Dog Lovers Are Now Enemies of the State

Clueless police seem to like intimidating the public by shooting the dogs belonging to the innocent citizens they’re supposed to be protecting. In Tennessee, it took a federal jury to force the Tennessee Highway Patrol, kicking and screaming, to admit wrongdoing (the Cookeville, Tennessee police had already settled for $75,000) when a family’s dog was shot “by mistake.”

In the latest intimidation installment, “officer” (how he demeans the term) Thomas Griffin shot Michael Paxton’s dog on Good Friday after Griffin trespassed on Mr. Paxton’s property “by mistake,” pulled a gun on Mr. Paxton, and then shot and killed Mr. Paxton’s dog, Cisco.

Business as usual for Austin’s finest, but the public didn’t roll over and play dead. After 90,000 people expressed their outrage on Facebook, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo was finally forced to pretend to apologize, but he didn’t let his contempt for the public to stay hidden for long. He now blames a “mob mentality” for the massive wave of criticism of his department. That calumny, of course, gives Acevedo an excuse to call Janet Napolitano’s black helicopters (now circling Chicago) and their heavily-armed thugs, undoubtedly  trained in Nisoor Square, to Austin to put the uppity masses in their place.

Here we see the Orwellian dialectic at work: a rogue policeman trespasses and kills, but those who protest are at fault! They are the criminals! Therefore they must be taught a lesson! Anyone who complains is now subject to harassment and arrest as an enemy of the state, and can be indefinitely jailed without charge. Moreover, the NSA and Homeland Security will undoubtedly i.d. every one of those ninety thousand contemptible upstarts and target them. And, when Mr. Paxton sues Acevedo and Griffin, the government lawyers will undoubtedly demand that anyone who loves dogs — or liberty — be excused from the jury.

UPDATE from A.N. in Austin: “Watch the video. Acevedo will never discipline Griffin. In Austin, Affirmative Action rules, and the cops always cover for one another anyway.”

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10:07 am on April 19, 2012