the guy who helped Daisy? He's posted on his website about this too. I will copy and paste as his website is pretty vulgar.




From January 10, ehowa.com.

Split Second Decisions
I'm sure by now you've all heard about and been enraged by, the shooting of a family dog by police during a felony traffic stop. Ironically enough, my dog too was named "Patton" when I first adopted him, and I quicky decided it was stupid and changed it to "Ike". But, I digress.

I've received numerous emails in the past couple days with links to newspaper reports, and interviews, and of course requests that I step in and "do something" since we all know I'm The Man To Get Things Done, right? And do I shall.

First let's review what happened during the fateful day of January 1, 2003...

-Family stops for gas. and Dad forgets wallet on top of car.
-Family drives off.
-Good Samaritan sees wallet fall when car drives off.
-Samaritan calls police believing family may have been carjacked.
-Police pull over family in car, using felony stop procedures.
-All family members removed from car and placed in custody.
-Car doors left open.
-Officer approaches car and says, "Hey there's a dog in here."
-Family pleads for police to shut car.
-Police ignore family.
-Dog escapes.
-Dog takes a few steps towards officer with a shotgun.
-Dog's name changed from "Patton" to "Tupac".
-Family freaks.
-Nation freaks.

There I think that just about sums it up, eh?

And since we as a nation can't stand to see our best friend put down by the man, we're left kind of stunned and looking to find out just where the hell things went wrong. Who do we blame? Well, many people are calling for the badge, if not the head, of Officer Hall of the Cookeville police department, the one who fired the fatal shotgun blast. Some are even going so far as to say he acted criminally, and should be charged as such. Officer Hall reports that he fired in self defense to neutralize what he perceived to be an impending threat against the officers he was charged with protecting, according to felony traffic stop procedures.

And quite frankly, I believe him. That is to say, I believe that in that split second he had to make a decision, he believed the dog was a danger. Therefore making his actions stupid, but no, not criminal.

I think it takes a certain kind of person to be a cop (or a firefighter, EMT, or any other job that required split second decisions where you have to be right all the time). And I just don't think this guy is cut out to be a cop. I don't doubt that he believed he was in danger. But I can't figure out as to why he felt a dog that was clearly wagging it's tail was a danger. This is the same kind of decision that makes the news when a cop shoots a 6 year old child because he was pointing something in the cop's direction, only to find out afterwards it was a squirt gun. I believe that Officer Hall has clearly demonstrated a lack of ability when it comes to making accurate split second decisions, and that's a pretty dangerous shortfall when you're strapping lethal force to your hip every morning.

This situation was the combination of a series of tiny events. Dad forgot his wallet. Someone thought they saw a crime. A door was left open. The dog picked a bad time to hop out. And someone made a decision that turned out to be very wrong. The only catch is the person who made the decision, based upon the very nature of his job, is held to a higher standard than is the average Joe Public.

I don't think he's a bad guy. I don't think he hates animals. I don't think he's a criminal. I just think that he shouldn't be a cop and that needs to brought to the attention of those in charge down there, because Mr. Hall is like the majority of us who don't come through 10 times out of 10. Those that can, protect and serve. Those that can't, need to know when to shut up, sit down, and find a new profession because law enforcement is one where they can do more harm than good.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, it was a family pet and not a 6 year old who paid the price to make us face this man's shortcomings. Because I sure as hell don't want someone like this dumb s**t responding to a 911 call, kicking down my front door at 3am and making the decision whether or not to open fire in my darkened kitchen.

Of course that's my opinion, I could be wrong. But you can express your opinion to the officer directly if you want to. (***here he has a link to the officer's actual email address.. I don't know how Ernie does it, but he finds this stuff.. I don't want to post the email address myself but if you want to see what it is it's on ehowa.com***)





So there you have it.. another opinion.. I'd have to say I agree with some of this.. it's all extrememly sad

- there is also a link from Ernie's page to another opinion page that has an extensive address list for the higher-ups in TN.