I will preface this blog by saying that I know many of my friends will disagree with me on this particular subject and that's fine. I welcome your comments should you feel inclined to write them but ask that you remain respectful. This post is not directed at any one person but rather an attempt to express a slightly different perspective.
People in Oklahoma City and other areas may not know of this story but if you live in or are from the Austin, TX area then you have surely heard about the furor developing as the result of an incident last weekend. To fill everyone else in, on Saturday afternoon a police officer named Thomas Griffin was dispatched to a domestic disturbance and went to the address given to him by the dispatcher. Little did he know that the address was wrong and that the house he was responding to was not where the disturbance had taken place (the inaccuracy is the result of a mistake by the reporting party who called 911 and not anyone at the police department). Well long story short, the home owner of the property that Officer Griffin approached was at that moment playing in the backyard with his dog Cisco. In an extremely inopportune coincidence the homeowner left his backyard to walk to his truck as the officer was approaching the house. When Officer Griffin saw the homeowner he shouted for him to put his hands up (assuming that this could be the man the call had been made on). Cisco in the backyard heard the commotion and ran out the still open fence toward the officer, barking and charging at him. The assertion that the dog was barking and charging is not one that I'm assuming but rather something that the owner has admitted in the clip seen at the following link:
http://kissfm969.com/austin-police-officer-gets-wrong-address-wrong-and-shoots-innocent-mans-dog-video/
At that point the officer retreated and shot the dog simultaneously.
So now you know the story. In the last few days my Facebook page has been inundated with posts about this story and how this police officer responded by using too much force. People have accused police of being overzealous with firearms and have generally talked about how the entire profession is becoming more and more corrupt. I've seen people make a point of the fact that Officer Griffin was at the wrong house (while never acknowledging that the address he visited was indeed the address where the incident was reported to have been occurring), that the dog wouldn't have hurt him (how on Earth could the officer know that the dog that was charging him and barking would not attack?), but mostly people are asking why he had his gun drawn in the first place. That's the question I'd like to address in this post.
It's been bothering me for a few days and so I did some research. Some of what I discovered I already knew but some of this information and these statistics were news to me. Here's what I found out.
According to an article in the May 2011 publication of "Police Chief Magazine" and based on a long range study spanning 13 years they reported the following results:
"During the study period, 89 lethal domestic violence incidents resulted in the deaths of 106 officers, with several incidents resulting in the deaths of 2 or more officers. In the majority of events, domestic violence suspects murdered officers in ambushes and unprovoked attacks. In fact, 51 percent of all lethal domestic violence incidents involved officers slain without any warning, before they had made contact with the domestic violence suspect and before officers perceived any immediate threat to their safety."
All that verbiage boils down to one statistic that I can't get out of my head. In more than 50% of the domestic disturbance LODDs (Line of Duty Deaths) the victim officer was straight up ambushed as soon as he or she responded to the call.
The article goes on to say "Moreover, it appears that the time of law enforcement’s arrival and the first minute or two thereafter are particularly lethal periods for law enforcement, regardless of the category of call to which an officer responds. Likewise, on lethal domestic violence calls for service, more than three-quarters of ambushes and unprovoked attacks on victim officers occurred within the first minutes of arrival on the scene, prior to the officer initiating any investigative activity or direct inquiry into the incident.
Specifically, 13 percent of ambushes occurred immediately upon arrival; these officers were slain either before having the chance to exit or directly upon exiting their vehicles (but before having a chance to approach the scene or identify the suspect). Similarly, 27 percent of ambushes occurred while officers were making their approaches (almost always to a residence); and 36 percent of attacks occurred immediately upon the officer’s entering a residence."
Still wondering why this officer had his weapon out as he approached the house? If you track this article down and read it in its entirety you will see that its purpose is to say that domestic disturbances actually account for a small percentage of LODDs but I have to say that 106 officers killed over 13 years does not seem minor to me. Would you feel that way if it were you taking the call and walking up to the door? Then to have a homeowner come around the corner followed by a dog who is barking aggressively as he moves quickly toward you? Keep in mind - during the 15 seconds that the entire incident took place Officer Griffin still believed he was at the correct address and was dealing with a drunk man who had been holding a woman against her will. Not one of us was there and can know what was going through his mind at that moment.
Having recently faced a similar situation where a dog ran up on me aggressively, I can tell you that had I been armed at the time I'd have reacted with the same level of force as he did. My husband has been attacked by two dogs in our neighborhood within the last 8 years. Additionally, the particular dog that approached me has done the same thing on multiple other occasions when we or friends of ours were in my front yard. The fact that this dog has never physically bitten any of us does not make him any less a threat in my opinion. The other 2 dogs had never bitten anyone either - until they did.
I also just have one more thought I'd like to share. Since the beginning of this year there have been 32 officers killed in the line of duty in The United States. 4 deaths in the last week alone and 2 of those officers were victims of gunfire. Where are the people setting up Facebook posts calling for "Justice for Police Chief Michael P Maloney", who was shot and killed exactly 8 days before he was scheduled to retire? I love animals and am heartbroken by this tragic circumstance but want to remind you all to take a step back and try to see this situation through the eyes of a police officer who was at risk of being attacked by a dog (or felt he was). Even more personally for me, look at it through the eyes of a police wife who hopes her husband has the quick reflexes to react in the same way should he ever be in that situation. I would much rather mourn the loss of a pet than watch a family mourn the life of a fallen officer who hesitated in a similar situation because he was afraid of public backlash.
As I said at the very beginning, I respect everyone's right to their own opinions but wanted to hopefully share a different perspective that you may not have taken into consideration. If you do disagree please allow me the same courtesy while I express my feelings on the issue, as so many of you have done in the last few days.
* Follow up (April 19) - I've changed the title of this post 3 times in 2 days because I just can't seem to think of one that explains my intentions with regard to this blog. The sheer hatred that I'm seeing is unbelievable and only seems to be growing in power. If you do feel strongly about this issue please take a moment to let your voice be heard. At this point the story that is getting out is incredibly one sided and doesn't take into consideration the danger that our officers are in every time they respond to a domestic call (or any call, really).
