The case of the police officer involved in the deadly shooting of the rottweiler, Max, last weekend has taken a rather bizarre twist.
At least three petitions with over 130,000 signatures want justice for Max’s death. The video, which is seen in my previous article shows Max being shot to death, has gone viral with nearly 4 million hits.
Due to death threats and for their own safety, the officers have been removed from street patrol.
The department has been besieged with phone calls and emails asking for the firing of the officer who killed Max. There is a planned protest for today in front of the police station.
“Anonymous”, an online hacktivist group, has made a video and uploaded it to YouTube and leaves an ominous message for the Hawthorne Police Department. It announced it will “retaliate” against the Hawthorne Police Dep’t for its actions regarding Max. (I have seen the video but I can no longer find it. I don’t know if it has been pulled.)
In the video, someone is cloaked in a black robe with a Guy Fawkes mask and white gloves. The person’s voice is altered but the message is clear: the shooting of Max is “unacceptable” and says they will retaliate.
“Police of Hawthorne you must know that you are our primary target,” the alleged Anonymous activist says. “This matter will not remain unresolved.”
“We do not forgive; we do not forget.”
The police department’s website has also been hacked. “Anonymous” is known as a computer hacking activist group. They make no mention of hacking the website in the video. The cyberattack has left their website crippled since this past Monday.
I believe the police could have employed other methods to control Max by using a Taser gun (stun guns), pepper spray, nightstick or. The Hawthorne Police officials said it would have been difficult to holster the gun and reach for a Taser or retrieve a shotgun capable of firing beanbags in time.
Emotions are running high over the death of Max because this isn’t an isolated incident any longer. It’s happening quite frequently. People are angry and they are demanding police to stop killing their pet dogs.
Are sending death threats and a video stating there will be retaliation the correct way in which to handle this? Will these methods really make the police roll over and do as requested?
The Hawthorne Police are conducting two investigations. The first is about Leon Rosby’s (Max’s owner) alleged interference with a police investigation. An armed robbery had taken place and Rosby was videotaping.
Rosby has said he wants no violence during these protests.
They are also investigating the actions of the police officer who killed Max. His name, address and badge number were leaked to the internet but I choose not to post any of the information.
After the investigations are ended, how do we resolve the problem of police killing pet dogs without proper motivation? I believe the majority of police officers are doing their jobs to protect us. But, we can’t deny there is a problem.
I hope Max’s death will spark the fire for police departments everywhere to want to change their policies when it comes to shooting pet dogs. This is clearly injustice and it can’t prevail.
What do you think?
Go for it!
These stories keep happening and nothing ever happens to the police. It’s tragic, wrong and someone needs to step up to change this. I hear people complain that they’re only animals. What’s going to happen next when they kill people for no good reason. Rosby didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t need to be arrested. Why did they arrest him? What warranted that? Had they not done that, Max would be alive.
Maybe this will get the attention it deserves with this video. Max didn’t deserve to die and in a horrible way. People who were there were horrified to watch him convulse and die. His owner had to do the same. He couldn’t even cradle him as he died. This has made me so angry. I would have flipped out watching as a cop shot and killed my dog! karma.
I demand justice! The officer deserves to be fired! You can’t threaten police. They’ll come after you but they deserve to be punished!
If the police find out who anonymous is, they could end up in prison, the officer be free and a dead dog. Sound like justice. Don’t think so.
The police across the nation need to change how they deal with animals. Yes, there are good cops but we know all to well about those who let the power go to their heads and in return, kill too many innocent dogs. They need to know they can’t keep doing this. People are losing their pets they love like their own kids for no reason except they had the wrong house. Dogs have been shot in their own backyards for doing nothing! NOT ACCEPTABLE!!! Max’s death and others who have lost their lives unjustly mustn’t be in vain. Time for this to change NOW!
Thank you.
If cops killed my dog and in front of me for no reason, they would have to hold me back. I don’t care if this isn’t about humans. My pets are everything to me. They treat me better than alot of people. They’ve been there for me more than people when I needed unconditional love. My dogs wouldn’t harm anyone but the cops don’t care. These cops have no regard for life to do this. Shooting a dog four times was excessive and never necessary. Cops are trained how to handle situations like this. They have the need to shoot. Fire him!
This group isn’t helping the cause. I feel it will only aggravate the situation.
So the officer couldn’t holster his gun and reach for the Taser gun in time? If this is that officer’s excuse for shooting Max, he should be excused from the department and never aloud to work in field of law again! If he was really concerned with time to reach for a taser, why was his gun already out? As soon as Max escaped the car, he pulled his gun…not the taser, HIS GUN! It is especially ridiculous that this man’s backround is being brought up…he was a criminal, blah, blah, blah…Well let’s post the record for the shooting officer shall we…MULTIPLE complaints and a lawsuit I believe. I will try to find this and share!
Max did nothing wrong! The owner was compliant and put Max in the car. Since the owner was cooperative, they should have allowed him to put Max back in the car with the windows rolled up to a point where he couldn’t jump out. The video has me in tears and screaming at the cop for doing this injustice!