Canine Carnage

WARNING: Not safe for work, for language and violence. Not safe around children, or around those with heart conditions. You probably shouldn't even watch it, but this has me so outraged that I am taking the time at 9:16 in the A.M. to send it out. People have to see this -- those who can stomach the whole 4+ minutes. So I'm going to include the link at the end of my rant, rather than at the customary beginning.

If you can't, I'll describe it. Columbia, MO, February 2010. A SWAT team kicks down the door of a young couples' and their 6-year-old boy's house on a drug raid. Within seconds after illegally breaking down the door, they shoot the drug kingpins' vicious attack dog, the most violent of all breeds, the one known worldwide to be a mankiller with a voracious appetite for human flesh. A Welsh Corgi, the guard dog breed that Queen Elizabeth takes on walks. The one that is so dangerous that for centuries they have been used to guard sheep from wolfpacks. The breed that is 12" tall on a good day and weighs about 1/8 of what the average vermin SWAT cop does, minus equipment.

These cowardly worms shoot the dog on first sight, but not in the head. We don't see exactly where, because the brave cameraman who is probably still only holding a Handycam in his left hand and a .45ACP in the right, still doesn't have the balls to go in before all the other rats with their black uniforms and full-auto weapons, their riot helmets, body armor, their sidearms, radios and worst of all, their tarnished badges. Instead they hear it yelping but continue to sweep the small home, and 30 seconds or so pass before they have the decency to put it away for good.

You see the back of the 6-year-old as he runs to his parents, you see the father awakened from sleep. You see him ordered to the ground and cuffed, then you see him start crying when he learns his dog is dead. "She was probably trying to play with you," he cries. At which point the "police" start giving each other looks saying, "Job well done!" This is not the only such incident. There was a recent incident in Midland, TX where the "police" raided a house on a false tip, saw a Labrador Retriever chained in the kitchen to its doggie bed, but when it stood up they shotgunned it in the face. I don't want to look at that video, though it may be out there on the interwebs. This was bad enough, seeing the exterior of the home and hearing the beloved family pet scream in agony as it bled before the brave, black-clad, military-armed vermin finally decided it was making too much noise and decided to shut it up. You can bet that if their first rounds had taken out the Corgi's vocal cords and it couldn't make any noise, they would have let it writhe in pain and bleed out until its blood pressure dropped too low for it to struggle on. They undoubtedly would have signaled the brave cameraman to zoom in on the dying dog's eyes and to pay particular attention to it's throat and nose after the eyes started to glaze over, as it took it's last, fitful attempts to breathe and to stay alive. To stay alive to protect the little boy and his parents who raised it since it was a helpless puppy.

They love that -- trauma, pain, death, as long as it doesn't involve themselves, their cohort minion vermin, anyone they care about or anything. Certainly many of the Sturmabteilung guilty of this crime against humanity have dogs themselves, or other pets for whom they'd die rather than seeing suffer such a fate. If I have one positive thing to say about this tragedy, it is that these SWAT vermin and their equally low-level foot-soldiers are no more than that -- they're the S.A. If they had any education at all they'd know what happened to the S.A. when the real badasses, the Schutzstaffel were. Yes, when one man originally named Schikelgruber decided that his SWAT teams had outlived their usefulness, having served their purpose, the S.S. did certain things to them, and then there were no more S.A.

SWAT -- you have a couple of years left, but then you will be of no use. The Army and Marines will do to you that which was done in the time you never studied. And then I will rejoice for the soul of that poor dog and for the happiness of the family that you destroyed. The little boy probably isn't old enough to wish you ill -- the innocence and goodwill of children, and all that. So I'll double, no, treble it for him. Your end will be ignominious and a cause for celebration.

Go listen on last.fm or anywhere else to "The Badge" by Pantera. Back in the day I was enraged by it. Now I realize I was naive and they were far ahead of their time.

If you have the fortitude: Columbia SWAT Under Fire for Shooting Dogs