Baltimore Cop Slits Dog's Throat, Gets Charged with Animal Cruelty
It looks like a cop in Baltimore won't be getting away with killing a dog in the line of duty. WRIC, the ABC affiliate in Richmond, Virginia, reports:
Officer Jeffrey Bolger is charged with felony animal cruelty and has been suspended without pay.
Police say Bolger, along with other officers, responded to a woman who said she'd been bitten by a dog. Police say the dog, a 7-year-old Shar Pei, had already been secured with a dog pole when Bolger allegedly pulled out a knife and slit the dog's throat.
Police say the dog didn't appear to be posing any threat to the cops. Bolger is actually the second Baltimore cop to be charged with animal cruelty this year. In February, Officer Alec Taylor beat and choked to death his girlfriend's seven-month-old dog and then sent her a picture, telling investigators he was tired of cleaning up after the dog. Taylor, too, was suspended without pay but not immediately fired.
Private sector employees in roles that require interaction with the public would almost certainly be fired after being charged with animal cruelty—it would be difficult otherwise for a private company to survive the damage such incidents would cause to its reputation. The Baltimore Police Department (BPD) and its officers have no such worries. The officers' jobs are protected by union contracts, and the BPD has a guaranteed revenue stream from taxpayers. Government is just the things we do together and the sociopaths we hire to do them.
