Tennessee family stopped by police for losing wallet

The BBQ Pit
41

Here ya go (I pulled the list from http://zekemacneil.com/shotgun.php):

Cookeville Police Department
10 East Broad Street
Cookeville, TN
ATTN: Chief of Police
(931)520-5263

Office of the Mayor
City of Crossville
45 East Broad Street
Cookeville, TN
(931)520-5241

Tennessee Department of Safety
Jerry W. Scott, Commissioner
1150 Foster Avenue
Nashville, TN 37249
ATTN: Jerry W. Scott, Commissioner
(615) 251-5216
Fax: (615) 253-2091

Tennessee Highway Patrol
1150 Foster Avenue
Nashville, TN 37249-1000
ATTN: Colonel M.V. Fagan
(615) 251-5175
Fax: (615) 532-1051

Tennessee Highway Patrol, 6th Dist. HQ
P.O. Box 826
1291 Bunker Hill Rd
Cookeville, Tenn. 38501
(931) 526-8496
ATTN: Captain Randy Hoover

Tennessee Dept. of Safety
Criminal Investigation Division
1150 Foster Avenue
Nashville, TN 37249-1000
(615) 251-5187
Fax (615) 253-5981

Governor Don Sundquist
1st Floor,
State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243
(615) 741-2001

Governor-Elect Phil Bredesen
1st Floor,
State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243
(615) 741-2001

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
901 R.S. Gass Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37216
ATTN: Larry Wallace
(615) 744-4000
Fax: (615) 744-4500

Senator Charlotte Burks (D-Monterey)
18131 Crossville Highway
Monterey, TN 38574
(615) 839-3392

9 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, TN 37243-0215
(615) 741-3978

Rep. Jere L. Hargrove (D-Cookeville)
761 Loweland Road
Cookeville, TN 38501
(931) 526-2223
Fax (931) 372-9247

108 War Memorial Building
Nashville, TN 37243-0142
(615) 741-1875

Senator Bill Frist, MD (R-TN)
28 White Bridge Road, Suite 211
Nashville, TN 37205
(615) 352-9411
FAX (615) 352-9985

416 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) -224-3344
FAX (202) 228-1264

Rep Bart Gordon (D-TN)
P.O. Box 1986
106 South Maple Street
Murfreesboro, TN 37133
(615) 896-1986

2201 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-4206
(202) 225-4231
Fax (202) 225-6887

42

Frankly, I’m stunned at the whole thing. Unlike a previous poster, I have no problem saying I don’t trust cops, but there should at least be a measure of professionalism in them.

Was there any reason to pull them out of their car at gunpoint?

Was there any reason to handcuff them?

Was there any reason not to close the fucking door when it was obvious there might be “dangerous” animals in the vehicle?

There were what, four polics cars there? Isn’t that enough to scare the shit out of somebody whom you have no proof of actually commiting a damn crime?

This is one of the most aweful fucking things I’ve ever seen. The lack of care for civilians - guilty or not - lack of professionalism, and complete ineptitude in the entire ordeal is disgraceful to the very concept of “protect and serve” and these cops should all be fired.

I really can’t express how much this pisses me off.

43

I thought the son’s name was Brandon?

Oh…found it in the other story. Carry on.

44

The shotgun toting cop in front of the nimrod showed incredible restraint. Frankly, if I had a shotgun blast go off behind my back, while I was a bit tense in the first place, with my finger on the trigger of a shotgun…Well, I might have flinched. And it would have been bye bye Jeb.

45

I just watched the video and one cop definetly looks in the car and what? He dosen’t see the dogs? AND WHAT THE FUCK is all the WALK FOUR STEPS BACKWARD on the shoulder of a busy HYW with you hands up?!?!?

Those cops are all fucking idiots and don’t deserve to wear the uniform.

46

Yeah, everyone knows police officers are all big mean people who get off on shooting guns and ruining people’s lives. Pssst…I hear they kidnap your children and eat them too. It makes them all feel like supermen because obviously anyone who devotes their lifelong career to protecting the very people who hate them. . . well they must have some sort of insecurity problem.

And why did’nt the police just use their lie detectors to determine that the lady was exaggerating in her phone call? Or maybe they could’ve used their crystal balls to see that it was just a wallet on the top of their car. Even though the cops thought the car was full of bank robbers…they should’ve obviously known that ANY group of people traveling in the same vehicle must be family members. I mean don’t those damn redneck cops know that if someone looks innocent…they obviously must be? Don’t they know that the bad guys only wear eye patches and have gotees? Maybe they were too busy planning their next innocent kill to realize that. I can understand.

