San Diego cops mauls k-9 dog on naked man

The initial police call came out around 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday in August 2015. Patrol officers with the San Diego Police Department were asked to check on the welfare of a naked man screaming and running through a canyon in University City, a San Diego suburb near La Jolla

You hear the officers ordering the man to “turn around, turn around.” He says “no” several times in a defiant voice.

Just two seconds later, and without warning, the K-9 officer gives his police dog the command to bite the subject.

The dog takes down the man immediately. Then four officers pinned the man to the ground, but allowed the dog to violently bite the man’s leg for 44 more seconds. Other San Diego Police Officers hold the subject down and cuff him.

“It wasn’t necessary to use the dog to begin with and it sure as hell wasn’t necessary or needed or appropriate to let the dog continue to bite,” said noted civil rights attorney Donald W. Cook.

The man, a 25-year-old businessman in San Diego for a convention, told NBC4 he ended up naked in that canyon after a night of hard partying.

“I take some responsibility because I was under the influence,” said the man, who asked not to be named. “But nothing justifies the cops used of such force,” he said.

Added attorney Cook, “It’s not just a San Diego problem. It’s a problem in any department where they’re letting a dog attack and bite non-dangerous suspect.”

San Diego Police Department policy states “if possible, give at least two warnings in a loud and clear manner” before allowing a dog to bite.
But the video shows that no warning was given and the K9 officer wrote in his official police report that, “due to the immediate threat I did not have an opportunity to give K-9 warnings.”
He went on to say that he believed the man “posed an immediate threat to officers due to the fact he was clinching his fists and walking towards them.”

He also states that the subject “was under the influence of a controlled substance and was very agitated with officers.”

Cook says that after watching the video he didn’t see any threatening behavior from the unarmed man toward police. And after reading the officers’ reports, he doesn’t believe they were justified in using the dog and says the force was excessive.

“Not only excessive, but animalistic,” said Cook. “In this case, you had your subject, you had him surrounded. All you had to do was simply take him into custody.”

The man in the video wasn’t charged with any crimes, and he sued the City of San Diego for excessive force. In the legal complaint, his attorney says the officers “acted with unnecessary, cruel and despicable conduct and in wanton disregard for the civil rights, health and safety” of his client.

— I MIRRORED THIS VIDEO FROM THE “IRATE Productions” YOUTUBE CHANNEL. —
ORIGINAL VIDEO LINK:
https://youtu.be/c5qzcdMxhAM