In the aptly named Memphis neighborhood of Nutbush, Officer Calvin Taylor was shot right in the, uh, leg, by a brother officer attempting to execute a search warrant. And fight off three pit bulls at the same time. According to officer.com, an Organized Crime Unit officer (name withheld pending notification of the ASPCA) killed two of the dogs with his shotgun and then decided on bigger game forgot to consider what was beyond/next to his target. Officer Taylor is the second OCU officer recently punctuated by friendly fire. In November, Officer Willie Bryant was also shot by a brother officer while – you guessed it – trying to take out a mutt while executing a search warrant. To complete a perfect trifecta of canine gun violence, foxnews.com reports that . . .

a police pooch in Lawrence, MA, found a gun tossed into a snowbank by a fleeing gunman, and managed to shoot it. Obviously, the dog ignored Jeff Cooper’s Third Rule of Gun Safety, either because the dog can’t read or because Fido doesn’t have a finger.

Proof positive that when only police have guns, dogs will want them too.

26 COMMENTS

  1. My partner and I are slowly working on a song (Wierd Al style) about the wierd sh*t that happens in Memphis. Its called “Only in Memphis” which is to the tune of “Walking in Memphis.”

    Anyways, I dont know if they finally cleaned up their act or not but if not, thoes dogs are better off dead than in the Memphis Animal “Shelter.”

      • It is a great sing Ralph, sorry. But I cant help myself. I need to find some humor to survive around here

      • Because it’s a damned good homage to the Memphis of Carl Perkins.

        “Uncle John” advised Carl when playing the guitar to “Get down close to it. You can feel it travel down the strangs, come through your head and down to your soul where you live. You can feel it. Let it vib-a-rate.”

        a bit like playing the one-note battle rifle in slow fire with your face on the wood.

  2. Again proves out the old military adage concerning incoming “Friendly Fire” …it isn’t friendly.

  3. Two incompetent cops affraid pitbulls, who by definition are DOG/ANIMAL aggressive unless trained to go after people. Back in the breeding process, dogs that showed human aggression were culled on the spot in fights (read throat slit). German shephards have a stronger bite, are faster, and bigger/stronger than most pits. If i shoot a strange german shepherd let in my property i might be a “cop killer”. Bad dogs are raised by idiot people, who will inevitably raise a-hole children of their own. Bad dogs come from BAD PEOPLE. Theres no such thing as a really bad dog, or there are very few examples where the owner didnt create the monster. Why are people so scared of a dog bite, its scarier being on the road with unlicensed illegals fresh off the donkey driving around.

    BUCKSHOT BUKAKI FOR THE RETARDS!

    Stop shooting dogs (any size or breed) and use your nightstick, taser, pepper spray, or an old fashioned boot to the head and ribs. You can easily injure and dispatch a dog with a minor injury. Theres been a whole slew of stories of cops “old yellering” dogs for no reason, EVEN FOO FOO DOGS.

    What happened to the good old fashioned Peace Officer who is beloved by his town and serves them as he wants to be treated.

    Till then, enjoy the friendly fire piggys…… you have much to learn from the older generation of peace officers, not POLICE. If you cant work with dogs in THEIR house, enjoy shooting each other in the diicks in your panic state of mind.

    End hippy pitbull loving, retard-cop despising rant.

    • It may come as surprise to you that not everybody love Pitbulls as pets. Bad guys like to make them viscious so they will attack anybody who invades their space like rival gang members and law enforcement. Not the dogs fault but the cops are going defend themselves against these dogs turned into weapons. The name of the unit and the location of the incident might be a tipoff as to what clas of dogs these Pitbulls fall into. They weren’t your golden retriever owning class of people. But perhaps you can volunteer to help the Memphis police handle these weaponized dogs. That would make an entertaining youtube video.

      In the meantime there is this story:

      http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/03/06/pit-bull-attacks-kills-wisconsin-toddler/

  4. If someone were to harm my beloved dog/bestfriend, they would end up with a few AK rounds in the chest and head.

  5. You sort of elided a few details of the story. Namely, that the officer hit by the errant shotgun blast was in critical condition – meaning, he was hurt rather badly.

    Well, how did he get hurt this badly? To be in “critical condition,” you usually would need a GSW to the head, neck or chest region of the body.

    Oh, yes, here we go: “The officer, whose name wasn’t released, tried to shoot the dog, but missed and shot Bryant in the back, Rudolph said.”

    There we go. Now we have some more details with which to work here. One officer shot another in the back. Way to go there, Barney.

    Let’s see what the police management had to say about this:

    “Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said the decision to shoot the dog, described as a pit bull breed, was made in a split-second. He laid the blame for the shooting not at the officer, but at those inside the home.”

    Really? The people inside the home aimed that scattergun and pulled the trigger?

    This is the sort of thing I’m on about. Some people like to call me “anti-cop.” Well, who wouldn’t be anti-cop when cops are dispensing sophistry such as the above. In this story, we see the usual denial in evidence: It’s never the fault of an officer, no matter how incompetent. It’s always someone else’s fault.

    And need we even ask who is going to pay for this display of incompetence? Nah. There’s not going to be a shred of doubt who pays for this. The taxpayers will.

  6. Working dogs like the one pictured are bad to the bone. He is no doubt ready to eat the camera operator and only holding back on training.

