BTW - Did you see the bullshit that happened up in Vallejo? Cops sent a dog into a culvert after a suspect. The suspect shot and killed the dog. The police had a full-fledged funeral, casket and all for the fucking dog. Flowers all over he place, mourners. Now they're buying goddamned kevlar vests for their dogs. Fuckheads. Who's the citizen? The human or the dog?
It costs money to train an attack dog- kevlar sounds like a good way to protect the states investment.
As for the suspect he's charged with something for killing the dog.
Definitely manslaughter, probably 2nd or even 1st degree murder. In (I believe) every state the union the penalty for shooting a police dog is the same as shooting an on duty police officer. Police dogs are effectively classified as deputies.
Simple destruction of property, which would be a charge befitting the act, is probably not enough to avenge beloved Bowser's death. Because it's a cop-dog-on-duty the penalty is probably more than restitution and some community service. Jail time for defending yourself against an attack dog?
I'm not sure the issue is as simple as you paint it. You say defending yourself from an attack dog- however attack dog implies your life was in danger (if it was it would be comfortably within your rights to shoot the dog as self defense) inherent in it being a police dog is that it is well trained and won't kill you (this is in general- I don't know the specifics of the case and so don't have perfect info on what was going on when he shot the dog). Their is also the issue of resisting arrest (I don't know exactly how he got in that culvert, but I suspect he wasn't enjoying the scenery) and shooting at the police. We have to consider shooting at the dog in the same category as shooting at the police for the same reason shooting at their car would be in the same category as shooting at the police. Regardless we know have a total of 3 crimes that seem to me add up to jail time regardless of whatever he was originally being chased for. 1. Resisting arrest 2. Shooting at the police 3. Killing the dog (whatever crime you want to classify this as) ___________________________________________________________________________ "DOS/WIN based computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq, Tandy, and millions of others, are by far the most popular, with about 70 million machines in use worldwide. Macintosh fans, on the other hand, note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans, and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form." - New York Times -Kevin "The Cubbie" Elliott <mailto:k-elliott@wiu.edu>