go find bucket/gloves/gardener/cage while kid gets bitten and dies of rabies = irresponsible

shoot it= more stupid

kick it = more stupid

otherwise i refer you to the answer i gave galaki

He had time to think on the way to the scene.  He gets alerted about a baby squirrel at a school, are you suggesting he made his way there thinking about orange soda?

We must have been watching different videos though, as I saw no squirrel "attack" any officer in that clip.

But whose idea was it that the squirrel had rabies? We have them running around parks and anywhere with trees during summer. Nobody thought them having rabies...

Call me skeptic but I'd say the cop (was instructed?) to use rabies as an excuse for what he did.

how do you know that? how do you know what kind of information he had when he got there? but maybe it was the reason he was not better prepared BECAUSE someone told him he has to deal with a "baby squirrel at the school"

and the squirrel is obviously not running away from him, as would be expected behavour, it is actually approaching him and it had chased children, around before. so i call that attacking. what do you call it?

Little known fact:  Pepper spray was actually created as a humane way to deter animals. 

Anyway, cops aren't animal control and we have no training at all.  I've been called to deal with anything from snakes to aligators to birds inside people's houses to dogs, horses, cows, and frogs.  My solution?  Mace, mace, and more mace (and a Tazer, too!).  Maybe it was a baby squirrel.  Maybe it was full grown.  It's hard to tell from the video.  All I can say is cut the guy some slack.  He got called there to do a job that he probably wasn't qualified to do and he did the best he could.  Sometimes, when Animal Control is actually called (damn near every single time I called for them, actually), the don't respond.  I know that cop didn't want to be in that situation.

Did I mention I was once chased by a group of geese?

Another mystery is that, why the hell were the children running away?

They must raise sissy children in Taxes. Had that squirrel been approaching me or anyone that I schooled with when i was young, we'd make it a pet and pluck all its fur and probably use it to play catch.

Geese(s) are actually very territorial and will peck you to hell.

i tried! but obviously the term "baby squirrel" triggers something in people.

Said it yourself, "approaching him", and that's what I'd call it.  You can't be attacking someone if you don't make contact of any sort, you're simply wrong with your choice of wording here.  I'd also be a little shocked if this video is the first time you've seen a wild animal not run away from a human.

Also, are you seriously suggesting that even though it went to the extent of the police being called for a squirrel, he chose not to prepare?  How does that in any way make him look better?  Neither of us know the information he had when he got there, but you're defending him while I think he could have dealt with the situation better.  Actually, the teachers of the school could also have dealt with it better.  If they thought it was rabid why were there children still outside in the first place?

He shouldn't be fired, he shouldn't be disciplined (trained perhaps as I get the impression he's an onsite officer), but reglardless of how prepared anyone in that situation was it could have been handled better.  Get everyone to vacate the area, wait for animal control.

so you suggest he should have waited for the squirrel to bite him to find out if it was attacking or not. are you telling me that what i see in this video is natural behavior for a squirrel? oh please!

would you risk rabies to find out if it was just trying to play?

as for the rest, read my posts. i did say it could have handeled better, i'm just saying he is not some kind of idiot everyone makes him out to be.

i refer you especially to the first sentence in d21lewis' post!