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In Wake Of Dog Shooting Scandal, Hawthorne City Council Cancels Meeting
(Photo by Stephen Coburn/Shutterstock)
The city of Hawthorne has canceled its regularly scheduled City Council meeting for tonight, citing online difficulties.
The city's website was besieged with angry emails and also targeted by the hacktivist group Anonymous after the public outcry over the fatal shooting of a dog by a Hawthorne police officer.
The city announced that tonight's City Council meeting has been canceled due to an "inability to post the agenda" online, according to the Daily Breeze.
The city's website, including the Hawthorne police site, has been offline since the shooting video went viral. Although they announced they'd hired extra IT staff because of the Anonymous threat, city officials were unable to get the site back online by this morning.
The next regularly scheduled meeting will be on July 22.
Since most City Council meetings include an opportunity for public comment, perhaps they are also waiting for the furor to die down before they hold a public meeting. About 40 protesters rallied outside the Hawthorne police department this past Saturday to express their dissatisfaction and a petition calling for the officers involved in the shooting to be prosecuted now has over 98,000 signatures. Those three officers and the whole Hawthorne police department have received numerous death threats.
Related:
Anonymous: 'Hawthorne Police Are Our Primary Target'
Hawthorne Dog Shooting Petition Says Prosecute Cops, Gains Over 76K SignaturesProtesters (And Their Dogs) Rally Against Hawthorne Police Dog Shooting
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