A 64-year-old man was rescuing his neighbour’s cat, Domino. The cat had gone into a building site and climbed up the scaffolding. The man, Richard May, had to climb up the scaffolding to retrieve his neighbour’s cat.
Somebody noticed what he was doing but they thought he was a trespasser and a burglar so they called the police. The police say that they called out to Mr May to warn him to stop. He said he did not hear the police. The police then set a police dog on to Mr May and he was bitten on his right leg.
Mr May was then arrested and charged with trespass and resisting arrest. I did not know that trespass was a crime in America. Trespass is a civil matter by the way but perhaps he was charged with something like aggravated trespass which would be a crime.
However, Mr May was not committing a crime. That is quite obvious. The policeman who was in charge of the dog was Deputy Sheriff Chris Laughlin. He was accompanied by two other deputies. The dog’s name is Riggs by the way.
The only thing that Mr May heard was a very loud “guttural sound” which he interpreted to be a command by the deputy sheriff to his dog to attack him. He says that the dog immediately ran at him at full speed.
The deputy sheriff told him to get on the ground which he did but the dog still continued to bite him. May was then handcuffed. He was taken to the police station before the hospital for treatment.
I suspect that the police realised that they had made a mistake but they were unapologetic. They made a trophy out of him as if they were catching prey! When the police took Mr May to hospital they tagged him with a sticker on his shirt which read “I met Riggs”. They took a photograph of him for their album.
No doubt there have been other occasions when deputy sheriff Laughlin has used his dog to attack people and recorded the after-effects in a photograph for his album.
The follow-up to this is that Mr May is suing the police department citing the sadistic nature of deputy Laughlin’s behaviour. He contends that he posed no threat and did not hear the warning from the deputy sheriff.
He says that there was an excessive use of force and that the police were negligent resulting in an assault on his person and false arrest under California law. He is seeking compensation. He is also seeking punitive damages.
We don’t know what happened to the neighbour’s cat. He probably wandered back home long after Mr May had been charged and bitten and suffered the gross indignity of false arrests and maltreatment by the police force.
Source: freethouhtproject.com (the author consistently used ‘k9’ rather than ‘dog’ – very strange)
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/elderly-man-mauled-as-police-sic-k9-on-him-for-rescuing-his-neighbors-cat/
I promise you their lapel cams were not on to capture what happened.
Did they call for backup?
This is nothing more than bloodsport.
K9 designates the dog as a police officer.
There are many wonderful policemen and women, but it seems like those that are not suitable to serve are getting more and more numerous and vicious.
Trespass can be a crime if you have told the person to leave and they refuse.
I’m confused if the man was on the scaffolding how did the dog reach him.
Unless the man was being aggressive there was no reason to release the hounds.
Putting a stick on him and taking a picture of a suspect against their will for personal use is a violation of anyone’s rights.