Hawthorne Police shoot Rotweiler (Justified? )

Some definitely are. Different breed of dogs had different purpose.
Some dogs where hunting dogs, other guard dogs and some simply companion dogs. Dogs like rottweilers and Irish Wolfhounds were used for protection, it is in there gene to try and protect their owner. My Labrador's typical response to an unknown person is to lay on it's back and wait for belly scratches.
On the other hand, the way the dog has been trained and raised can alter these predispositions, but it's still in them.

 

Being around dogs my whole life (mostly pits) .......... My view is, the dog in that video did not seem to the point of attacking. They could have easily asked the owner to give a command to sit, or used non-lethal force like pepper spray. I feel like the police need some serious training when it comes to animals. I've run across every breed of dog you can imagine, from inside homes, yards, and strays. Was a cable tech for a few years. I been able to fend off or get away from dogs who are aggressive without the need of shooting.

The reality is, the officer had every right to shoot. But it's obvious that common sense wasn't applied. The dog in this video obviously was just trying to get to it's owner, but the cop who shot the dog was in it's way. It's looked like the dog made an attempt to lunge at the officer, but after watching again, the dog was just trying to get to his owner.

Also why did they arrested him in the first place? He wasn't the only one taking video. IMO, there is more to this story.

 

Unfortunately, the officer didn't have the luxury of watching it twice to try to divine the intent of the dog. He saw a 100+ lb Rottweiler lunging toward him and he acted with only a split-second to decide what to do.

My suspicion is outstanding warrants. Multiple people were there filming and they didn't take any action on anyone else. Maybe one of the cops recognized him and came on over to arrest him on an outstanding warrant.

I don't believe that breeds are irredeemably committed to violence, but certain predispositions? Yeah, dogs have certain tendencies based on hundreds of generations of organized breeding to bring out certain traits. One of my dogs, a dachshund breed, is a digger. Nobody ever taught him to but he digs impulsively because that was part of why dachshunds were developed in the first place. DNA. Likewise, my grandfather (who ran an old-school, non-agribusiness chicken farm in the 50s and 60s) only used German Shepards to guard his birds from foxes. Why German Shepards and not retrievers? Because retrievers (golden and labrador) have a genetic compulsion to chase birds. It's in their blood since they were developed and breeded as gun dogs.

Rottweilers weren't bred to dig or to chase birds, but they were bred as guard dogs. Their protective instincts (of their owners and of property) are inherently stronger than that of a gun dog or a tracking dog. Combined with their strong jaws and muscular bodies, that's quite a package. Now, I'm not saying Rotties can't be trained to be gentle if you've got an owner who works at it. But all other things equal--an equal effort or equal lack of effort from the owner--a rottweiler is going to have stronger "protection" tendencies than a gun dog. In the wrong situation, protection tendencies in a dog can result in what people besides the dog consider an unwarranted attack.

 

The officer was approaching the dog, trying to grab it's collar with his left hand, with his gun already drawn on his right hand. The dog made a half hearted lunge towards the officer, like most dogs would do when a stranger tries to grab them. If the gun was drawn, everyone (including the dog) would mostly likely be ok. This is why police need training when it comes to animals. The gun shouldn't have been drawn in the first place.

Actually this is the real story ........... Police fatally shoot Rottweiler; dog's owner alleges retaliation - latimes.com

 

By "the real story," you mean a plaintiff's lawsuit who has every reason to exaggerate or outright lie because he's bringing a highly-lucrative Section 1983 action against the PD. As a lawyer who defends Section 1983 lawsuits on a regular basis, I feel comfortable saying that a plaintiff to a section 1983 lawsuit saying X to a newspaper is not solid evidence that any part of X is true.

IT's a common trend in 1983 lawsuits that the plaintiffs tell all sorts of tall tales to local newspapers and the defendants (the police department and its officers) say "no comment." That doesn't mean that anything wrong happened. That's just how press coverage in Section 1983 litigation goes.

So it looks like the dog owner has brought six previous lawsuits against the same police department, one of which was currently pending. Sounds to me like someone who has a habit of provoking a police response (in this case, blaring loud music that interrupted a police standoff and refusing to turn it off) and then suing, hoping for at least a nuisance-value settlement for each case. I've seen this pattern before. Any time one person has sued the same law enforcement agency six time, it screams "looking for litigation" to me.

California police say they shot dog in self-defense, but opinions vary *GRAPHIC* (VIDEO)

 

Starting to read more of the Youtube comments and the more I read, the more I'm disgusted at them than the situation itself...

 

Mind me asking if you're counsel for the city or county or a department within?

 

Another reason why police need more training to deal with animals ............. Video: Caught On Tape: Police Shooting Dog Who Defended Homeless Friend Who Had A Seizure! (*Warning* Graphic)

 

Police are people too...they make mistakes and they can't be expected to be able to deal with every situation. I'm sure there's a large handful of situations where each and every one of us would react irrationally and illogically to someone who knows what to do.

 

Stuff happens, you know?

In addition to the dog (obviously), I feel sorry for the shooting cop, now that he'll have to live with this memory, right or wrong. You can imagine: "Hey, you're the dog-shooter, right?"