Some jurisdictions have curtailed or even eliminated K-9 teams due to liability — reducing the majority of dogs to drug and bomb sniffing units. That is clearly not the case in Livingston, Montana. Mark Demaline, who cooks at the Park Place Tavern, was attacked late at night in his workplace when police found a door unlocked after hours and sent in a police dog named Bobi. What is most astonishing is not just the lack of an apology by police but the insistence of Chief of Police Darren Raney (left) that the dog “did what he was supposed to do.”
After the restaurant closed, Demaline did what he often did after work. He went next door to the Livingston Bar and Grille for a drink and then returned around 2 am to retrieve his laptop to go home. He made himself a quick salad for a late night snack and was heading to the door when he ran into Bobi. At first, he said “Hey, puppy” and tried to greet it. He says the dog attacked and lunged for his thigh. When he tried to grab Bobi’s collar, the dog went for his wrists. The dog bit him deeply in the thigh and brought him to the floor as the officer yelled for him to put his hands above his head — a difficult proposition with a dog clamped on your thigh.
The police forced Demaline to his feet painfully and pushed him out the restaurant in handcuffs. Then left him in handcuffs as they called the owner to confirm that he worked there. He was then taken to the hospital for the deep bites and a laceration on his back from when he fell.
In the aftermath of the attack, Raney did not appear to see a need for an apology and stated “It’s acceptable for the dog to confront anybody in the business at that hour, . . . When the dog finds somebody in the building, he’s going to secure him, and that’s what happened . . .He did what he was supposed to do.” The Chief could not be stating a better case for a lawsuit. It is hardly unheard of for a person to be working late at a bar or restaurant, particularly with a bar just closing next door. While the police say that they called into the business, sending in a dog off leash is an extreme measure. While these dogs are trained to immobilize a person, there have been many lawsuits showing that many trained animals suddenly attack.
In the absence of an apology, perhaps Demaline will find some solace in a damage award. It is clear that this is a police department badly in need of some legal corrective action. It is hard to believe that this tiny town has such a crime wave as to need this type of extreme enforcement measure. However, the town may now have to face the costs of excessive police action if Demaline sues, as he should, for this severe injury. To paraphrase the Chief, it is necessary for Demaline’s lawyer “to do what he is supposed to do.”
In another recent case out of Utah, a woman says that officers allowed a dog to attack her as she was asleep in front of a high school. She had previously had an encounter with a taxi driver who had refused to take her bike. She was awakened by the dog biting her leg. To make matters worse, the dispatcher praised the K-9 team saying “‘you two rock,’ ‘Wish we had instant photos in here!,’ ‘Severe trauma to the leg?,’ ‘Awesome extra treat for Vortex and you deserve a Slurpee!'”
Source: Livingston Enterprise
Kudos: Michael Blott
All of you are the most ignorant steaming piles of k9 unit crap. How can you judge an innocent person who works harder in one day than the majority of you have worked in your life. Someone who is the most upstanding, honest, and fair person in our community at very least. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves for blabbering all this when you don’t know you head from the end you shit out. Do you even know anything about this town? Do you know anything about the employee in the kitchen? Didn’t think so. All you foolish clowns, especially the idiot lying lawyer who wrote this I’d like so see what “disgustedoneastBroadway” wrote happen to you. Not to mention when you need one of these noble law enforcers I hope you just slip right through the cracks and rot. You don’t deserve their services.
Lawsuit! HA! If the State of Montana is anything like every other government on Earth, the judges are part and parcel of the corrupt system. I’m willing to bet the circuit judge and the chief of police are drinking buddies.. They will seize on any little mistake the plaintiff makes in his case, and then dismiss the lawsuit against the cops.
And we need to start calling them what they are: People In Government Service (PIGS)
I’m so relieved that sending in the dog ensured that heroic members of the Thin Blue Line emerged unscathed.
“Officer Safety” above all else.
Nick Spinelli, “white” is not a race. White is the lack of a race just as it is the lack of a color.
Trayvon called Zimmerman a dumb cracka. Nothing racist in calling an Hispanic American a cracka.
There is no witness inside that building to know what the human said or did to the dog. The guy was probably wizzing in the sink and the dog thought he was pulling a gun on him.
Funny sending the dog into a home in the country will result in animal crackers. Just get around them and force their jaws back breaking their mouth joint and they become useless.
Mike A.,
Excellent observation and the part about deductions from pay checks… That’s a winner…..
The dog did what it was directed to do, which means that the poor training in this instance relates to the police officers themselves. Chief Raney’s explanation is astonishingly idiotic. Perhaps if the inevitable settlement following the inevitable lawsuit were partially funded through payroll deductions from the chief’s salary, he might rethink his position.
Steven “Stupid crackers” is not racist. You can say virtually anything you want about white males, poor white folk, etc. Poor white fat folk can be legally beaten up in 16 states.
Dogs are trained better then that, this is incompetent training on both dog & officer.
@ P smith i forgot to add that pamela smith is a commenter over on the daily news forums.
lol @ psmith your posts sound exactly like the posts of one pamela smith
what site design would you suggest? one of complication?
ive been reading this blog site for a number of years and never had any problems and ive posted many comments with multiple links in it. maybe its your computer and not the website. try cleaning it out
as for the article i suggest the town do what its supposed to do and get rid of the police chief. also the restaurant could refuse to allow cops into its premises from here on without warrants with the reasoning the workers are now all afraid they might get attacked in their place of work…
You might want to think again, charlie, and rid yourself of that quaint delusion. Killing a schweinhund in self-defence may not lead to a murder charge, but the punishments are as harsh as any manslaughter charge.
From Stale…I mean, Slate:
So Help You, Dog
How does a canine cop become a “sworn officer?”
From Syracuse dot com:
Killing an on-duty police dog a felony in NY beginning Nov. 1 under law signed by Gov. Cuomo
http://www.policek9.com/html/statutes.html
You’ll have to copy and paste the article titles to search for yourself. I used article names because Turley’s site is poorly designed, choking on any post with multiple links in it.
Police Chief Declines To Apologize And Says Dog “Did What He Was Supposed To Do”
If only Livingston Montana Chief of Police Darren Raney “Did What He Was Supposed To Do”. Like for instance apologizing for the unprofessional actions of his officers especially when they harm innocent members of the local community.
PS Livingston Montana
Chiefclown of Police Darren Raney looks pretty in his costume too. He is however missing his big red clown nose.P Smith and Enfant du Peche – If he had killed the police dog, it would not have been murder. Non-humans cannot be murdered, under the law. Furthermore, killing the police dog would not have served any good purpose.
@davidm2575 re “An unlocked door is not an invitation for police to secure whoever is inside. Whatever happened to the Fourth Amendment?”
Boing Boing science editor Maggie Koerth-Baker recently had her home entered by police in the middle of the night because the police saw an both an open garage door and an open back door and decided that was probable enough.
http://boingboing.net/2013/08/29/the-police-an-open-door-and.html
Seems like overstepping to me.
Pubic servants.