Maine porcupine
Two Maine cops were fired and charged with felony animal cruelty for beating 11 porcupines to death with their batons while on duty, a Maine newspaper reported. One also pepper-sprayed the animals. They’re also charged with wildlife violations.
Another officer is on administrative leave for recording the porcupine beatings and circulating the video on Snapchat to other officers in the department (not real smart), one of whom reported it to the chief.
The porcupine beatings occurred in June 2020, and the officers were fired on September 22, 2020, and were criminally charged on October 2, 2020, after an investigation by the sheriff’s office and a state game warden.
The motive apparently is that one of the cops thinks porcupines are nuisances, and the other just went along with him because he was older and more senior. Both cops are former Marines who served in Afghanistan, and the principal perpetrator claims he has PTSD.
The Rockland, Maine, police chief refused to identify them, but their identities were leaked to the newspaper.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think maybe the wrong people are being hired to be cops?
With all due respect for our veterans (I’m one myself), what the heck is someone with PTSD doing on a police force?
Update (7/16/2021): The ex-cops pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges and will spend 10 and 20 days, respectively, in jail (more porcupines = more jail time) and pay fines. Read the latest here.
The cops aren’t being vetted, tested for psychological issues, such as PTSD. Many cops have a military background, are abusive, trigger happy and aren’t to be trusted around people or animals.
There needs to be standardized psychological testing for police officers, to sift out those cops that have PTSD, or other mental issues that would make them mentally unfit for duty.