And then the dog. Those bastards. That cop is probably secretly laughing right now as he mounts that dog’s head on his trophy wall. Cops will find any reason to shoot their guns. . . it’s a known fact. Stupid hick. . . he was probably too inbred and high on his own sense of power to realize that all his actions were being taped. He probably thought he could get away with it, or at the very least, that there would be a massive coverup to suppress any knowledge of the occurrence. I know! I bet that foolhardy bastard thought he could use the tape to become some type of hollywood action movie star. You know how ALL cops think they’re supermen.

Awww and that dog was so small and cute. . . how could it hurt anyone? Nevermind the fact that the cops thought they were dealing with armed bank robbers and that emotions were high. Those cops should’ve just let the dog bite the hell out of them or at least devoted two officers to catching the dog and then giving it a bath to make sure that it’s pretty little paws were’nt dirtied in this horribly unjust act. Oh and of course the dog was running away from the cop, dog have an innate ability to detect evil right? Dogs are never known to change directions. They always run in one direction and never turn around. . . that’s why they’re called nature’s bullettrains. Also, cops should at least wait until the dog bites them before he shoots them. That way the cops would blow his own leg off and, of course, no suspected armed robber would take advantage of that situation.

The lesson these cops should take away is this. . .

  1. No innocent-looking person or animal is ever capable of doing anything bad.

  2. It does’nt pay to get high on your own sense of power because you’ll make a mistake like hunt own an innocent dog while you’re on camera.

  3. The cops can’t do something like this again because the public will be outraged over it. . . because it’s clearly more unjust than when a rapist caught in the act gets to go free because some lawyer found a loophole in the system.

  4. Clearly cops don’t ever do anything good for the public. (otherwise it’d be in the news right?)

  5. Cops should know we’re always right even though we have no inclination to find out what police work is really like. (We watch the local news and COPS. . . that’s all the info we need!)

  6. Cops should realize that we have moral and ethical superiority over them because they are evil bastards and we are innocent civilians.
    Quick! Someone post some addresses so we can bust some windows and send some death threats!!!

47

So the cop was right in shooting the dog?
Fuck you.

I’m not saying that all cops walk around in power trips, or that cop enjoyed shooting it. I don’t know the cop and I wasn’t there. But to try and spin this to the idea that he did exactly the right thing is deplorable.

Oh, and Fuck You.

48

Thomas, thanks for the bit of sarcasm, but as your many, many years in public service will tell you, that kind of crap will get you nowhere.
I’ll go one step further and say you’re an asshole. Everyone knows what cops do, good and bad. No one gets awards for doing what they’re SUPPOSED to do, you twit, only when they cross the line to good or evil, which is what this officer has done.
Save someone from a burning building, and you’ll get attention too, see?

Please allow me to explain a bit about myself…
I’ve been a patrol officer, and am now a criminal investigator and firefighter in the greater Chicago area, i’ve been so for nearly 12 years.

Personally, I find the actions of the officer reprehensible and dangerous. He should lose his job, and his department should and will pay. In fact, I hope the ensuing lawsuits bankrupt the police department in Cookeville.

Now I will step over the line.

If I am in the shoes of Mr. Smoak, my lifes’ mission would be the utter mental and physical deconstruction of the police officer who killed my dog and damaged my childrens’ psyche.

This jittery, trigger-happy dolt is a liability to his family, his department and the public.

Ok, back to reality.

Like many, i’ve seen the video. Unlike many, I know from training and experience that there are many, many other ways that officer could have reacted and other levels of force he could have used to keep this “charging” animal at bay. Firing your weapon is always, ALWAYS last. Always.

The biggest problem though, after all was said and done, was the lack of command at the scene. Seems to me like every officer on the stop had their own agenda and was operating from a different playbook. This, ultimately will be what costs the good citizens of Cookeville many hundreds of thousands of dollars and perhaps several trained police officers.

I usually end up on the side of LE, but this one, is gonna drag some people down, and I can’t say that I’m sorry.

49

Thomas Stearns, you can suck my hairy wang.

50

Spot-on, and worthy of repeating.

51

Fine fine, I’m an asshole. . . but I wonder what it was I said that pressed those buttons so adamantly? I merely try to enlighten. . . not enrage. I suppose we are all predisposed to reaction in the Pit though. I just wonder why people are so quick to demonize …?

