You can hardly read a paper or listen to the news without hearing about some event which quickly got out of hand - whether over the team winning, the team losing, someone is mad at his x girlfriend's new boy friend, etc... Can you imagine the out cry is this "simple" incident HAD escalated to something much harder to control and the public found out the police did NOT bring in the K9 dogs to diffuse the situation earlier???

The police are damned if they do, damned if they don't.

Nora stated:

"When anyone plays the race card, it is a no win for everyone.

I certainly think the behavior of the attendees is what should be questioned. But to bring one dog (without riot gear I might add) can certainly not be construed as racism unless the dog was directed to one certain race and no others.

Of course, the dog or policeman/woman can not be in control of what race any ill mannered attendee was."



Nora ,

I'm not saying it's racist . But it's going to be played out as such . Police K9's depend on public support . We had our K9 unit disbanded in the 70's due to loss of support because of the use of Police K9's that were shown on TV during the riots of the 60's and 70's .

We have very good public support for our K9 unit but it has been shown over and over again that there is not enough when the issue of using the K9 for crowd control comes up .

I'll change my first recommendation to this , if you have the support of your community go for it .

But , Police K9 units have a history of being disbanded to apease an outspoken few and in my experiance I've never seen the people protesting percieved racial discrimination by the police , in a community outnumbered by other protesters that disagree with them . Even though a majority of that community may disagree with them .

The general public seems to keep their opinions to themselves or share them with those they know will agree with them . They won't go out and voice their support for the police because (at least I believe) they #1 don't want to be painted with the same racist brush as the police or #2 the issue is just not important enough for them to get out and do something about it .

If there are Police K9 units that use K9's for this and they have the support for this , more power to them . I'm glad they have an enlightened citizenary to depend on . I just feel sorry for the K9 unit that finds out the hard way they didn't have that support because history has shown that support has not been there for some .




_________________________

Well, Jim, this is certainly another facet of the situation that has not been addressed.

To not use the dog could also be seen as racism, albeit, reverse racism.

The solutions to these problems lie in your observation of citizen behavior. Too many times the majority does not support the police in terms of accused racism.

Sadly, it is because they will be painted with the racism brush.

What is one to do?

The shame is that we, as a community of any/all races, receive less than the best because of the few.

That is the true shame.

Jim, I'm going to have to politely disagree with you somewhat on whether or not the dog should have been introduced to the situation. I think there are few places that had a worse image of police working dogs than we had in the South. That image was somewhat earlier than experienced by your department in the 70's. We've worked very hard to change the image of the working dog. We're more than conscious of the past and the implications. That said, we deploy the dogs when needed, without regard to perception. Deployment is based on anticipated results with the safety of the public and the responding officers in mind.

DFrost

David stated ;

" Jim, I'm going to have to politely disagree with you somewhat on whether or not the dog should have been introduced to the situation. I think there are few places that had a worse image of police working dogs than we had in the South. That image was somewhat earlier than experienced by your department in the 70's. We've worked very hard to change the image of the working dog. We're more than conscious of the past and the implications. That said, we deploy the dogs when needed, without regard to perception. "


I'm sure there will be quite a few that will disagree with me . Just trying to put out something to be aware of then do what you feel is best . I also didn't say we don't deploy them . We deploy them differently though then in the past .

Our K9's are on scene in case an Officer/s or civilian/s need to be rescued . We will use them then to get through the crowd . They just aren't in the front moving the crowd or as crowd control . First for moving the crowd we don't bluff with our dogs . If we are using it for that and the crowd or individuals in it won't move we can't use the K9 anyways. Same for trying to keep individuals off a basketball court . We use them as deterents but only in situations where when we threaten to use them and individual doesn't comply , we can actually use them .


David stated;

" That said, we deploy the dogs when needed, without regard to perception . "


When the perception of the use of that K9 is viewed as wrong by those(police administration , mayor , city council , citizens ) that can effect the future of that K9 unit , how you deploy that K9 should be looked at . Our dogs do a great job keeping our citizens and officers safe . We would be doing them a big disservice if we lost our K9 unit over one issue like this .

There is no blanket right or wrong way to use K9's in this type of situation . Some may have the support and be able to use it the way it was used in the editorial . For others their K9 unit may suffer for using it in that type of situation . Problem is most K9 units aren't going to find out where they stand on that issue until after they have used a K9 in that situation . For some it may be too late . I just want others out there to know all potential issues that may come so they can have as much information available to them if they find themselves having to make that descision .

it's kind of hard to counter this kind of education

http://cfs10.tistory.com/image/32/tistory/2009/02/05/10/57/498a4786451be

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2007/11/16/birm372.jpg

http://www.locustfork.net/blog/cop_dog1.7.jpg

so weaned on this any use of a K9 has to go thru this mental filter

 Quote: Dennis Jones

it's kind of hard to counter this kind of education

http://cfs10.tistory.com/image/32/tistory/2009/02/05/10/57/498a4786451be

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2007/11/16/birm372.jpg

http://www.locustfork.net/blog/cop_dog1.7.jpg

so weaned on this any use of a K9 has to go thru this mental filter

Of course it's hard. We've done a lot of work to get away from those images. It isn't easy, and it's a continuing effort. There was a time when few departments used dogs, that has changed and now most major cities in the South use dogs. You can bet any deployment is given the utmost scrutiny.

DFrost

By that merit, the use of dogs is also anti-Semetic.

And funny moustaches.

not only do we have to deal with our own history I ran into some immigrants from the former Eastern Bloc communist countries and they reacted poorly with Erika, it was explained to me that these dogs were fed on the flesh of dissidents, probably not true but that's what they believe.

" You can bet any deployment is given the utmost scrutiny. "

Most diffenately . Mix that with the fact that the legal precidents we work under are basically up for interpretation . What 1 judge or jury may interpret 1 way others see it another . Same goes for police departments , supervisors , K9 trainers , K9 handlers , etc. . So when we make a descision on how to use our K9's on the street we are basing it on our understanding of those laws and we are hoping most see it our way.