ARFEE: You call this training?

We all go through some kind of training. Four-year apprentice program, 2-, 4-, 6-, 8-year college-university, some kind of training to get into the workforce and then continue to learn on a daily basis from there. Some jobs are “high” risk and some are “lesser” risk, whether it’s collecting trash or doing heart surgery. They are all important jobs. Police officer or store clerk, they both have a “risk,” but it is an individual choice. It doesn’t matter if you are 3,000 feet below ground in a mine or 35,000 feet up in the air in an airplane, or somewhere in between. We are all part of what it takes to make it work.

I wasn’t there, but in my opinion, the police officer who shot the dog through a window in a parked car, should not be allowed to carry a gun. Choose another kind of work or at least be retrained and re-evaluated. A barking, snarling domestic dog should not be a threat to a trained, tough police officer. Worse case, it might bite him? Just like a trained police dog in a police car that gets excited if you get too close to the car? Doesn’t mean you should pull out a gun and shoot it. Just wanted to voice my opinion as a taxpayer who supports the police officer’s job. Remember it takes all of us to make the wheels turn.

LEIF JULIUSSEN

Coeur d’Alene