Barking Crimes in the Buckeye State

Few aspects of professional police work are more admirable, in my mind, than reasonable cops using kindness and restraint to keep the peace in response to verbally recalcitrant citizens. It used to be in those halcyon days of old that a drunk or a smartass wisecracker could call a cop “pig,” or otherwise insult and revile him in a thousand different ways, so long as it was only talk.

That was once the American way. People were allowed to vent a little steam when confronted by an officer of the law. Some cops even respected the First Amendment. But that was long ago, before the United States started down the path to a police state.

Now, there’s not even First Amendment protection in the Buckeye State for barking back at a police dog. That’s right. Once upon a time it was ok to curse at a cop. Now you can’t even hiss at his dog. In the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, Ohio, that’s against the law.

It seems that a highly intoxicated young man was reportedly walking past a parked police car when the K9 police dog inside began barking viciously at him. His drunken response was to hiss and bark back at the creature, causing it to go berserk. The poor lad has been charged with a misdemeanor for teasing a police dog.  

"The dog started it," protested the criminal as he as was handcuffed and led away.