WWL-TV will be doing a segment tomorrow morning on "Barkgate," the incident this week where the New Orleans Police Department shot a Lakeview resident's dog eight times. It should air around 10am tomorrow (Sunday). A dog trainer who left a comment in this earlier post will be talking about the incident.
This thing is giving New Orleans, and it's police force, yet another black eye. And it can't be attributed to Katrina, or FEMA, or the State, or the Feds, or any of the host of other things Nagin and his buddies like to use as excuses.
To those who say it was JUST a dog miss the point. A canine may have been the catalyst, but it is the behavior of the officer that is in question - an officer who apparently lost control of a situation, panicked, resorted to deadly force as his primary option. What does that say about the NOPD, their training, and all of those claims about reform since their well-known behavior immedately after Katrina?
What if this had been a child?
And further, this incident points up two more things: first, marksmanship training in the NOPD must suck if an officer can only connect with 4 of 8 shots at close range; and second, if a 100 lb. dog with four bullet wounds was able to continue moving (it went back inside the house) and live for an hour after being shot, I think a new pistol caliber is in order. (Hint: try one with a "4" in it.)
I know there are plenty of dedicated cops in the NOPD. But it is incidents like this, and the others since Katrina, that prolong the image that NOPD is a bunch of corrupt, trigger-happy slackers not much better than the criminals they claim to chase. I believe it is up to those good cops, not the current "leaders" and politicians, to do something about changing that.
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