By Elisa Black-Taylor
There’s something bad going on with the police officer’s in the U.S. these days. I don’t know whether there are just a few bad officers who make the others look bad, or if the corruption is everywhere. The latest case in the U.S. concerns a part time “humane” officer hired by the city. A complaint has now been filed against him with the Ohio SPCA for murdering five baby feral kittens.
This just happened yesterday in North Ridgeville, Ohio. A woman called animal control on a feral cat and her litter who were making a home in a wood pile in her back yard. She expected the officer to come out and take the kittens to the shelter. Instead, he murdered them.
The woman was very shocked when the officer, Barry Accorti, showed up and started explaining to her he knew what he was doing was wrong. He thought he was justified because the shelter was already full with no place to put the kittens. So he took out his gun and shot the 8-10 week old kittens to death. The officer did tell the lady the kittens were going to heaven. The mother cat thankfully escaped.
Here’s all of the info I got from the Ohio SPCA where a complaint has been filed.
North Ridgeville Police Chief Mike Freeman
7307 Avon Belden Road
North Ridgeville, OH 44039
Phone 440-327-2191
Fax 440-353-0834
North Ridgeville Mayon G. David Gillock Phone 440-353-0811
There are a lot of things that disturb me about this latest killing. For one thing, the woman who witnessed the shooting had to run back into her house to comfort her crying and screaming kids. They’d gotten upset over all the gunfire and were very emotional. Another thing is the officer discharging his weapon five times in a residential neighborhood with children within range. What if a bullet had ricocheted? Do we need to let this man continue to carry a weapon to continue to “serve” his community? If that’s service, I’d rather go it alone out there, because the police are now more dangerous than the criminals.
It was announced late Tuesday afternoon by North Ridgeville Chief of Police Mike Freeman that Accorti won’t face any charges. He said the kittens were killed for health reasons, and basically said feral kittens are very nasty and a health hazard. It was decided that this act was “euthanasia.”
So I went in and pulled the laws for the state of Ohio. As it turns out, it’s illegal to euthanize an animal in any way if it causes pain. It was also illegal for him to do it since he’s not a vet or vet tech and in Ohio only lethal injection may be used.
The Ohio SPCA will seek to have him fired, and since it’s been determined this officer is not guilty of any wrong-doing, they’re even more determined.
What should happen to this officer? If he were an average citizen he’d be arrested for animal cruelty. Hopefully this will still happen, as several officers have thought themselves immune and faced charged during the past year. This officer has even admitted in going to far using his authority in the past.
People in America are getting really tired of police killing pets. In the past month I’ve covered police shooting a cat with a bow and arrow, two cases of police killing puppies, and one case of police choking a 14-year-old at the beach. A puppy he was holding was injured in that incident too.
Hopefully this officer will be relieved of his job before he hurts a person. What do the readers here think of this one. Personally, I have a lot left I’d like to say on this case, but I’m simply too angry to go on.
I completely agree and thanks for the link. If it helps, it is becoming very similar in the UK. The right to free speech in protests has been curtailed. That is one of the fundamental rights and it is disappearing.
Others have posted this at the Daily Paul, but that was a while ago. With the ‘Puppycide’ documentary being back up on the front page again, I posted a link to your site and similar links. It’s sad that the common decency and ‘protect and serve’ mindset of the police and other officers has disappeared. In its place we have the mindset of ‘intimidate and enslave’, and abuse your power when you can.
Elisa, this is somewhat of a tangent, but this just popped up in my gmail from
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/01/police-raid-new-york-bloggers-home-after-google-searches-for-pressure-cookers/
“A New York woman says her family’s interest in the purchase of pressure cookers and backpacks led to a home visit by six police investigators demanding information about her job, her husband’s ancestry and the preparation of quinoa.”
Goodness gracious, guess we can’t leave lying around recipes for quinoa any longer. Hide your pressure cooker…
Agree with all you write. America is no better than China and these other undemocratic countries. That is why America cannot lecture China on human rights. The Chinese just say take a look at yourself.
The same goes for destroying the environment. China does a lot of that. America however leads the way.
One good thing is that the average person is beginning to see the truth. Manning and Snowden have a lot of fans across the world. Their persecution leads to protests against other areas of undemocratic behavior because they are high profile. People become angry about being abused by big business and governments working together.
I totally understand that – and I should mention I am American although I am French as well so I don’t have to tell anyone I have a US passport and it basically sits in a drawer probably never to be renewed again. I’m just a little nervous to admit it here. For example if I tell my bank I am American they will ask me to get an account with another bank. It’s just how it works here for a umber of technical reasons to do with how the US treats banks with US account holders. Banks don’t want them anymore. But my whole familly is from Long Beach and LA including my mother who is from LA. She is also trying to get another nationality so she can get on with her life and not have to worry about it.
It’s nobody’s fault where they are born. Of course. It’s also nobody’s fault if their own government treats them badly and does terrible things in their name without anybody’s permission except their own. That’s why it’s all the more outrageous that the US doesn’t tell it’s own people about what it’s up to elsewhere – it’s a form of propaganda similar to Nazi Germany or something and people are angry about it but it looks like the US gov is no longer a strictly democratic organization so it does what it wants regardless of the people – all the while trying to hide everything from it’s people so they themselves can’t make a decent or informed judgement. It’s just a modern mix of all the worst political qualities we have seen throughout history but packaged differently to suit the times.
I am sure most citizens would be in shock if they knew what was really going on. Nobody does really know I suppose – it’s hard because the way the system functions is shrouded in secrecy and anyone who thinks otherwise is a traitor and aiding the enemy (that really does sound like communism or facism when they start saying that).
I personally wish the US people would just know and be kept in the loop regarding what is done in their name. I’m sure the younger generations would be very much against most of it. If the process was more open and truly democratic then it would seem fine and fair and the judgements of Americans would be realistically informed and the world would be a much better place for it.
Ruth, I agree with you, wholeheartedly. (And btw, I’ve never put a bullet to the head of an animal. I have had to consider it, though, because of the suffering. I could never, ever, do it. We have all suffered, as you know. Thanks for the reply.