Sunday, August 17, 2008

Dumb Cop

As a dog owner this is a sad story for me, but at the same time I can't help to be completely infuriated. A young man and his girlfriend were speeding down a highway in Texas trying to rush their dying dog to a vet clinic in time to save his or her life. Well, along came the highway patrol to pull them over for speeding (which is completely reasonable) after the car pulled over at the police's request the man driving jumped out of the car screaming and explained to the officer that their dog was choking and he needed to get him to the vet hospital.

Now while using the reason and logic not quite at the level of a 1st grader, the officer detained them for 20 minutes!! While the dog died.

Instead of the officer writing a quick ticket and instructing them to drive the speed limit to the hospital, or even giving them a pass and allowing them to obey the speed limit and proceed to the hospital, or even follow the frantic dog owner's suggestion of detaining the driver while letting the girlfriend leave with the dog, the officer instead took the classy route and exclaimed

"Chill out, it's just a dog, you can buy another one."

Nice. Real Professional.

I have always held the view as a law student that the police officers who serve should get just as much education with the law as I am required to receive (A Bachelor's, and a 3 Year Doctorate of Law) mainly because while lawyers get to sit back a their desk with all the paperwork on a case and then get to consult others, and research the situation before deciding a course of action, police officers actually have to tap into a vast knowledge of law and make decisions that are life or death in a split second. And Hell, the government even supplies them firearms in the process, even more reason for them to be educated at a law degree level. If not that then at least at a 1st grade teacher level, which in New York requires 6 years of schooling after high school and 2 degrees. If the proper schooling was in place this particular officer would have not be on the force since he probably would not have passed the SATs to get into college. You need a working brain to pass those kind of tests.

One other point is that in the article, it states that the brilliant officer discussed the situation with two other officers while detaining them as the couple watched their dog die. The other officers must also be the cream of the crop for Texas law enforcement as well for not noticing the situation needed to be handled by a grown up immediately.

On a final note, if my dog was dying and I realized this moron cop wasn't going to let me go to the vet hospital I would have hopped back in the car and high tailed it to the vet. No low level government imbecile will be responsible for my dogs death if I could do something about it.

Why we let our local governments invest so much power in so few, so unqualified a bunch of people, as to actually have such great detainment powers over fellow civilians is mind boggling.

LIVE FREE OR DIE!!

No comments: