We have been following a growing trend of alleged unjustified shootings of pet dogs by police officers. We can now add a case out of Chicago where a 7-month-old miniature bull terrier, called “The Colonel” by neighbors, was shot by a police officer. A lawsuit names Officer Brandon Pettigrew as the cop who twice shot The Colonel, which weighs less than 30 pounds. According to witnesses, the officer then calmly returned to writing the ticket and handed it to the distraught owner. The police returned three days later, according to media reports, and asked why the owners were speaking to the media . . . and proceeded to give them a ticket for having a dog off a leash.
The incident happened near my family’s house on the north side of Chicago.
On Saturday afternoon, witnesses say that the Colonel followed his owner outside of the owner’s gated home where the officer was writing a parking ticket for the van of Al Phillips. According to witnesses, the officer warned him about having a dog without a leash twice and then proceeded to shoot the puppy twice. Witnesses say the puppy was not threatening the officer, who then proceeded to finish his ticket and give it to a distraught Phillips.
The Colonel was rushed to an emergency vet and had five hours of surgery to save his life.
What is incredible is that the police returned later to the scene while Phillips was speaking with a reporter and demanded to know why he contacted the media. According to the report, they then gave him a ticket for not keeping his dog on a leash.
That was three days after the incident.
The ticket deepens the controversy. I have never heard of a leash ticket being written three days after such a common occurrence. I walk our dog in Chicago regularly during holidays and often see dogs off the leash. The ticket raises concerns of retaliation. It was entirely inappropriate for the officers to ask for an explanation of why the family was speaking to the media, if this is found to have occurred. The presence of a reporter adds credence to the allegation. To then combine such an improper question with a ticket only magnifies the misconduct.
Even if the ticket was not retaliation for embarrassing the CPD, it seems calculated to cover the officer for the shooting by citing the owner after-the-fact. Unfortunately, Cook County Anita Alvarez is not viewed as particularly protective of citizens in confrontations with the police.
The lawsuit is likely to get more information and action than official channels, unfortunately. Among other things, it could allow for discovery not only on the incident but the governing policies of the CPD.
Source: CBS
God made rifles for a reason.
ap.Red Squad
“The arm of Chicago’s law enforcement known alternately as the Industrial Unit, the Intelligence Division, the Radical Squad, or the Red Squad, had its roots in the Gilded Age, when class conflict encouraged employers to ally themselves with Chicago’s police against the city’s increasingly politicized workforce. Following the Haymarket bombing, Captain Michael J. Schaack orchestrated a vicious campaign against anarchism, resulting in 260 arrests, bribed witnesses, attacks on immigrants and labor activists, and convoluted theories of revolutionary conspiracy. Continuing its use of both overt and covert tactics, such as surveillance, infiltration, and intimidation, Chicago’s Red Squad in the 1920s under Make Mills shifted its attention from anarchists to individuals and organizations who the Red Squad believed to be Communist. Casting a wide net, the squad by 1960 had collected information on approximately 117,000 Chicagoans, 141,000 out-of-towners, and 14,000 organizations. After the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the Red Squad expanded its targets from radical organizations like the Communist and Socialist Workers Parties to minority and reform organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Lawyers Guild, and Operation PUSH.
After 11 years of litigation, a 1985 court decision ended the Chicago Police Department’s Subversive Activities Unit’s unlawful surveillance of political dissenters and their organizations. In the fall of 1974, the Red Squad destroyed 105,000 individual and 1,300 organizational files when it learned that the Alliance to End Repression was filing a lawsuit against the unit for violating the U.S. Constitution. The records that remain are housed at the Chicago Historical Society. The public requires special permission to access them until 2012.” Chicago Encyclopedia
Nick, Of course most cities are blue. The red areas tend to be more rural and southern. Even in Texas the cities are blue now. Dallas had a corrupt DA for years that was a republican. He loved the death penalty.
The biggest problem with any study of police corruption – which leads me to discount all such studies – is prevalent under reporting and some cities have cultures in their departments that encourage cover ups more than others. Some places, unless you have recorded evidence and have already taken it to the media, filing a report against a cop is simply a waste of time.
Followed by NY and LA.
I will, however, give Chicago a close second on quality.
It’s not just quantity of corruption.
It’s quality of corruption.
NOPD wins the corruption competition hands down. They truly shine in that area. Every other place is just about the same with certain variations due to scaling.
The University of Illinois-Chicago did a study on the most corrupt cities in the US earlier this year. If anyone is surprised Chicago is #1 then they’re well..let’s say misinformed.
1 Chicago
2 LA
3 Manhattan
4 Miami
6 Newark
7 “The Cleve”..sorry blouise, don’t kill the messenger
8 Philly
9 Richmond
10 Brooklyn
11 San Antonio [surprising to me]
12 Orlando
13 Fresno [Raisins cause sin I guess]
14 Boston[As far as police corruption I put Boston right after my “stereotypical” aforementioned 4 most corrupt police forces]
15 New Orleans
This study was not specific to police but to the entire city. I base my “stereotypical” top 5 police forces on living in Chicago, growing up near NYC and Boston, and having sources built over 30 years, sources in police and Fed LEO across the nation. I’m amazed Detroit didn’t make this list.
