Fed. Judge Rules That Cop Didn't Violate 4thA by Raiding Wrong Apt, Killing Dog as it Ran Away

[SeanTX]

Another case of the JustUS system working, as intended. What happened clearly is a 4th Amendment violation -- I guess we just need to realize the Constitution has pretty much been suspended.

"F*** you and your dog -- now move along!"

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/br...612-story.html

Hollywood cop wins case after raiding wrong house, killing dog

In January 2015, a swarm of police officers stormed the wrong apartment searching for a man who had already been arrested the day before.

A Hollywood officer who shot and killed a man’s dog after raiding the wrong apartment did not violate the man’s rights, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro ruled Officer Michael McBride is entitled to immunity under a legal doctrine that says law enforcement officers should not be held liable unless their actions were clearly incompetent or they knowingly violated the law.

McBride in January 2015 fired six shots at Missy, a 65-pound red-nosed pit bull, even though she was running away from the officer as the raid was taking place. The shooting was captured by a Telemundo camera crew that was there to capture footage of the raid.

“The judge has made her final decision. And while we respect her decision, we don’t agree with it,” said Heidi Mehaffey, attorney for Missy’s owner, Wilson Almendarez. “We do believe this is a sad day for pet owners.”

Almendarez, 38, filed a lawsuit last year accusing police of violating the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. He adopted the 6-year-old dog a year before she was shot.

McBride was among several officers who went to the wrong apartment searching for a man who’d been arrested the day before in Miami-Dade County. Officers sealed off every avenue of escape and began banging on the windows and door, the lawsuit says.
Hollywood police sued after killing dog, raiding wrong house

When Almendarez’s roommate opened the door, Missy made a run for it.

A K-9 officer near the door kicked Missy to keep her away from his police dog. Missy did not try to attack the officer or his dog, the lawsuit says, but continued to run toward the only exit, where McBride stood with his weapon drawn and started firing.

Almendarez began crying when he realized his dog had been shot.

“She was my baby,” he said in an interview at the time. “She was everything to me. She did not deserve to die like that. She was a loving dog.”

snip

[fedupinmo]

John Bad Elk.

[SeanTX]

John Bad Elk.

Interesting.

In a similar vein I'm pretty sure there is a law on the TX books (or was) saying that you have the right to use lethal force to protect yourself from a law officer who is acting unlawfully -- but only if you feel your life is in danger. Of course the system would never allow a citizen to use that as a defense though.

The rule of (constitutional) law is pretty much dead it seems -- replaced with a Fascistic "might makes right" version of law and order (the kind Trump promotes).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Elk_v._United_States

Bad Elk v. United States, 177 U.S. 529 (1900), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that an individual had the right to use force to resist an unlawful arrest and was entitled to a jury instruction to that effect.

In 1889, a tribal police officer, John Bad Elk, shot and killed another tribal police officer who was attempting to arrest Bad Elk without a warrant, on a misdemeanor charge, for a crime allegedly committed outside of the presence of the arresting officer. The Supreme Court reversed his conviction, noting that a person had the right to resist an unlawful arrest, and in the case of a death, murder may be reduced to manslaughter. The Supreme Court held the arrest to be unlawful due, in part, to the lack of a valid warrant.

This case has been widely cited on the internet, but is no longer considered good law in a growing number of jurisdictions. Most states have, either by statute or by case law, removed the unlawful arrest defense for resisting arrest.