The Origination of SB 72 (aka “Police Dogs are Human Beings”)
by Bill Simon
Prelude
Now, just, for a moment, picture the scenario we have in this state with regards to our public school education system: We still rank somewhere in the bottom 10-percentile (46th, 47th, 48th, 49th or 50th) where we have been for, likely, at least 50 years.
Every budget year, we hear cries and lobbying for MORE money to be spent on education in the hopes that we “fix” our system so that our state’s children learn better and get smarter and are able to compete better when they grow-up, etc.
And yet, this year, 2015, we have a bill proposed and backed by 6 State Senators, who each represent a varied population of Georgia, who are attempting to write a law that gives police dogs the status of a human being. Six state senators, Ladies & Gentlemen, who are supposed to “represent” their districts. Meaning, theoretically, if one were to randomly select the average person in each district, they would likely get, at minimum, someone of equal life skills and intelligence as any one of these senators who represent their respective districts.
Let’s say that Moses of The Old Testament received The Ten Commandments from God around 1500 B.C. One of those Commandments was ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ “Murder” meaning the “unlawful killing of a human being.” So, for close to 3500 years, civilized societies have had an understanding that murder is the unlawful killing of a human being. Not my definition; this is God’s Definition of what murder is.
Section 16-5-1 of the Official Code of Georgia (currently) defines Murder; malice murder; felony murder; murder in the second degree as follows: “(a) A person commits the offense of murder when he unlawfully and with malice aforethought, either express or implied, causes the death of another human being.”
And yet, SB 72 is literally proposing REVISED law that “A person commits the offense of murder in the second degree when such person causes the death of a police dog irrespective of malice while such police dog is in the performance of its duties.”
If we have 6 state senators who are so stupid as to propose such a law, in writing, then there is NO amount of money that can EVER be spent to “fix” our school system in this state. You cannot possibly “fix” that level of low-intelligence human being. It is fruitless, and every increased dollar spent on such an endeavor is a provable waste of taxpayer money. So, STOP wasting money on our public school system because we cannot fix stupid when stupid advances as far as these 6 state senators have advanced.
The Origination of SB 72
Why do the various police departments and sheriff’s offices, etc. have “police dogs?” You ever think about that? Are the dogs like their human counterparts and they decide one day to apply at the counter to become a cop? Did the dog make a conscious decision to go “Hey, I think I’ll go learn how to sniff-out drugs and rip people’s body parts on command and have fun doing it”?
No…they don’t. Police dogs are police dogs because they are viewed as being 1) not as valuable an animal as a human being cop, and 2) talented in being trained to perform certain feats necessary to the role of law enforcement. Police dogs are police dogs because someone owns them and they trained them to do a job they do not consciously have a choice in doing. Unlike a human being.
So, in June of 2014, when a police dog named Tanja of the Walker County Sheriff’s office was released by his police handler to attack a man armed with a shotgun…the unfortunate thing that happened was that the dog experienced exactly what its existence as a police dog was designed to do: it protected its human police “partner” with its life.
Yes, I know, it was a gut-wrenching heartache that Tanja died. I’m not without compassion to the handler of the dog who, as reflected in this news story published on February 2 of 2015 (see story here) feels for the dog that was trained by him to sacrifice her life for him: “Tanja’s handler, Deputy Donnie Brown was wounded in that incident. He and Sheriff Wilson approached Senator Mullis with the plan. They say the Dutch Sheppard took the shotgun blast that was intended for her handler.”
BUT…think about the repercussions of this type of law when…not every K-9 can be assured of always being 1) trained properly, or 2) to be acting lawfully if someone kills the police dog. Here are several examples of which I refer to:
Orlando Police Dog Bites Innocent Person
K-9 Dog Bites Innocent Bystander
And, there are many, many more…just go on the web and look-up “K-9 attacks innocent person.” IF people are not “perfect,” how in the heck does someone want a police dog to be assumed to always be acting in a perfect manner?
The “Power” of Senator Jeff Mullis
In talking to a few people since my first Alert, people inside the Gold Dome environment are of the opinion that because Senator Mullis is the Rules Committee Chair that everyone who is sponsoring a bill in either the House or the Senate will be forced to vote for this bill because “if you don’t kow-tow to the Rules Chair, your bill won’t get to the Senate floor.”
Yeah…well…my compassion aside for Officer Donnie Brown and Sheriff Steve Wilson’s heartache over the killing of Tanja, Senator Mullis is, literally, insane to propose that the life of a dog designed to sacrifice its life for its police agency is as important as the life of a human being.
And….seriously….you other Senators….you folks who have this kind of person in charge of the Rules Committee…you need to remove him by any means necessary, as soon as possible. Unless you are also as crazy as Mullis is and you seek to revise OCGA 16-5-1 to redefine what a human being is. Because a revision of THAT law is going to be what passing this law entails.
And, as I said before, whoever votes for this bill is going to be in very deep trouble when the people of their district find out you are crazy enough to re-define what God ordained 3500 years ago with regards to what murder actually consists of.
In Georgia Politics, there are liars, damn liars, and then there is Senator John Albers
Senator John Albers (R-Fulton County) is one of the 6 co-sponsors of SB 72. Last Thursday, after I sent out the first email on SB 72, Senator Albers and I had a…bit of a conversation on my Facebook wall. I had posted the story on my Facebook wall, and had listed all 6 state senators who co-sponsored this bill, and I tagged Albers and Mullis into the conversation. Albers’ name kept getting un-tagged, and the only way I knew that to happen was that someone was physically visiting the thread an unsubscribing ‘John Albers’ from my post.
