Cop kills dog during sex offender compliance check at wrong home.
Officer James Freeman of Greenbrier, AR was doing a sex offender compliance check on private property when the homeowner’s dog barked at him. So Freeman shot the dog. The event would be an example of how mean some of the officers doing compliance checks can be to people on the registry and their families, but it was just made worse by the fact that the idiot went to the wrong home.
The below video shows the aftermath of the tragedy.
Update: The officer was cleared of any wrongdoing last night.
Of course he was. Obviously, the wrongdoing was done by the registrant whose compliance was being checked.
[/sarc]
Believe it or not, I imagine many readers were actually thinking the same thing, which shows how warped popular thinking has become these days.
Uh – has anyone seen John Wick?
No surprise the “officer” was cleared of any wrong doing.
I am sick to my stomach.
Wow just wow. Cleared for HIS mistake? Goes to the wrong house and kills someone’s dog and it is ok? Law enforcement has achieved too much power. I think a civil lawsuit against the department is in order. You can’t get out of that one.
And I agree, this is what we face every day of our lives. But again, the registry is not punishment? Is was for a dog that even IF it was the right house, there was no reason to shoot that dog.
On a side not, I do not know what kind of relationship he had with his neighbor that was on the registry, but sure that will make the family hate him even more, partially blaming him for living next to him ( Yes just an opinion )
If a doctor accidentally operated on the wrong person or accidentally operated on someone’s spleen instead of his kidney ,you would be looking at a multi million dollar law suit. Why is it cops can make all the mistakes they want with no accountability. It’s just brushed off as well it was a accident.
They need to be held to the same standards as everyone else. Or pay the consequences.
Exactly my thought. They will blame the sex offender for living in the neighborhood.
FAC…who ‘cleared’ this Canine Killer? The State Attorney General?
His internal investigations dept
Sad to say but that dog’s owner has gotten a taste of what’s it like to live as a Registrant. If more people experienced this they would not be so gung-ho about the Registry.
It is only speculation, but I suspect the homeowner would have been less upset if the cop had shot the SO. It is also no surprise that the cop was cleared. Most likely qualified immunity would apply to a civil suit because there is no clear precedent regarding shooting a dog on the wrong property while doing a compliance check. Sorry, but my cynicism is showing.
Now this is a good cop. We need more cops willing to come on to strangers properties and kill dogs. What I love most is because it’s a so called “good faith” mistake, he will walk away like it never happened.
When I grow up I want to be a cop. Because I can do what ever I want as long as I say it’s in good faith. Long live qualified immunity.
But isn’t there the “Dumbass Exclusion” to the “Good faith” argument??
(If he grabbed a clearly marked gas container from the back of his truck and poured it on a fire, would the court really accept “Oh, I thought it was water.” as an excuse??)
We don’t need to defund the police we just need to take there guns away from them. They obviously don’t know what there for.
Of course he was.
It could just as easily have been a kid legally target practicing in his own yard. Or it could have been the home owner gunned down if he happened to be legally carrying a hand gun and the cop overreacted. Undoubtedly, this officer had hoped to inflict psychological punishment on a registered sex offender by murdering his dog. Same reason some cops repeatedly pull over an offender driving his car. Pretty hard for a sex offender to prove harassment because society has been poisoned against us.
Gerald
Fortunately (I Think) there is so much crime in my area officers do not have time to pull off someone just because they are on the registry. I have only been stopped once in 20 years and I was speeding but still talked my way out of a ticket, even though he mentioned the registry, “ONLY” after running my license.
I have however, been stopped over 100 times when not driving for supposedly being in a place I am not supposed to be. Like taking my grandson to a playground. I guess they ran all the license plates in the parking lot and got a hit. The longest I got detained was 1.2 hours.
Honestly i think you are a fake and do not sound like an ex offender !
I dont think you have the right to say yoy were where you should not have been ,,,the Law is in Violation of Civil and Constitutional rights to live and be free, do not give me BS about rules, Regulations, Once a person paid debt to Society its OVER, GOT IT, END OF ARGUMENT, NO IFS ANDS AND BUTS !!!
Stop the Non Sense,,,the Y S. has No PRE-CRIME UNITS…IT IS ILLEGAL TO HARASS, BULLY, INTIMIDATE, BRAND, LABEL TRACK ALL PEOPLE !!….THE GOV IS WRONG !…The Gov. Has not proven the people on the Registry are Dangerous !!
Thank You !
He is not a fake. People need to understand that enforcement of registry laws varies tremendously all over the country. My experience in Michigan is likely far different than what a Florida registrant deals with. It even varies from one part of the state to another. It’s one of the things that makes me reluctant to travel. It’s one of the things that makes the registry so unfair. There is no uniformity of law enforcement. When I was on parole 4 years ago, I asked my parole agent if he could give me a map of the city showing school exclusion zones. Nope. Couldn’t even get some guidance as simple as that.
Gerald
Thanks for sticking up for me but I was not worried. I wish a 1000s wishes that I was NOT on the registry. I pray a 1000 prayers.
Expanding on what you were saying, each cop is different even in the same city. I have been harassed by one cop to the point I felt like going to jail by just knocking the smirk off his face.
A month or so later in the same city, another cop will run my tag, come over and speak with me and just ask me to leave nicely.
Mind blowing
Bill
You caught me redhanded. The years I spent on the registry since 1997 have all been a big lie and a dream I made up. My family are also liars and the pain I put my parents and family through is also a big imagination station created by MGM for a movie .
You have the right to say whatever you want but I have been on F.A.C now for several years and I think if I was a fake, someone would have caught on by now.
Fighting each other is JUST what the other side wants. Sorry I am not as radical as you but I have a family to protect.
