As the video goes, the owner of the dog is walking him and gets to a place where several police cars are parked outside a house with lights flashing. As so often happens these days, the guy pulls out his phone and starts recording it. By the way, somebody else was recording it, as the video's existence proofs...

At some point, the guy walks to his car, parked away from the police units, and puts his dog inside the car as two policemen start approaching him from half a block away and they call after him. He turns around and walks to the policemen, who ask him to turn around and proceed to handcuff him.

The dog, sensing something unusual, starts barking and seems desperate to go to help his human. Eventually, he manages to jump out the window and approaches the owner and proceeds to bark at the policemen. One of them pulls out a gun, takes careful aim and shoots the dog not once but twice. You can see, however, that the policeman is trying to put distance between him and the dog and appears scared.

How many of us overreact as this policeman did? Truth be told, most of the time it does not have such a horrible ending...but we overreact nevertheless...as do people and Nations all over the world.

Fear can be a powerful motivator, and one that often overrules our logical thinking sending us into dark places, as this policeman's fear sent him. He saw a dog (a rottweiler) barking at him and he felt threatened. Since he had a gun in his holster, he pulled it and from his perspective he defended himself. For an outside observer, he was never in danger – and the other policeman did not pull his gun either.

Just imagine what happens when this game is taken to the level of Nations. Palestinian feels threatened, goes to Israeli mall and blows himself up; Israelis feel threatened so they send the army to retaliate; Palestinians feel threatened by the retaliation so they send a rocket...and so on and on and on. Once the situation escalates to the killing of others, the cycle is too advanced to be stopped and it takes years and generations to de-escalate the conflict to a point where it can be stopped.

Now the dog, in all his loyalty came out the window to protect his human who (truth be told) was being handcuffed for no apparent reason whatsoever. The dog, however,did not care about reasons but only about threats; and he responded in kind, barking and growling to get the policemen to leave his human alone. Anybody who ever owned a dog knows that is the normal thing for a dog to do. Yet the policeman shot Max (the dog) twice, even when after the first shot he was already twitching belly up on the road.

Our sages said “Mi Hu Givor? HaKovesh Et Yitzro” - “Who is strong? - the one who controls his passions”. When we let our passions overrule our reason, shooting a puppy might even seem like the right thing to do...Think about it. Ever since I watched the video I've been thinking. And much that I tried, I was unable to find neither reason nor logic in the whole affair. A dog is dead for his loyalty and a policeman who cannot control himself walks around with a gun...how's that for crazy?

If you wish to watch the video, go to

http://www.causes.com/actions/1756051-justice-for-max-dog-gunned-down-by-officer-hawthorne-california?ctm=recommended_activities

WARNING: The video has graphic violence.