This is the first snapshot of importance in that exchange: http://politicalvine.com/stupid/JohnAlbers-1.jpg which I will also transcribe below:
Bill Simon: “John Albers keeps de-tagging himself from this post.” (February 5 at 5:04 PM)
John Albers: “Bill, I have someone managing my social media and she alerted me to your message. People get tagged for much spam these days. This bill had the incorrect version and is being corrected. It was an honest mistake by the author. We are all human. Thanks.” (February 5 at 6:08 PM)
No, Senator Albers is not only wrong here but he is lying as well. It was not an “honest mistake” by the author of the bill, Jeff Mullis. It was not any mistake at all. As these stories published online before I sent out my alert show, the bill is exactly how it was intended by the “author:”
AJC: Police dog killings would amount to murder under new Senate bill
Tougher Sentences for Those Who Would Kill K-9 Officers
Tanja’s memorial: Proposed law would define killing a police dog as murder (Febuary 1)
And then…Senator John Albers, not satisifed with lying one time to me, doubles-down to, not only lie to me again, but to essentially accuse both Legislative Counsel and the Secretary of The Senate to be incompetent in their jobs:
Bill Simon: “John, do NOT lie to me. There is no ‘incorrect version’ via Legislative Counsel. They write what YOU folks tell them you want written.”
John Albers: “Bill, you know leg council create subs all the time.”
Bill Simon: “ONLY at the direction of legislators, John.”
The only time “leg council” (sic) creates substitution bills is AFTER a bill has been heard in committee and the original bill gets so substantially rewritten that it becomes a committee “substitute.”
Senator John Albers is apparently of the belief that “leg council” just creates a bunch of different versions on a bill on a whim and has them all floating in the system.
I truly wonder if Senator John Albers even knows how to READ a bill? Or, if he has any idea of the actual legislative process? Because, it is clear that he knows nothing when he responds in such ways to the challenge of him in support of changing the definition of what constitutes “murder.”
Senator John Albers’ signature is on the front page documentation of the bill that was submitted to the Secretary of the Senate. That is how we know he is co-sponsoring this bill. He had to have read it in order to sign it, right? Or, is Albers admitting that he did not read the bill before signing-onto it?
Perhaps someone in the Secretary of the Senate’s office would be so kind as to email me a scanned copy of the signature page for SB 72? Email address is News @ PoliticalVine.com.
Because, in reality, Albers is claiming to, not just me, but a lot others, that the “fault” of this bill’s writing is that Legislative Counsel mixed-up the “versions” of the bill, and that he signed one that was different from the one that was entered into the record.
In Conclusion on SB 72
It’s fascinating to me how sheriffs “around the country” are all reacting positively about this bill (read that one story titled “Tougher Sentences…”). They all think nothing is wrong with charging someone with 2nd degree murder if they kill a police dog.
Here’s a question to those members of law enforcement who think that way: How do you feel about your brethren shooting family pets that are dogs that are doing their instinctive “job” to protect their homes when cops bust in the door to the WRONG house and shoot or kill dogs with appalling regularity now, and nothing as much as an apology offered by the cop that killed their dog? Don’t know what I am talking about? Read a few stories and get educated:
Police Shoot Innocent Man’s Dog Point Blank After Serving Warrant At Wrong House
Cops shoot family dogs every 98 minutes
Here…read an excerpt from that story above of how Willy Pete (a Basset hound, essentially…a low-to-the-ground dog) was shot…while running away from the officer, in the opposite direction, thus not threatening the poor wittle cop with his big gun:
“Willy Pete
The West Virginia incident happened June 24 in a rural area of Mason County. A paramilitary unit scoured the woods bordering the property of 32-year-old Ginger Sweat. Her dog, a 6-year-old beagle-basset hound named Willy Pete, woke up from an afternoon snooze on his porch to the sound of eight officers coming out of the adjacent woods. Willy Pete scampered off to investigate. Sweat, who was putting one of her two young children down for a nap, looked out the window and saw an officer with a police dog on a leash emerge from the woods and ran out outside pleading with the officers not to shoot her dog, begging them to let her bring it inside.
The officer shot once, missing Willy Pete but sending the dog, which had arthritis in its back legs, running back toward Sweat, she told the Charleston Daily Mail. Three more shots were fired in the dog’s direction, toward Sweat and the home where her two children were sleeping, Sweat told the local newspaper. Willy Pete was hit three times and fell dead in a pool of blood behind her mobile home.” (Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/07/police-take-horrific-action-every-98-minutes/#BllY2PqmW2LWq4eU.99)
Here’s an idea for you Senator Mullis: Go see if you can get the backing of Sheriff Howard Sills of Putnam County, Georgia to see if he agrees with you that the killing of a police dog warrants the charge of “2nd-degree murder” being applied.
I am serious about this idea. Because Sheriff Sills is a guy who likes to claim to a lot of people that he is an avid reader of the Bible, and that it inspires him…and I know from personal experience that he often cites passages from it in his political parlay to try and win political points. I’m real curious to know if he thinks God will be “okay” with redefining who can commit “murder” and what constitutes that act.
And this will be especially interesting since, from what I understand, Sheriff Sills is hot against HB 1 because the passage of it will be cutting into his and his brethren’s asset forfeiture racket in this state.
So, let’s see how Sheriff Sills feels about overturning 3,500 years of God-defined understanding of what “murder” does and does not consist of, shall we, Senator Mullis, et al.?
