FC: Police surveillance cam works: Shows cop brutality, dog-killing

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Note the family had committed no crime and were stopped erroneously in the 
first place... (How many hardened criminals travel with their family and, 
in a second car, the grandparents?) --Declan]


http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/08/police.kill.dog/index.html

   COOKEVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Police video released Wednesday showed
   a North Carolina family kneeling and handcuffed, who shrieked as
   officers killed their dog -- which appeared to be playfully wagging
   its tail -- with a shotgun during a traffic stop.

   ...

   The family was driving through eastern Tennessee on their way home
   from a New Year's trip to Nashville. They told CNN they are in the
   process of retaining a lawyer and considering legal action against the
   Cookeville, Tennessee, Police Department and the Tennessee Highway
   Patrol for what happened to them and their dog.

   In the video, released by the THP, officers are heard ordering the
   family, one by one, to get out of their car with their hands up. James
   Smoak and his wife, Pamela, and 17-year-old son Brandon are ordered
   onto their knees and handcuffed.

   ...

   The Smoaks told CNN that as they knelt, handcuffed, they pleaded with
   officers to close the doors of their car so their two dogs would not
   escape, but the officers did not heed them.

   ...

   An officer in a blue uniform aims his shotgun at the dog and fires at
   its head, killing it immediately.

   For several moments, all that is audible are shrieks as the family
   reacts to the shooting. James Smoak even stands up, but officers pull
   him back down.

   ...




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