1 Dog, 1 Scumbag
Kim du Toit
May 13, 2008
8:22 AM CDT
This is an interesting report, sent by Reader Eric K:
A Knoxville man shot and killed a Pittsburgh police dog Tuesday before the canine’s handler returned fire, killing the man in what city police Chief Nate Harper called “an unfortunate” but justifiable action.
The shooting outraged and angered the family of the 19-year-old man, Justin Jackson. He was pronounced dead by a passing paramedic almost immediately after the shooting that occurred at 6:53 p.m. in front of the UPMC facility on Arlington Avenue on the border of Knoxville and Mt. Oliver.
Harper said the dog’s handler ordered the canine—a 6-year-old German shepherd named Aulf—to attack after Jackson pulled a gun from under his shirt. Both the officer, an eight-year-veteran Harper did not identify, and Jackson fired several shots, the chief said.
“They shot my son in the head. The officer told me, ‘Our dog got shot so we shot him.’ They killed my son over a dog,” said Donald James Jackson of the West End.
No, they killed your son because he was shooting after being told to stop, you moron. The dog is irrelevant.
I don’t know what the law is in Pennsylvania, but several jurisdictions have laws which state quite explicitly that shooting at a police dog is no different from shooting at a police officer—in other words, if you kill a police dog, that would be considered justifiable if the police shoot you dead in return. (Which is how I hope the court sees it, if it ever gets to that.)
Not that it matters: shooting in and around the company of cops is a good way to get your worthless hide perforated anyway.
I’m not one of these people who loves animals more than humans; but in terms of their worth to society, I’d take a police dog over a foul scumbag like the late goblin, any day of the week.