Choking dog officer receives death threats

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Well, it sounds to me like there needs to be an amendment made across the board.

There needs to be a signal private vehicles can use to indicate to emergency vehicles that they are acting as a temporary emergency vehicle themselves.

I'm not saying it would apply very well in this case, but imagine if that dog were a person... or a child.

There needs to be a clear indication to police as you pass them that you need immediate ESCORT, and not to pull you over.

Of course, such as system, if violated, would have to have severe consequences. But the scenario plays out like this...

You have a dying person in your vehicle, no time to call an ambulance and wait...
The Police have one prime rule, to protect and serve, hence, the necessary outcome would be for the police to clear the way...
Problem is, you have no way to indicate to the police without pulling over, of your situation. So the police will be pulling you over and wasting what very precious time your dying passenger has left.

As for what scenarios this would come into play with, I don't know. That would have to be up to a vote to decide on. I'm not one for fascism, so I'm not going to pretend to decide for you.

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
there will be a teacup poodle alongside the road flattened with the imprint of a size 16 Harley Davidson lug boot implanted across it's back.

Wow...what a fine example of a man you are, threatening to stomp small helpless dogs to death should you get angry with their owners.

Bravo, I am sure most here are very impressed.

Originally posted by Tranceopticalinclined
Do you guys love anyone at all? is Love a free easy ability for you to understand? Im not mad at the cop for doing his job, Im mad because after he found out what was wrong he deemed it non-important, I didnt know he was the All knowing all powerful Wizard of OZ. He could of had some Compassion an escorted them to the Clinic they were so Obviously Determined to get too.

The dog was dead when the cop pulled them over.

Mayor Narvaiz says Officer Stephens then approached the car and told the driver to step out. As Michael Gonzales stepped out of the car, he raised his hands and yelled at the officer, “she’s dead, she’s dead.”

The entire incident was caught on the patrol vehicle's dashcam. The officer can be heard saying, "It's a dog, okay? You can get another one. Relax."

www.keyetv.com...

Could the officer in question dealt with it in a better manner? Perhaps, but let me just say this; he's right. This officer protects and serves his community, putting his life on the line for a lowly wage; protecting ungrateful pet owners from causing harm to themselves and/or to others. You can bitch and moan about it all you want, but since the dog was already dead; (Straight from one of the owners!) why should he have escorted them to the vets? Their erratic driving could've caused an accident and that's the cold harsh reality to it.

Originally posted by Sonya610

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
there will be a teacup poodle alongside the road flattened with the imprint of a size 16 Harley Davidson lug boot implanted across it's back.

Wow...what a fine example of a man you are, threatening to stomp small helpless dogs to death should you get angry with their owners.

Bravo, I am sure most here are very impressed.

Indeed. Burdman has rather large feet.

He was just pointing out that if he was ever involved in an accident that happened because of a dog becoming gravely ill, he'd be incandescent with rage. Most people would be.

[edit on 24/8/08 by MacDonagh]

[edit on 24/8/08 by MacDonagh]

I' glad. The officer is obviosly an asswipe and what goes around comes around. The only thing true of this existence is the supreme law of cause and effect.

Even if he didn't get death threats, learning of the dog's death, would cause him guilt, but a moron like this needs a bit more shaking to GET the fact that he is, indeed, an insensitive moron.

[edit on 24-8-2008 by Stagesamurai]

Originally posted by Tranceopticalinclined
Your car was built to go beyond the speed limit for these types of matters.....

If not, why are our cars allowed to go past the national speed limit?

That's a very good question. Certainly something to think about.

The patrol car's dashboard camera showed Stephens telling Gonzalez: "It's just a dog. You can buy another one. Relax."

Ohhhh man....if that isnt just the most hideous statement I have ever heard I just dont know what is.


The proper thing would have been for the cop to give the people a safe escort to the animal hospital, he could have easily handed them a ticket at that point without the poor dog having to die.

Instead he has to be big fat tough guy cop and act like a complete dick and let the dog suffocate so he could write his stupid little ticket. This goon obviously has no idea how much some people value the lives of their animals. It angers me to no end how hateful and disrespectful some people can be.

If that had been my pup dying and that cop had said that to me I swear I can honestly say that he would have had to knock me out cold or shoot me because I would have lost it.

I remember back long ago when cops were actually decent people and were actually there to protect and serve the public. Things sure have changed.


