so there’s a post I’ve seen about this news story where a cop in Mississippi got demoted after abandoning his police dog at a shelter, and that’s all well and good and stuff so I decided to make a new post rather than hijack that that one, but i still think it’s really important to note that like
A cop is getting demoted for abandoning a dog. But cops regularly shoot and kill people of color and face virtually no consequences.
Ismael Lopez was shot and killed in his home on July 23rd, 2017. The officer that shot him was not indicted, and his name and information were not released to the public. The file is closed and under wraps.
Patrick Bryant was out walking with his son when he was shot by police in both hips and the heart on November 10th, 2018, and his son ran home in tears saying that his dad had been shot. I can’t find any news about this at all past November 13th.
Both of those also happened in Mississippi. I couldn’t find any reports of consequences for the officers involved. When cops shoot people of color, people argue that they may have been scared or that maybe the victim was a bad person. The police department protects their privacy and does its best to hinder the investigation or defend the officer.
But when a cop abandons a dog, he’s universally regarded as ‘cold-hearted.’ He’s removed from the narcotics division and reassigned to patrol duty. The department chief spoke out against the decision, saying that the Jackson Police Department believes all police dogs deserve a loving home. There’s an immediate change in policy (quarterly welfare checks) to ensure that it never happens again.
The dog didn’t deserve to be abandoned, and I’m glad it will be prevented in the future. But there is something horribly wrong with us that we care more about a dog going to a shelter than about the literal lives of (particularly dark skinned) people of color.
