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Dunlap: There's No Excuse To Taunt The Police (Dog)

Don't act like a knucklehead --- it's really as simple as that.

Spare me all these ways people have been trying to excuse it away; trying to rationalize such actions or trying to get a laugh out of what allegedly went down in the tunnel at Heinz Field before the Steelers-Raiders game on Sunday.

It really boils down to this: If you taunt the police --- and a police dog is the police --- you are acting like a knucklehead and deserve everything that's coming to you.

You see, it's been reported Oakland Raiders linebacker Ray-Ray Armstrong may face felony charges here for what he did prior to Sunday's matchup against the Steelers for a run-in he had with an Allegheny County Sheriff K-9 unit.

According to Allegheny County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Kevin Kraus --- who gave an account to KDKA-TV's Rich Walsh --- Armstrong was acting like, well, a knucklehead.

"He came out of the locker room, he started jumping up and down, intimidating the dog, calling for the dog," Kraus told KDKA. "The dog immediately responded and tried to make its way over to the player, the K-9 deputy prevented the dog from doing so."

In short, (if all this is precisely true) what a knucklehead Armstrong is.

And a knucklehead who should be facing charges.

There have been the people who have scurried to the defense of Armstrong, yakking about how such an action --- even if he did do it just as Kraus outlined --- should never rise to the level of a felony charge. My opinion is neither here nor there on that one, but I offer this: It's a third-degree felony in our marvelous Commonwealth for "any person to willfully or maliciously taunt, torment, tease, beat, kick or strike a police animal."

I didn't make the rules, I'm just telling you what they say.

That said, I'll never have to defend myself against such accusations because, you know why? I don't taunt the police or police dogs. Doing so is a knuckleheaded endeavor with an end-game that I just don't understand.

What in the world --- again if it all went down the way Kraus described --- was Armstrong trying to accomplish?

Was he trying to be cute?

Was he trying to fire himself up?

Was he trying to get a rise out of someone or something?

Was he trying to illustrate that he was as fierce as a dog?

I don't know.

He just seems like a knucklehead to me.

He also seems like a person who doesn't understand that same dog he allegedly riled up is a dog that, if he were the victim of a heinous crime, would more than likely help track down a culprit and act to assist him.

No chance Armstrong stopped to think about that, huh?

The guess here is Armstrong probably also doesn't understand that the dog he allegedly provoked is the exact type of mechanism that keeps him --- and huge numbers of fans inside NFL stadiums --- safe on game days.

Maybe he should have thought about that a little bit.

But there is no chance Armstrong stopped to think about that, huh?

Knuckleheads generally don't think about things before doing them all that often.

Oh, yeah, and spare me this notion Armstrong was behaving in such a manner to fire himself up, to provide some motivation for the game in which he was about to play.

Put some earphones on with loud music if you need motivation.

Punch a wall.

Hit your head into a locker.

Jump up and down.

Bark and yelp and squeal and woof in the direction of just about anyone or anything other than the police or a police dog if that's the instrument you need to use to get all charged up for games.

Who knows what will happen with Armstrong; if he will end up facing those severe charges, lesser charges or no charges at all.

Something is more than certain however: If all the reports are accurate, there's no excusing away what he did.

Instead, he was acting like a knucklehead.

If there's a group of people who deserve much better than being acted like knuckleheads toward, it is members of our law enforcement community --- and that includes those of the K-9 variety.

Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weekdays from 5:40 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can e-mail him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.

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