Brutal Ohio Police Dog Attack on Black Truck Driver Highlights Pattern, Echoes Violence of Slavery

this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman a warning to our viewers and listeners this next segment includes graphic details an Ohio police officer filmed unleashing a police dog on an unarmed black truck driver during a July 4th traffic stop has been fired the Circleville Police Department said actions taken by Officer Ryan Speakman quote did not meet the standards and expectations we hold for our police officers unquote video of the incident shows 23 year old truck driver jadarius Rose had his hands in the air when officer Speakman directed the dog to mall him Speakman released the dog even though state police officers repeatedly warned him not to do not release the goal with his hands up do not release the dog with his hands up though do not they're not all right do not get the dogs off of me get the dog off of him after being attacked by the dog jadarius Rose was hospitalized with significant bleeding on his arms then booked on felony charges of failure to comply prior to being pulled over and attacked by the dog Rose had called 9-1-1 from his truck saying he feared the police who were pursuing him were trying to kill him I don't know why they trying to kill me they're not trying to kill you yes they are obviously they're throwing stuff in the on the ground trying to explode right so you'll stop right so they are trying to kill me no they're not trying to kill you yes they are because I do not feel safe with stock man I don't know why they throwing stuff on the ground trying to get me in the accident we're joined Now by Madeleine with silchuk an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law author of an article on the Georgetown law review headlined the racialized violence of police canine Force first of all Professor was was El Trek if you can start off by talking about this horrific case and for people who can't see it you have this police officer releasing a dog on a man whose arms he had been instructed to put his arms in the air and they were you see a woman officer putting her hands over her face running from the attack you see the state troopers warning the police officer do not release that dog but he does how typical is this and not only of today but of the history of the use of dogs especially on people of color in this country so I think one thing that's so disturbing is that we don't know exactly how common it is because no one keeps any statistics at all about or at least not made public nationally of how many dogs bite people every year the races of those people the reasons that the dog was set on them and this isn't the only time where I've seen people hands in surrender have dogs set on them I've seen videos of of people holding their hands up and having the dog sit on them of having the dog set on lifted through a window to be set on them and sometimes Police use dogs against folks who they don't even know um who the target is so um Joseph Pettaway in Alabama was killed by a police dog when he was repairing a home um working as a handyman and the police set a dog inside and it killed him um this is really an example of what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls racism's changing same dogs were used um by militaries first and this is another example of militarism and when uh Colonists came to the United States they were used to terrorize the Taino people the indigenous people of this country and then they were employed in hunting enslaved people and of course were many of us almost all of us are familiar with the images of dogs attacking students during the Civil Rights Movement but we may be less familiar with the fact that police dogs were used that way across the country including by white supremacist groups in Cairo Illinois so there's a through line of this militarized racialized violence when it comes to police dogs can you talk about even the use of the language the canine unions units referring to them as canines as opposed to dogs yeah so I think when we talk about uh canines there's this euphemism there's also this belief that the dogs are specialized that they're almost like a a tool that can't be misused um so dogs are set to track people or dogs are uh said to quote unquote apprehend people which is what something like that mauling is called especially if he were had been running away which he was not of course in this case but that removal of both the animalistic and very violent nature of these types of attacks and sort of trying to place it into euphemized and and sanitized terms I think is where that canine term comes from and of course canine is um changed from c-a-n-i-n-e to K9 with this idea that the letter K and the number nine technology right um so why do you feel that this use of police attack dogs or in a moment we're going to hear the story of prison attack dogs is not very much a part of the police reform discussion I think except for some videos that um highlight this it's not as well known as it should be um when I started representing children in courts in Baton Rouge we had kids coming in every three weeks or so with these really terrible bites and injuries um and that reporting was also followed up by The Marshall Project and it was largely unknown in the public um outside of the communities that are most effective outside of the kids that this happened to and their families and I think um the prison the use of them for cell extractions in prisons is also widely unknown even by Scholars and there's just not much attention on it I think videos like this really highlight the problems and there's been some outstanding reporting just in the last couple years across the country in places like Indianapolis and the Bay Area highlighting these problems but we don't know enough about it and I also think canines can be used as sort of fuzzy mascots they're brought on to morning shows they get trotted out as a public relations tool and so there's this warm feeling that many of us have for dogs of course that has racial components as well but they're they're used in that way and we don't focus on what they're truly trained to do and even in law schools we really focus on dog sniffs tracking um rescue operations and so they're seen as these valorized canine cop Heroes and we don't Focus so much on the real violence that they do when they're used for again quote unquote apprehension so finally is there a call for police to stop using dogs around the country you said in a recent study uh conducted at your University in the University of Utah and Clemson it was found that the sudden suspension of police canine units Salt Lake City did not lead to a statistical increase in officer or suspect injury or suspect resistance during felony arrests we just have a minute right so there was a bill that was pending in California this past term to ban the use of canines uh for apprehension I haven't seen that Trend across the country and it would be really helpful to know if there's any benefit to these dogs of course police believe there is uh but I don't see evidence that has borne that out and I think if you're going to use a tool that causes this much harm and the harm is well known and documented then it's on the police to show why this is actually contributing to Public Safety and if they can't show that then we should really reconsider this and stop using police as weapons in this way we want to thank you so much for being with us assistant professor at University of South Carolina School of Law will link to your piece in Georgetown law review headlined the racialized violence of police canine Force

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 85,899

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: MBZzePirSR8

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 27 2023