Baxter

Baxter, an Australian shepherd, was fired at 6 times by police officers when he got through a malfunctioning gate. Robert Clements, his owner, had insisted that he would take the police officers to court, but said he wasn’t after the money. Instead:

“I want to expose the police for what they are doing. Why didn’t he use Mace on my dog? The simple answer is the cops are trigger happy.”

His 13-year-old son, Cameron, recited a speech to the county commissioners, “telling telling them he lost his brother and best friend when Baxter died.” But, of course, typically a dog is valued only at his or her market price, rather than a figure taking into account their true value.

In this case, the city settled with the family outside of court for $20,000, a sum much larger than we typically see in these cases. (We typically see nothing.) Of course, as always, the police department has said that the officers behaved according to protocol. The protocol is to kill dogs.

Source: http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981569628

---