Cop shoots, kills labrador inside "suspicious" vehicle

COEUR+D+ALENE+DOG+SHOOTING+7.9.2

Yet another one. A police officer in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, approached a vehicle, shot through the glass and killed the dog inside it, then claimed it was a "lunging pit bull." From KREM:

COEUR+D+ALENE+DOG+SHOOTING+7.9

The incident began Wednesday morning when an officer responded to call about a suspicious van. The caller claimed the driver of van was watching young children from a nearby parking lot. The owners of coffee shop reported the white van because they thought it was possibly connected to child luring case.

When an officer approached the van with his gun drawn, the dog lunged out of the open driver's side window according to Coeur d'Alene Police Department leaders. The officer said the pit bull lunged at his face. Investigators said the officer fired one round from his service weapon and shot the dog in the chest. The dog later died.

The police culture of "kill the dogs" is not an accident. It's the result of crudely militarized training that winds them up with the idea that every non-routine public interaction is a life or death tactical scenario. What happens when you put someone trained like that into a superficially confrontational interaction? They do whatever it takes to take control of the interaction. Stop barking, Sir.