And they wonder why most people can't stand the police

reply to post by burdman30ott6


Oh Burdman, you hurt me!!!! I have 2 teacup poodles, they are precious.) They may not be useful dogs but they are smart, and loving, they require human contact and love, one look into their beautiful eyes and I melt!

I don't think the officer should die for what he did, but strong punishment is in order. He was cruel. His cruelty cost this family a member. If it were any one of my dogs I wouldn't have stopped the car, I would have continued on to the vet and then explained. My dogs are as loved and important to me as any other member of the family.

reply to post by Grafilthy


We live in a country where there are parking lots outside of every bar for drunks to get in their vehicles and drive away...... but it's illegal to drive drunk. Heh.

They (police) do high speed chases all the time that exceed the _alleged_ 95mph in this story.

I drove on Interstate 75 the other day, going the speed limit of 70 and most of the other vehicles where flying past me like I was poking along... this was at 7:00 on a Sunday evening.

The cop in the OP handled this horribly. To serve and protect...?... to serve their pride and protect their egos is all I've ever seen.

reply to post by space cadet


reply to post by BlackOps719


Both of you please read the more complete news story in the second link I posted... the story that doesn't set making an officer look like a dick as it's top priority and instead focuses on the whole story. The dog was dead when the cop pulled them over. His actions had no bearing on the dog's survival and, in fact, a second officer on the scene attempted to resucitate the dog. An action which I would bet, knowing interstate ramp configurations fairly well and figuring they were most likely a ways away from the animal hospital, was probably done in quicker time than it would have taken them to reach said hospital and get the dog into a vet for the attempted resucitation. If the dog was in the car, still alive gasping & wheezing, then don't you think the owner would have been yelling "She's dying!" instead of "she's dead!" at the cop?

For anyone and everyone else in this thread that has crawled up my butt calling me heartless, emotionless, cruel, etc... I care more about the personal safety and security of you and your family than I do about a teacup poodle... Wow, what a cold hearted SOB I am! Imagine that, a guy with the audacity to place humanity above a dead dog's well being!

The dude that made the statement about "If the roads aren't designed for 95 MPH, then why do cops & EMTs go that fast?" Uh, did you miss the part of the article that said the driver was driving erratically? How about the fact that he was clearly emotionally distraught? Cops & EMT drivers have had defensive driving training and also have the advantage of having a nice big flashing light bar or bubblegum machine attached to the top of their speeding vehicle that says "Here I am, look at me! Get out of my way!" Add in the fact that when they're in persuit they are most likely paying closer attention to the traffic & road around them than the average driver is when not an emotional basketcase, let alone when compared to a distraught driver, and you may see how silly a statement that was to make.

Finally, being an insensitive jerk isn't illegal. Nowhere in any law I have ever seen does it say that everyone should immediately drop whatever they are doing or change their entire demeanor and go into "Aww *big HUGS!*" mode when confronted with someone who is at a loss. Would it have been nice of the cop to show some compassion? Sure. Was it necessary for him to complete his job and protect & serve? Nope, not at all. Nowhere on the sheild does it mandate that officers are required to show anyone any more than their Constitutional rights, and nowhere in the COnstitution is there a "nicey-nice" ammendment.

Everything else in this thread that comprises personal opinions, barbs, insults, and ridiculous analysis of myself is just slightly less worthless and aside from the point than the tilde '~' key on my keyboard. This thread is made up of 3 pages of comments, no fewer than half of which are comments that border on or fully state that a canine's life is worth risking human life to save... but I'm the bad guy. Yeah, that makes a really strong talking point for "denying ignornace" guys.

reply to post by johnsky


Star for you! What a simple and effective idea! A standard sign that alerts authority to your need for escort. We could build this into new cars, and for older models have a manual sign.

One of my 'babies' was hit by a car last year, she had broken her collar and in seconds she was in the road. We rushed her to the vet with our flashers on, folks pulled over to let us by, no one diferentiated between a canine emergency or other emergency. Lilly was saved and is now my 3 legged darling, I cannot imagine if something like what happened to this family had happened to us. We would not have stopped until we were at the vet.

reply to post by burdman30ott6




My response was directed more toward the statements of that police officer than they were toward you. You are correct, there is no law that mandates that any of us be decent or compassionate human beings. If being cruel and uncaring toward an animal or even a person is your MO then more power to you. You and that officer will reap the cosmic train wreck that is your own karma.

