Perhaps feeling a bit besieged
after dog owner Sean Kendall posted a video of
his impassioned confrontation with Salt Lake City police after one
of their fellow officers
entered his yard and shot his dog, Geist, Police Chief Chris
Burbank stepped in front of a camera—and acted pissy that anybody
would dare criticize his officers.
“Evidence shows that the dog was extremely close, in fact within
feet of the officer,” he insisted, immediately after stating that
he wouldn’t insert himself into the review of the case.
Well, OK. Let’s give him that one. After all, Officer Brett
Olsen, the shooter in the incident, had barged into the
dog’s yard at the time, while searching for a missing child in the
neighborhood. He hadn’t sought permission, and he apparently made
no effort to back out. But he was there.
Then Burbank went on to refer to Olsen as a “seasoned officer”
and a “hero” of the Trolley Square mall shooting before getting
pissy about the public’s angry response to the shooting of Geist.
He read infuriated letters suggesting that Olsen deserved the same
as he’d inflicted on Geist, and then went on to berate the public
at large.
“It is extremely disappointing. This police department has
worked tirelessly to ensure that the process that exists within our
city for people to protest, for people to bring forth issues, for
people to address problems and concerns with the police department,
that avenues exist that we can move together and resolve
problems…
Individuals will be held accountable for their actions as they
always are. Not held accountable to this ridiculousness.”
He went on to demand, well, that people his officers’
authoritah.
“I ask only one thing, and that is that this community continues
to approach interactions with the police department in a respectful
manner.”
Maybe this world just isn’t good enough for you and your
officers, Chief Burbank.
The chief’s resentment at public criticism didn’t
seem to to take with those outraged by Geist’s shooting. Yesterday,
organized by Justice for Geist,
somewhere between
hundreds and thousands
of protesters rallied outside the Salt Lake City Police Department
to demand that Olsen be fired.
The Salt Lake City council also, rather gently,
urged the police department to work with the Humane Society and
consider less-lethal means of dealing with family pets. Even
implied criticism of that sort toward the state’s enforcers is rare
from politicians.
Burbank did get one thing right when he marveled, “after 23
years in law enforcement, I haven’t seen this sort of public outcry
when certain human beings have lost their lives.”
Militarized, aggressive and abusive policing is not a new thing,
and innocent humans are often the victims, not dogs. But maybe
animals that can’t speak for themselves more easily evoke sympathy
than men, women, and
children.
Below, Sean Kendall confront police after learning of the
shooting.
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