It took two Suffolk County police officers to pull off a police dog that had jumped on the back of a dark-skinned bystander at a funeral procession in New York, bit into his shirt, and wouldn’t let go.
On July 31, dozens of police vehicles, including several K-9 patrol vans, were participating in a funeral procession in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx, New York, for Officer Didarul Islam, who was slain in the horrific mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan earlier that week. Thousands of mourners came out to pay their respects.
But at some point along the route, the procession stopped, and a trained police dog suddenly escaped from the Long Island police agency’s SUV. In a concerning video posted on Threads, you can see the K-9 running past cars, around a tree, and straight to a dark-skinned man who was watching the action at a distance from the sidewalk.
The video has resurrected long-held suspicions that police dogs have been trained to attack and terrorize African Americans and other people of color.
According to a year-long investigation by The Marshall Project, most bite victims of police dogs are men, and studies suggest that they are disproportionately Black in certain areas. One nationwide study showed that between 2005 and 2013, nearly all of the people who ended up in the emergency room from a police dog bite were Black.
The video was concerning for another reason as well. “A handler should be able to control a police K-9 by voice command alone. Absolute incompetence,” wrote one person in the comments.
Police dogs are typically considered a “less lethal force” — on the level of tasers and batons — but dogs, unlike other weapons, make their own decisions and don’t always respond to commands, as can be seen in the video.
“So they train their dogs to go after Black men *and* they’re incapable of controlling them? Racism and incompetence is a dangerous combination. That’s how people get killed when they’re just minding their own business,” wrote one person in the comments section.
Many others agreed, “So this video said a WHOLE LOT because how does a trained K9 skip a half-dozen people and missile-lock on melanin like that.” Another stated, “They trained their dogs to attack Black men. Can’t tell me nothing.”
“While training experts say bites should last seconds, we found numerous cases that lasted minutes as handlers struggled to pull off the dogs,” stated the investigative report.
While deaths are rare, police dogs can inflict serious damage, but the police and the court system often underestimate the degree of force. Luckily, in this case, the two officers were able to pull the K-9 off the man, but there’s no word on whether he suffered any injuries.
Great Job Grace Jidoun & the Team @ Atlanta Black Star Source link for sharing this story.