My issue is this, you simply do NOT talk to people the way that cop did considering the events that had unfolded. I'll tell you what, I am 6'4" and pretty ugly...Im not what one would call an overly sensitive person...at all. When I had to put my pup down last year due to cancer I left that clinic not crying but sobbing.

If someone had come up to me and said "Hey buddy..why dont you relax...its just a dog...you can always buy another one" ......odds are it wouldnt have been a great way for them to keep their teeth.

Now there is no law that says a police officer has to care or even pretend to care about someones problems, but dont be suprised when you say something that heartless and wicked to a person and in turn they go ballistic on you.


A little compassion goes a long long way.

$0.02

reply to post by BlackOps719


OK, and amazingly, I agree with you. My point about the officer & tact is that there is no grounds to discipline him over this. Would it have been nice for him to have shown more sensitivity? Absolutely! Does it make him a bad guy or even a bad cop that he said what he said? No, I don't believe it does. It has to be noted that while some people do consider their pets to be part of their family & equal to humans, not everyone does. Myself, my pets are a sort of family member, but they certainly take a back seat to human family members and to rational thinking.

Also, where is the line drawn? What if it had been a pet snake? A pet bird? What about a pet tarantula? Maybe a pet fish? I've known people who had pets like these who considered them to be "family members" just as much as any dog owner... but would you advocate them breaking the speed limit by upwards of 20-25 MPH to save one of them? Would there be the same reaction if it had been a goldfish and the cop had said "It's just a goldfish, relax! You can get a new one?" I suspect that there would be some on here who would react the same with their "that cop should be drug behind a bus" nonsense simply because there is a contingent of ATS who are true idiots and view all police as enemies to be hated and fought against, but I suspect that this would be getting far, far less attention if it had been a fish. However, the points you and others have made would still have been legitimate in the fish owners' minds as they saw their fish as a friend & family member.

THAT is what I've so ineloquently tried to say here. The law is not and cannot be subjective. Justice is supposed to be blind, and that is a double edged sword which so many seem to either forget or pretend isn't the way it was intended to work. You break the law, you pay the price. It doesn't matter why you broke the law, only that it was broken. Before someone brings it up, I am not talking about legitimate defenses here, either. Clearly, if you have a legitimate, legally precidented defense for your actions which the law sees as a justification, that's a different situation entirely, mainly because NO LAW HAS BEEN BROKEN in that case. That's not what we see here, we have a law that has been broken, an excuse for breaking the law yet not a legal defense for it, and an officer who did his job yet failed to go above & beyond his job description and show empathy to a speeder who most likely disturbed him by bailing out of the car babbling about "she's dead" and waving his arms around.

If being cruel and uncaring toward an animal or even a person is your MO then more power to you. You and that officer will reap the cosmic train wreck that is your own karma.

Again, I am dumbfounded. I'm putting human life & safety above the life of an animal and it's gonna kill my karma? If that's the case then maybe some dead karma is a good thing.

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
Again, I am dumbfounded. I'm putting human life & safety above the life of an animal and it's gonna kill my karma? If that's the case then maybe some dead karma is a good thing.

Ahhhhh...human life is more important huh? And it can be used to justifies virtually all sorts of cruelties towards animals and their owners even if the risk is minimal or virtually non-existant?

So lets imagine it WAS a human, maybe a small child that was choking (or had choked to death on an object) and the parents were driving 95mph to the emergency. They would be risking the lives of OTHER people on the road, they could possibly kill FIVE people while trying to save "one". Or maybe the kid is already dead, who knows.

Would risking the lives of innocent drivers be justified to possibly save the life of ONE person? Or in your world is that perfectly fine because YOU personally place the value of one possible life above the value of many other lives? That sounds a bit crazy to me, especially since you seem to believe they were such an EXTREME DEADLY threat to everyone around them.

The cop had already stopped them, they asked if the driver could stay and the girlfriend could drive on (she was NOT accused of a crime), and the cop refused. He was mean and petty, but I guess that sort of behavior really appeals to some people, there is a righteous ring to it and they love the idea.

The arguments I've read here in defense of the dogs owner are totally ridiculous. Comparing the life of a dog, or any animal for that matter, to that of a person, is completely ludicrous!

I shudder to think that some of you would honestly endanger the lives of other people to save an animal. Talk about having your priorities all wrong.. didn't you parents or your church ever teach you anything about the sanctity of a human life?

