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COPS: More training, not spin

| July 23, 2014 9:00 PM

The recent killing of Arfee, the 2-year-old black Lab pup, by a Coeur d’Alene police officer is disturbing enough by itself. The thought of law enforcement officers who choose to use deadly force in a situation where the animal is secured behind a car door is chilling to say the least. But what is even more alarming is the apparent attempt by the Coeur d’Alene Police Department to alter the initial facts of the incident in what appears to justify the officers’ actions and soften the impact this may have on the public.

The initial report stated that the dog was a viscous pit bull when in fact it was a 2-year-old black Lab pup. Moreover, the police said that they took the dog’s body to a vet to determine if it was a pit bull. Frankly, we should all be concerned that we have police officers that claim that they don’t know the difference between a “vicious pit bull” and a 2-year-old black Lab. It would appear that this police officer is either ignorant and acts on emotion instead of training or he and possibly others on the force tried to obscure the facts.

I guess they thought it would sound better if the headline read “officer shoots vicious pit bull as it lunges toward police.” Instead of “overzealous cop shoots family dog inside locked car.” Local law enforcement agencies are on record saying that they are concerned about how to deal with their public image over this and other recent incidents. My concern is how they go about changing their public image. By cutting out the bad apples and improved training, or spinning the facts to make the force look better?

Either way, stupidity or lying, we should all be very concerned and start paying closer attention to how our local law enforcement is behaving. Makes me question that any future investigation by internal affairs may be less than objective.

DAN SCHMANSKI

Coeur d’Alene