There are alarms sounding all throughout my brain this morning. Here’s the latest news on the Police officer in Chandler, Arizona.
Authorities have arrested a Chandler police officer in the death of a police dog that was left in a hot patrol car for more than twelve hours. Chandler police Sergeant Tom Lovejoy was booked into Maricopa County jail in Phoenix on a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty after a two-week investigation into the death of five-year-old Belgian Malinois “Bandit.”
Lovejoy could face up to six months in jail and a 12 hundred dollar fine if he is convicted. [source]
The officer arrived home in the morning to find his house in chaos. His son had been in a car accident. Somehow, he forgot to take the dog out of the car and put him into the kennel with the other family dogs. Twelve hours later, the dog was dead. The officer had worked with the dog for five years, and the dog had been part of his family the entire time. His reaction was understandable – he was absolutely miserable and heart-broken at having made such a horrible mistake. He knows it was his fault, and he is willing to accept whatever punishment is given him.
Now consider this:
A 22-month-old boy drowned Tuesday evening in a backyard swimming pool in Mesa. It is unclear how long Ethan was missing before his father found him submerged in the pool and called 911 just after 7 p.m. He was taken to Banner Desert Medical Center and pronounced dead upon arrival.
This is the … sixth fatality involving a child under the age of 6 in the Valley this year.
Care to take a wild guess how many of those six child fatalities resulted in criminal charges? Zero.
To make a more direct point, there were also children who died in the Phoenix area this year because they were left alone in a hot car. Criminal charges? Nope. They mentioned it on the evening news and then everyone forgot about it until the next time it happened.
Officer Lovejoy, who is torn up over what has happened, is receiving death threats. There are petitions calling for criminal charges to be filed against him. People are in a frenzy and calling for blood.
There’s a horrible double standard at work here, and it’s skewed in the absolute wrong direction.
Accidents happen. When it’s an accident, that means there was no malice involved. There was no intent to harm. What purpose does it serve to press charges against Officer Lovejoy? It won’t bring the dog back. You can’t prevent an accident – that’s why it’s an accident. And when you consider the number of children who have died in similar accidents and our collective lack of response, it really makes you wonder why we seem to value the life of a dog more than the life of a child.
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