Before someone starts to call me the great satan, lets say that car was full of bank robbers and the dog manages to bite an officer enough to distract him. Now, one officer starts shaking his leg trying to get the dog off, what do the other officers do? They all turn and look. If even one robber manages to take a shot at the officer. . . well I think you know what I’m going to say.

I love dogs. I know it was improbable that the aforementioned scenario would take place. . . but officers are never called to probable situations.

What I’m trying to say is this. If saying that human life is more valuable than animal life puts me in bed with Hitler and Stalin, then go ahead and demonize me. But I hope you remember how much of an animal lover you are when you’re biting into that “Quarter-pounder with cheese” or wearing those leather shoes.

Then again, don’t believe my spin artistry. It’s obvious that I’m a police officer so obviously that makes my entire post invalid because I’m bound to defend other police officers no matter what.

Also, if people are’nt supposed to win accolades for things they are supposed to do. . . then how can you explain the oscars, the grammys, or the worlds greatest grandpa award :slight_smile:

So yeah, I’m defending that officer because he killed a dog he thought was dangerous to him and the case. If someone could give me an unjust motive for the officer to shoot the dog. . . then maybe I’ll change my mind. I liked the calling me an asshole and the “sucking my hairy dick” part though, it almost convinced me to quit the police force and join PETA.

52

I think the problem is that you’re brushing off what was obviously a gross error in judgement. Cops do make them, you know, even if they are all unappreciated heroes.

53

OK, I’m probably a fool for posting in this thread, but I’ve made a career out of doing things that most people wouldn’t have the guts (or be stupid enough) to do. :slight_smile:

First, the reason for the high-risk stop is very unclear to me. I have not heard what the officers were told by dispatch prior to making the stop. Obviously, with the facts that we know now, the high-risk stop was not justified. An officer has to make decisions based on what he or she knows at the time . As Thomas Stearns alluded to, we don’t have crystal balls to know exactly what really happened when we get a call. I can tell you from a lot of experience that we are often told things that have little resemblence to the truth. We go on what we have, and do our best to determine the truth as soon as possible.

Second, the dog. I would never have fired in that situation. I personally would have taken a bite before going to that step. But that’s me. If you watch the video, that officer had maybe a second to decide if that dog was going to hurt him (and let me state that law enforcement officer are not paid to get hurt). That decision was made based on his observations, what he knew (and didn’t know) about the situation he was in, and his personal experiences with dogs. Only he really knows what level of threat he perceived at that moment.

As is human nature in these situations, I see a lot of people making assumptions that are not supported by the known facts. In this thread, people have assumed that the dog would not have attacked anyone (how many people have been mauled by dogs that the family was sure would never hurt anyone?); that the officer enjoyed doing this (it’s possible, I guess, but I doubt it - then again, I don’t know how he feels); that the officers knew that no crime had been committed (that seems to obviously not be true).

I’m just saying that he may or may not have been justified at the moment he fired. We simply can’t know for certain.

Oh, and a couple of other point of explanation.
1)Having people walk backwards is the way that high-risk stops are done everywhere - that is not an unsafe tactic. We can’t tell, but there is fairly certainly a cruiser parked next to the one with the camera, blocking the inside lane.
2) The other officer would not (at least should not) have his finger on the trigger. We are trained not to put a finger on the trigger until the moment that we are ready to fire.
3) I’ll make my own assumption here - the officer yelled “Get back” because that is what automatically came to mind when he was faced with the perceived threat coming at him. In high-stress situations, we often fall back to trained responses.
4) There doesn’t appear to be time to tell the family to call off the dog. I count less than 2 seconds from the time the dog left the car until it was shot.

I hope this in some way helps people see the possiblities in this situation.

Badge

54

Well, I’m not trying to just brush off the officer’s judgement. I’m not trying to convince anyone the police officers are the greatest people in the world, either. All I’m trying to get people to do is to realize that everything changes in hindsight and that people are always quick to demonize officers for doing things without fully understanding why they do them.

If the officer knew all the facts that we know now, and he still made the same choice, then yes, that guy is a bastard. Then he’s just shooting a dog. I maybe would’nt have the white-hot burning hatred that some of you feel for him, but I’d still be pissed off at him. The only problem is he did’nt know. Ever read a good mystery novel? You never have a clue what’s going on until the last chapter when all the facts finally come to light. Try rereading the same novel, completely different story is’nt it?

Listen, I just got out of my rookie year so I tend to run a bit hot-headed, but even I try to understand the point of view of my suspects and treat them accordingly. An unemployed family that shoplifts gets treated alot nicer than a rapist. Hell, if the shoplifters are nice I usually let them pick the radio station they listen to while they’re going to jail.