If you caused an accident that killed someone's child, husband, or wife just to save your pet, a jury would literally crucify you, and rightly so! The police should have cuffed the driver up on the spot for speeding, reckless driving, and wanton endangerment! Anyone else would have been locked up, had their car impounded, and their license revoked for such blatant stupidity.

This officer is paid to protect your life, and that of others on the road, whether you deserve it or not. I hope they track down the idiots making the death threats against him, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. This guy risks his life everyday for a totally inadequate salary, and then must endure this type of lunacy as well..

Originally posted by LLoyd45
The arguments I've read here in defense of the dogs owner are totally ridiculous. Comparing the life of a dog, or any animal for that matter, to that of a person, is completely ludicrous!

First of all we can compare anything we like. Second of all this was NOT a case of choosing to save a human, or a dog. The police officer could have allowed them to travel on safely and not risked ANY lives but he chose not to do that.

Reminds me of the question...if your dog and a strangers child were in teh street with a truck coming...and there was only time to save one...which would it be? Well lets just hope the people in my neighborhood supervise their children because I would not EVEN spend a mili-second debating that question. I would save my own first and foremost. Period. (I probably would claim I didn't see the kid after the fact, and they can't prove otherwise).

You are criticizing people for their mild comments. There is something for you to sink your teeth into.

People die all the time while other humans do NOTHING, shootings and stabbings and such, in America and all over, and somehow that does NOT generate the hate that I see from some in this thread. Very odd.




[edit on 24-8-2008 by Sonya610]

Originally posted by Sonya610

First of all we can compare anything we like. Second of all this was NOT a case of choosing to save a human, or a dog. The police officer could have allowed them to travel on safely and not risked ANY lives but he chose not to do that.

It was a case of preserving a human life over that of an animal. They could have easily killed some innocent person or even their own idiotic selves while speeding and driving erratically. The fact that they pulled over once, then sped off could have earned them a bullet. That's the actions of a criminal, not a rational person. Why did one of them need to go on to the clinic if the dog was dead anyway? Did they need to make funeral arrangements or what?

Reminds me of the question...if your dog and a strangers child were in teh street with a truck coming...and there was only time to save one...which would it be? Well lets just hope the people in my neighborhood supervise their children because I would not EVEN spend a second debating that question. I would save my own first and foremost. Period.

I feel sorry for you Sonya if you'd truly place your dog's life over that of a small child.. A dog is just that, a dog. It's not a thinking, feeling person, nor is it even self-aware.

You are criticizing people for their mild comments. There is something for you to sink your teeth into.[edit on 24-8-2008 by Sonya610]

Mild comments... You think it's okay to endanger innocent peoples lives over a dog, make death threats to a police officer, and would let a child die instead of your dog, and you characterize that as mild?

[edit on 24-8-2008 by LLoyd45]

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
I had no idea ATS was so full of transportation design engineers! Wow guys, we should all exchange numbers or something so we can talk shop together. ... I design & analyze highways for a living... I am a licensed professional civil engineer and I am good at what I do. I can say with no hesitation that there is NO highway in the united states that was designed using AASHTO guidelines for 95 MPH.

So you are responsible for the almost immediate breakdown in the highway infrastructure and the potholes that plague our highway system? Maybe you should go back to school and learn to design better roads.

Originally posted by burdman30ott6 flattened with the imprint of a size 16 Harley Davidson lug boot implanted across it's back.

So you are claiming for such a small fella to have extra-grande Clown Feet shoes that represent one of the worst bikes for maintenance ever made. That causes intentional short term deafness in everyone around it and gets lousy gas mileage for a bike and is one bike I constantly enjoy sabotaging.. Thanks for letting us know that the next time we see a Harley ridden by a little fella with big giant clown shoes on we'll know who you are.

Originally posted by Sonya610

Originally posted by LLoyd45
The arguments I've read here in defense of the dogs owner are totally ridiculous. Comparing the life of a dog, or any animal for that matter, to that of a person, is completely ludicrous!

Reminds me of the question...if your dog and a strangers child were in teh street with a truck coming...and there was only time to save one...which would it be? Well lets just hope the people in my neighborhood supervise their children because I would not EVEN spend a mili-second debating that question. I would save my own first and foremost. Period. (I probably would claim I didn't see the kid after the fact, and they can't prove otherwise).

[edit on 24-8-2008 by Sonya610]

Wow. Dog lovers are a rare breed eh?
To each their own I guess.