Finally, Mike you are getting paranoid on this politics thing. I don’t eat and breathe it like you. But a high school understanding of US city politics would tell you that for except a handfull of cities, they are all Dem controlled. And here’s something both Gene and I agree on. If these cities were Republican party regimes, the result would be trhe same. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It doesn’t matter if it’s “your guys[gals]”
Nick,
Nice study results, but know link. how can one judge the effectiveness of any study without the metrics used to obtain it. As for my paranoia I judge people simply on what they write and the connotations in their message.
“New Orleans is most often said to have the most corrupt police force.” -Swarthmore mom
You beat me to the punch in mentioning NOPD, Swarthmore mom.
Worth reading, IMO:
http://www.amazon.com/Protectors-Privilege-Squads-Repression-America/dp/0520080351
Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America
by Frank Donner
http://www.amazon.com/Protectors-Privilege-Squads-Repression-America/dp/0520080351
“This landmark exposé of the dark history of repressive police operations in American cities offers a richly detailed account of police misconduct and violations of protected freedoms over the past century. In an incisive examination of undercover work in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia as well as Washington, D.C., Detroit, New Haven, Baltimore, and Birmingham, Donner reveals the underside of American law enforcement.”
Donner, a civil liberties lawyer, last wrote The Age of Surveillance (a “powerful and signficant study,” LJ 5/1/80), about federal suppression of political dissent. Viewing city police as “the protective arm . . . of the capitalist system,” Donner here documents the history of local countersubversion units, focusing on Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles. Donner presents a litany of police harassment and abuse, including undercover agents who incited the violence they supposedly were hired to prevent. Rather dense prose, with many footnotes and 100 pages of references, gear this book primarily to research and legal collections. A worthwhile, albeit strongly opinionated, contribution.
– Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
“The corruption is everwhere and pretty much everywhere equal.” -Mike S.
True and true.
I have said it before and I will say it again. Some cops take a perverse joy in killing things, any thing.
New Orleans is most often said to have the most corrupt police force.
rafflaw, If you’ve not lived anywhere else then how would you know? Chicago is the most corrupt, thugish, incompetent police force in the US, followed by NY, Philly, LA. But Chicago is the worst and the DA’s office covers for them. Cops in KC are told, if you pull over a person from Chicago, and they offer you $20, don’t write them up for bribery, that’s all they know. That’s is the truth. Chicago is rotten to the core. I still love it. I’ll be down there next week. But it is a one party regime, like the old Soviet Union.
nick,
I have lived in the Chicago area all my life and the cops here are no better or worse than anywhere else. This cop and his superiors should be fired on the spot. I hope the owner gets some cash out of the City for allowing this thug to patrol the streets.
“I have lived in the Chicago area all my life and the cops here are no better or worse than anywhere else.”
Raff,
Exactly my point. I’ve lived in NYC and in NYState. I live in Florida. The corruption is everwhere and pretty much everywhere equal.
“Chicago is the most corrupt, thugish, incompetent police force in the US, followed by NY, Philly, LA.”
Nick,
On another thread you asked me for examples of your stereotypical thinking. Voila! Where do you get your “facts” from? Are you really saying that those cities police forces are more corrupt than those in New Orleans. How about the police force in Maricopa County, Arizona. You really can’t fault me for the suspicion that you pick those particular cities because they have the reputation of being liberal.
This is especially true because the two venues I’ve mentioned have particular smelly reputations, but are not considered politically liberal.
This is a safe crime for an officer. What pet owner is going to attack an officer when they need to get the dog to the veterinarian in all haste?
Seriously, you cannot even pause to kick the guy in the balls, and if you did you most likely would not get to take your pet for medical care. Yes, a very safe crime for cowards.
They love to do this in front of children as well. That holds even more people to restraint.
Predicting one day, some dog owner is going to shoot an officer who does this. There will be a trial. Is your dog getting murdered justification to shoot a human?
Wootsy, One of my Top 5 movie scenes. Only an Italian would concern himself w/ food in that instance. Of course, he knew he would catch hell from his wife. Just before he left she yelled to Clemenza, “DON’T FORGET THE CANNOLI!”
Waldo – you are so right. I too was taught to respect police. now, when I am with my 3 year old, I pull him away if we see a cop – I dont even want him in the vicinity of one. And, the word “pig” rolls easily off my tongue. I finally understand the 60s, only they lost and the military industrial complex won.
The police state is already here – you can be beat up, at any time, for any reason buy a cop who will never face any significant punishment for doing so – and a bystander can be charged for filming the cop’s illegal act – a true patriot can be jailed for releasing our dirty little secrets to the world and we can marshal all of our allies to prosecute the man who published them. and, as if thats not enough, we engage in wide spread torture and human rights abuses and no one is charged — and the leader who was supposed to change all that, Mr. hope and change, has decided its okay to kill folks, even American citizens, purely on his say so – no due process.
God bless the liberterian public policy research institute CATO
http://www.policemisconduct.net/
The National District Attorney Association once said:
(Destroyers Are Not Yet Fit To Survive).