  7. What a tragedy for both the officers and the dogs.

    Just last night I met a BART police officer and his german shepherd dog, and complimented him on his beautiful dog. It was a german bloodlines working dog.

    While admittedly some dogs are psychos (just like some people), I hate to see the dogs of either citizens or of cops get killed.

    We just had a policeman’s house get broken into in the Bay Area, CA. The crooks stole his guns guns poisoned the dogs. Hope the bastards get what they deserve.

  8. Were any officers bit? No? Sounds like they weren’t “fight off three pit-bulls” so much as they were “executing some pit-bulls because they know they can get away with it and feel like bad-asses”. As with most cases of puppy-cide, I seriously doubt these cops were in any danger from these dogs. They just wanted to shoot something. At least this one ended sorta happily with one of the murderous pigs getting shot as well.

    • Oh, bull****. Not every cop is a power hungry, trigger happy lunatic. The commenters on this goddamn website sound exactly like the anti-gun libtards in DC.

      “executing some pit-bulls because they know they can get away with it and feel like bad-asses”?

      Really, Doug? Really? Yeah, I’m sure that’s what they were doing. These officers were a part of the “Organized Crime Unit.” That means that they were probably going after some sort of gang member. I “seriously doubt” that people in a house like that are raising happy, smiling dogs who just want love and attention.

      Have you ever had an angry dog come after you? It’s goddamn horrifying. While the whole locking jaw thing is totally inaccurate, dog bites tend to be pretty nasty.

      The dog doesn’t have to bite the officer before they can take action, just like how the officer doesn’t have to wait until he gets shot in the chest before he shoots back at a criminal.

      And yes, why don’t we all celebrate police officers getting shot! That will definitely make us people of the gun look like nice, well-mannered, law abiding citizens. Now, I’m not saying that you should be kissing the boots of every LEO, but at least be a decent human being and don’t automatically assume that the guys are “murderous pigs”, all worthy of getting shot.

      I’m a political science student. I’m more thrilled that there is a site that caters to my interests in government and guns. But if this is the kind of culture that TTAG cultivates, I’m not sure if I actually want to have anything to do with it. Those of us interested in self-defense and responsible firearms ownership should be working WITH local LEOs, not against.

      Have fun watching the skies for black helicopters. I’m out.

      • From what I have read too many dogs get shot. Some of these are nice family pets that are defending territory. I think they should pepper spray them etc. These animals are not expendable & are a part of someones family. Randy

        • Why can’t you get it into your head that these dogs were owned by gangbangers. They were not your friendly neighborhood pets. Why do you think that the criminal element keeps pitbulls and rotties? Do you think they are just dog lovers? There seems to be to many people on TTAG that can’t make distinctions. It’s like I am reading posts from a bizzaro world VPC site.

      • Here’s a tip, Junior:

        Some of us have come by our attitudes towards cops from experience. The kind of experience we got from being around and above ground a lot longer than you have.

        And yes, I have had dogs (NB the plural – in my case it was two Dobie’s) come after me. Had to kill them with nothing but my hands, feet and a short chunk of pipe. Didn’t make me hate dogs…. and it sure as hell didn’t convince the cops in that state think that private citizens have a right to own arms.

  9. tdiinva: Bingo. You’re right on the money with that one.

    Dyspeptic Gunsmith: I don’t have any doubts that there are police officers who enjoy senseless killing. One ex-cop who lived next to a barn where I (briefly) kept my horse apparently liked to shoot horses with his rifle on occasion. Because the police couldn’t find the bullets (apparently they went clear through the horses’ heads), the guy was never prosecuted or arrested. So yeah, there are some assholes in uniforms.

    I said nothing about hating dogs in my post. If the dogs are threatening the officers, then the officers have a legal right to shoot, provided that the officers have a warrant to be in the house.

    I am not saying that it isn’t wrong when SWAT teams bust in through the wrong door with automatic rifles and tear gas, then shoot the family dog, or worse, the terrified homeowner. I am, however, saying that the police community as a whole shouldn’t be vilified for actions of the dumb asses in the group.

    It’s no different than trying to vilify the gun community every time a psychopath kills a kid with a gun. Or every time a guy has an ND and shoots himself in the leg. Or every time somebody cleans his (or her) gun and forgets to unload it. Sure, go after those responsible, but it’s idiotic to hate the entire group of people.

    Now, I’m from the West Coast, and I’ve heard about a few… less than positive experiences with LEOs on the East Coast, from West Coast cops, none the less. So, perhaps there is a different police culture over there. I can’t say that I know from experience.

    But the mindless “All cops are bastards” mentality doesn’t get anybody anywhere positive, especially when folks actively look for reasons to hate police officers. As I’m sure you know from your vast experience, anecdotal evidence does not tend to generalize well. If you can find evidence that shows that majority (even a simple majority) of LEOs have behavioral issues resulting in sociopathic tendencies that manifests itself in cruelty to animals and anti-social activity, I’d love to see it.

    Otherwise, when I hear “Every cop is awful and I don’t like them” I can’t help but translate it to, “I’m generally a jackass to every cop I meet, and I don’t understand why these guys get upset when I don’t treat them like humans. With that in mind, I’ll look to any fault in their ranks and generalize it to everybody.”

    Your middle age angst would be better directed at corrupt law makers and politicians who try to take away your rights.

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