An El Mirage police K-9 was killed by a suspect. The suspect was later found dead.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/arizona-k-9-police-officer-killed
Paul Marzocca, police chief in El Mirage, said the beloved K-9 was “killed in the line of duty tonight protecting other officers from harm.”
Chief of Police Paul Marzocca
“The loss of Koki is no different than the loss of a Police Officer,” Marzocca said in the statement. “Today the El Mirage Police Department mourns Koki, we lost a brother last night.”
Here I go again, being a crotchety malcontent. I like dogs. I was a cop for thirty years. I even had a dope dog. I have an appreciation for cops, the job they do and the traditions of the job. BUT, you know there had to be…
Check any police budget line item. Look at expenditures for police personnel. Do you know what you won’t find? Dogs, horses, the station house cat. They aren’t people. They are listed under inventory or equipment.
Koki was a police K-9, not a K-9 police officer. It may be a crime to kill or injure a police service animal but it’s not the same a injuring or killing a cop.
Here is a secret about police chiefs. If they have a counterpart in the animal kingdom it would be crows. That is because they like bright shiny objects.
Talk to a police chief. He will proudly show off his newest addition to the fleet. He will wax poetic about the newest crime fighting device. The Chief will display affection for anything with four legs. Not so the two legged members of the force. The two legged kind are surly, ungrateful, and live to create problems for the Chief. Truth be told, most aren’t much to look at.
Chief, Koki was a dog, not a police officer. There is a difference. Koki did what he was trained to do, honor him. But, one of the reasons for deploying a police K-9 is to send them into harms way. If it hadn’t been Koki you might be talking about a dead human police officer. I would guess, Chief Marzocca you don’t have a basis of comparison. Here’s hoping you never will. In that context, your statement is kinda dumb.
This aftermath of this event will bleed over to my other pet peeve. Koki likely will receive an “Inspector’s Funeral.” NYPD is probably the model for how to bury a cop. It used to be certain rituals were called for in a line of duty death versus natural causes or non line of duty.
Most visible to the public is the procession. This typically involves uniformed officers and a line of patrol cars.
It seems in today’s police world, if somebody drove past a police station more than twice, they qualify for an inspector’s funeral.
When I was working I did everything I could, to avoid being the guest of honor at an Inspector’s Funeral. I succeeded. I am not interested in such a send off twenty years later.
Damn it use some imagination! Come up with something that honors the K-9 and his/her service without diluting the intent behind the burial rites afforded to dead human cops.
I just had this image of assembled K-9’s looking all solemn at the service. Then the bagpiper breaks into a rousing rendition of “Amazing Grace.” The squalling of the pipes gets the whole pack baying, howling and barking. On second thought, I’d pay to see that.