On a closing note, I wish nothing but blessings, peace and relief for all of us on the registry. Not exclusively but especially for those of us sentenced before a registry was even a thought in someone’s mind. If I had, had a choice and there had been a registry on the table at sentencing, I would have told the judge where she could have put her robe.
Karma is a bear…
My condolences to the family of the murdered canine Clide. I do hope a civil lawsuit can be pursued. This is a prime example of why the police must be reigned-in. Many act with impunity, brutality, and malice. And yes it is systemic. The “good-faith” clause is just a loophole to perpetuate their sadism. Although I don’t support a total de-funding, certainly budgets must be cut and officers held accountable and have no “qualified immunity.” Then, and only then, will they care about the consequences of their actions or inactions.
Here in Freakville for example, we have so many cops they loiter in parking lots all day to catch speeders and law-abiding citizens caught driving while black. Whenever there’s a 911 call, no less than five or six cop cars respond. It’s obvious to any person with common sense that we are over-policed.
JZ
Having worked in law enforcement in the 1980s, traffic enforcement is NOT going away. It is a HUGE bulk of the departments budget. I worked in a large city department and there were more traffic cops in our department than all the rest of the cops in the entire county combined, not counting the Florida Hwy Patrol or the sheriffs office.
Although someone going 100 mph in a neighborhood does need to be stopped, it is funny when you call 9-11 because your house was broken into, you get told it will be a few hours as they do not have an available officer. If you watch any crime scene on the news, there are 15-20 officers standing around talking, laughing and telling jokes instead of doing their job. This is not just an opinion, I worked there I am telling how it is.
About half of them could be released to handle calls after the scene is “Secured” but they are afraid they are going to miss something, or they are just lazy.
CJ, thanks for the insight and for validating my long-held beliefs!
JZ
Your welcome my friend. Blessings for you and your family. Keep you head up. Like they say “There are some changes coming on”.
I know sometimes God stays out of things and sometimes He intervenes. Kind of like the supreme court, often it makes no sense but all we can do is keep fighting and not lose faith. Look how long Black folks had to wait to vote. Some of them like July Perry died for his belief he had the right to vote.
Not sure I will die for my right to be removed from the registry but I am just waiting for the right lottery numbers to be drawn (Figure of speech).
That psychopath needs be fired, and he needs to be charged. Who the hell does something like that???
I moved from a rented to place to a home/yard that I bought. My next door neighbor told me she was going to send her Doberman to the pound. I offered to take her. I mentioned to my DCS officer that I wanted to get a dog and he drilled about if the dog was aggressive even before I had the dog. The DCS officer bluntly told me he would shoot my dog if it came at him. I looked up the law in my state and sure enough, he could do that. What happened to using the less action required to defend oneself? I got the dog for emotional support and she has since been certified as a service dog (she is very protective and will defend me if necessary as well).
I have had dogs most of my life and know for a fact that a dog can easily be defended against by sicking your hand in its mouth and grabbing its lower jaw. It can’t and won’t bite then.
It sickens me this officer chose lethal force as his first choice.
Unfortunately considering the level of mental illness pervasive in the law enforcement “profession” this is not a surprise.
This is exactly why the registry is EVERYONE”S problem. These so-called “compliance” checks are a WASTE of taxpayer money. They are feckless and inept clown shows.
Shoot or harm a police dog and you get criminally charged.
Police shoot a dog or a person and they are protected from criminal prosecution.
It’s time that police officers are held responsible for their actions aka strict liability.
It is truly a pity that the homeowner did not shoot the intruder AKA cop.
Clearly after his dog was killed on his own property he had every right to assume he was next!
Bring criminally cleared is one thing, being civilly cleared is another in a civil suit. Ask OJ Simpson (millions owed in that civil suit to the families). The dept and the officer could be lawsuited for money and get ordered to pay it in the political climate today.
I’d love to ask the non-registrant people angry about the dog assassination if they would have shown the same outrage had the officer been at the right address and the dog belonged to the registrant?
On the sheriff’s office FB page the outrage is there; they’re flooding the page with comments even over a post about a “sex offender’s arrest.” Many are commenting on the dog, not the registrant.
Derek you already know the answer to that. I use to date a girl who liked her dog more than she liked me LOL
I believe there are people out there (registrant owner or not) that would be upset about this…The Dog is innocent. I would dare to say postings on the incident would be the same regardless of owner…in similar situation like the owner said the Dog ain’t never bit anyone… Now the registrant…I wouldn’t be surprised if somehow this will get spun on him….use your imagination
https://www.dailydot.com/irl/investigator-james-freeman-shoots-family-dog-video/
He went to the right address yet shot the neighbor’s dog because his bark scared him. I bet he shot the dog so he had something to blame on a registrant. This isn’t the first time a dog was shot by this county sheriff department. Sheriff Judd where is your wheel of justice when it comes to wrong done by cops.
Dear Bandon, are you talking about Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County, FL.? The case in the video was of a deputy in Greenbriar, AR. I have no doubt many deputies under Grady Judd abuse their authority because I live in Polk County, FL. But the incident in question shown in the video occurred in a different county of a different state
Not a fan of Judd
I know this shooting occurred in Arkansas and not Florida. However I’ve seen Sheriff Judd on Tv with his fugitive wheel of criminals; yet I haven’t seen one with law enforcement abuse of authority on his wheel. Sorry I’ll try not to use sarcasm as a way to deal with all this bs.
I will bet he also shot the dog because he always wanted one a a kid and his parents never let him have one. Who knows the psychology of some of these people. It can be one single thing or various things mesh together to make one disturbing individual. I would never promote this jerk to the k9-unit. Who knows what he’ll do with his own dog.