Dog Named Parrot

Claim:   A dog named Parrot was murdered by a police officer during a Washington DC festival.

MIXTURE

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, October 2011]

The dog was named Parrot.

This was taken moments before Parrot was murdered by the cop. The cop drove his knee into the middle of Parrot's back while stretching Parrot's forelegs behind him, as one would do with an armed criminal. Without waiting to determine whether this technique would calm Parrot, the cop grabbed Parrot, lifted him off the ground, and brought him to the top of the concrete staircase.

He threw Parrot over the banister, down twelve steps, and onto the concrete floor. Then, the cop stood at the top of the stairs, drew his weapon, and executed Parrot. Aaron, the animal's owner, cannot recall the number of shots fired. Witnesses state that Parrot was not harming anybody and was simply frightened by the cop. At no time did Parrot try to bite the officer, all he did was start barking.

It doesn't matter if you are a part of an Occupy movement, PETA, Republican, Democrat, Independant Religious or not, if you are a part of the human race this should be a wake up call that something is very wrong with our society.

Isn't brutally killing animals something that most Serial Killers do right before they switch to killing humans?

Origins:   On 12 September 2010, residents of Washington, D.C., were celebrating an annual street festival in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Festival attendee Aaron Block was walking his foster dog, Parrot, a Shar Pei mix with a remarkable resemblance to a pit bull, when Parrot attacked a passing poodle for unknown reasons. While attempting to separate the two dogs, Block "cut his hand" in Parrot's mouth.

After the dogs were separated, accounts of what happened begin to differ. According to the police report filed by Officer David Evans, police officers responding to the commotion observed one person holding a bleeding poodle and another person (presumably Block) attempting to restrain a struggling Parrot. Officer Scott Fike, an animal handler, attempted to help restrain Parrot and was bitten on the arm and wrist; he then picked up the dog and tossed it into a stairway. Parrot stood up and, according to police reports and several witnesses, began charging, whereupon Officer Fike drew his firearm and shot Parrot, killing him.

Some witnesses maintained that Parrot was not making aggressive overtures, that he was not charging the officer but was merely trying to regain his footing from being thrown down into the stairwell, and that Officer Fike overreacted in killing him. Aaron Block, in particular, was outraged by the shooting and claimed that

Parrot was "very people-friendly dog, with absolutely no bite history." However, nobody present contested that Parrot did trigger events by biting another dog and possibly bit Block himself (when he "cut his hand" on Parrot's mouth). Moreover, the police report states that Office Fike was also bitten during the incident, all of which suggests that at least on 12 September 2010, Parrot was indeed a dog that bites. Additionally, some witnesses to the event who have maintained the gunshots were unprovoked acknowledged they could not see into the stairway to confirm whether or not Parrot subsequently charged at Officer Fike.

An online petition was established on change.org on 1 November 2011 demanding justice for Parrot. This petition relies heavily on the use of the photograph (shown above) of Parrot being pinned down by Officer Fike, stating that the picture is evidence that the dog was under control and that Fike overreacted when he then tossed Parrot into a stairwell and shot him. However, static images of dynamic events can often be misleading, and police maintain that even though the officer may have had the dog pinned before the shooting, the situation was not totally under control at that moment in time.

Last updated:   8 November 2011

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