differently in hindsight, but the dog was rushing at him and snarling, it was clearly self defense. Dog survived, though, so hopefully it pulls through.

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