I felt I needed to chime in here when people started claiming ethical superiority over the officers and then asked for the officer’s address so they could break his windows. Yet somehow the officer is still the evil one.

Let’s recap:

  1. I agree the officer made a horrible desicion if somehow he knew the entire facts of the case before he went in. He did’nt though.

  2. My greatest wish for police officers is that one day people would stop listening to the hack reporters, eerie background music, and intimidating sound effects, and just try to see the story from both sides. Police officers dont always do the right thing, but nine times out of ten, they do.

  3. It starts to worry me that a message board known for its intellectual members has an entire thread dedicated to chastizing someone for excessive force and then calling for the officer’s house to be destroyed. Not only that, but posting the addresses. Wow, if this is how the ethically superior act, then I’m thinking moving to Cuba or 1957 China would be alot more fun.

55

No one gave any officer’s address, Thomas Stearns. A little reading comprehension would go a long way here.

The officers involved made a horrible decision regardless of whether they knew what we all know now or not, not in shooting the dog but in failing to notice – the Smoaks family pleadings aside – that there were dogs in the vehicle which needed to be contained.

In making a felony stop and ordering all occupants of the car out of the vehicle, then someone in the team of officers should have made a visual inspection of said vehicle to ensure that there were no passengers still inside, down on the floor or elsewhere who were hiding contraband or procuring a weapon or simply attempting to avoid detection.

Had that simple and crucial step been taken, the presence of the dogs would have been ascertained, and the car could have been secured, preventing the shooting incident.

By failing to make that visual inspection, it seems fairly clear that either the police involved did not follow procedure or the police department’s procedures are in serious need of updating as it is 20 years behind the times with regard to safe stops.

I can only imagine how differently this whole story would be handled had the befuddled and protective dog been a machine-pistol toting crackhead instead. Imagine if a couple of local yokel cops got blown to kingdom come – I wonder whose praises would be sung and who would be pleading for understanding then.

56

No argument.

Well… let’s say the characters of three people were the exact moral opposite of what they are, making those three people criminals (3 changes); and that a crime was committed, when in fact no crime had been committed (1 more change); and that the Smoaks were armed, when they weren’t (an additional change): and that the dog was attacking the officer, because he didn’t (the last change to reality).
WOW! You had to spew a total of 6 different kinds of deceitful bullshit to justify this total cockup. You oughtta sell used cars. You’d be richer than Bill Gates, Tommy Stearns .
:wally

The issue ain’t the fucking dog! The issue is that three innocent people were pulled over, handcuffed, had guns pointed at them, & one of those guns was fired. The fact that a dog rather than a human being was killed is merely an act of divine grace. Not the product of good police work.

57

Don’t you think this is setting the bar a little high? A cop will never know the full facts of the case at the time. That’s why cops are expected to follow procedures and exercise good judgement on the basis of limited information–just so things like this don’t happen. The officers in question simply blew it through their own incompetence, with consequences that were horrible, but thankfully not tragic.

Cops are held to a higher standard of competence and judgement because they carry guns and have the weight of law behind them. Seven years ago in Montreal, police shot a shoplifter in the back of the head while the shoplifter was face down on the sidewalk, handcuffed. When I make a mistake, the database doesn’t get updated. When cops make mistakes, people die.

I think it’s probably natural for you to feel like cops are misunderstood–it’s a hard job, and the people you’re protecting don’t always make it easy. But that’s the job. And don’t mistake the fact that people aren’t lining up to give you a pat on the back for contempt; if you think about it, I’m sure you can come up with a lot of examples of people showing a lot of appreciation for police.

No one called for his house to be destroyed. The addresses are for the people in charge of the people, who might usefully receive a letter expressing outrage over this incident.

58

well said, FireWitch

59

That really says all that needs to be said about Thomas Stearns. Apparently posting the addresses for people to communicate with police agencies (note that neither officer’s address was printed) is bad in his world, ‘we the people’ should just shut up and take whatever bad cops dish out. Yes, Cuba and 1957 China don’t tolerate complaints about police brutality and you probably would get into trouble for posting addresses like those in this thread, and it’s pretty clear that dear Mr. Stearns would much rather live in that kind of society than one in which the police at least have to listen to complaints when they screw up.

60

A guy I know spent three hours on the road in the dead of winter in Tennesee because he was an armed robbery suspect. They were pulled over because they were blacks with out of state license plates, apparently. Police in Tennesee must have a track record of this, or something.