Ryan James Stephens, 25, has been charged with the rather bizarre offense of harassing a police dog by barking and hissing at the animal.
Officer Bradley Walker reported that he was investigating a car crash at a pub when he heard his police dog barking uncontrollably and found Stephens barking and hissing at the animal. Stephens’ defense was golden: the dog started it.
Even as a misdemeanor, I fail to see the crime here. Stephens should have been scolded as a “bad human” and sent on his way without a treat.
Source: IndeOnline
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Yes he’s a dog – BUT he’s a POLICE dog and law enforcement dogs are Officers. Harassing a police dog is the same as harassing any other law enforcement officer.
Frankly, if some jackass came up to my car & harassed my dog into a frenzy, yeah, I’d figure it was self defense when my dog bit him. Then I’d take my dog to the vet to make sure biting the jerk hadn’t left any residual damage to my dog.
Who do you go off calling a bad human..
I don’t give two fucks for a dog, let alone a policeman’s opinion
My but you are a vicious lil’ jackbooted thug.
How about this for a common sense solution that would make the world a better place?
Your parents should have used a bit of common sense and a condom.
There is a lot of boo hooing and zero use of common sense from most of you on this blog. I have a very easy solution:
Consider this- Have the Supreme Court stop considering a police dog bite a seizure under the 4th Amendment and allow the police to release the dog whenever they want. Give the Police Officer and the Dog immunity under the 14th Amendment for Civil Rights Violations whenever the dog does bite, valid seizure or not. Then the officer can simply pop the door open remotely and let the dog bite someone stupid enough to agitate a bite-trained animal. Then there is no need to arrest. The idiot taunting the dog has learned it is not wise to agitate a trained K9, the dog gets to release the stress of being agitated by getting a bite reward and some excellent training on a upstanding citizen willingly volunteering his time to take a bite with no protective gear, and the prison system gets some relief of overcrowding-lessening the taxpayers burden.
If a police dog is an officer, my dog is a citizen, However the one advantage of having police dogs around is that if your looking for pussy there’s one hiding behind each of them.
Apparently the dog was better trained…
I had a German Shepherd as a child. He would sit and stay when I told him.
One time I was walking alone. I was 13. A big loose dog came up and started jumping on me. I told him “Go” “Go Home” “Down” “Sit” etc. and he would just not stop. This went on for like 2 blocks. He must have jumped on me 10 times. He had his paws on my chest.
I finally rang the doorbell of a house where I didn’t know the residents and asked for help.
Well, it may seem like a silly law, but it’s on the books. It appears that Ohio has a very specific statute that makes it a crime to (among other things) “recklessly taunt” a police dog. Find it here: http://law.justia.com/codes/ohio/2006/orc/jd_2921321-4a91.html.
Judging from the detail (as amended 2006), Ohio’s K9 officers have tried to cover just about every situation where someone could interfere with their animals. Here’s an excerpt (from Ohio Revised Code 2921.32.1.):
“(B) No person shall recklessly do any of the following:
(1) Taunt, torment, or strike a police dog or horse;
(2) Throw an object or substance at a police dog or horse;
(3) Interfere with or obstruct a police dog or horse, or interfere with or obstruct a law enforcement officer who is being assisted by a police dog or horse, in a manner that does any of the following:
(a) Inhibits or restricts the law enforcement officer’s control of the police dog or horse;
(b) Deprives the law enforcement officer of control of the police dog or horse;
(c) Releases the police dog or horse from its area of control;
(d) Enters the area of control of the police dog or horse without the consent of the law enforcement officer, including placing food or any other object or substance into that area;
(e) Inhibits or restricts the ability of the police dog or horse to assist a law enforcement officer.
(4) Engage in any conduct that is likely to cause serious physical injury or death to a police dog or horse;
(5) If the person is the owner, keeper, or harborer of a dog, fail to reasonably restrain the dog from taunting, tormenting, chasing, approaching in a menacing fashion or apparent attitude of attack, or attempting to bite or otherwise endanger a police dog or horse that at the time of the conduct is assisting a law enforcement officer in the performance of the officer’s duties or that the person knows is a police dog or horse.”
Note that you can even get in trouble if your own dog “taunts” a police dog and you fail to restrain him.
I am reminded of Robert Reich’s essay, “How Nit-Picking Regulations Get that Way,” in his book “Tales of a New America.” This kind of law illustrates the result of iterative attempts to close perceived loopholes.
Clear message to Ohioans: stay away from Officer Rover. Don’t try to feed him, pet him, or look at him cross-eyed. And definitely do not bark at him.
Oh – one other thing – it appears 8 other states have similar statutes: http://www.policek9.com/html/statutes.html#Ohio
recipient
one day i’m gonna get a dickshunary
California has an unnofficial crime called Contempt of Cop….this sounds like a similar offense: contempt of cop dog.