The Jack-Booted Thug of the Week...

... is St. Paul, Minnesota police officer Matthew Onnen, because of his deliberate dereliction of duty which allowed a handcuffed suspect who was helpless to defend himself to have his head bashed against a cell wall, "causing substantial bodily harm", by an off-duty fellow cop named Scott Wendell.

It seems that the suspect, referred to as L.P. in the article, was stopped for a traffic violation and arrested for an outstanding warrant. A minor girl, referred to as S.P. (and who, it is speculated, is the biological child of L.P.) and who happens to be the stepdaughter of Wendell was also found to be in the vehicle. The officers who performed the stop subsequently "helpfully" called Wendell and informed him of his stepchild's whereabouts, and Wendell apparently didn't like it one bit.

According to the criminal complaint in the matter, Wendell showed up at the police station and entered the cell where L.P. had just been placed by "Officer" Onnen, who had right then adjusted L.P.'s cuffs for comfort purposes. Wendell then proceeded to bash L.P. senseless while Onnen conveniently found that time period just perfect for taking a little break:

"Onnen reported that he noticed Wendell enter the area as he was leaving the cell, and saw Wendell push L.P. against the back wall of the cell.

'I didn't know what was going, what was about to happen,' Onnen stated, according to the complaint. 'I didn't know what was happening. I, I had, I just thought to myself it's just if I just, I didn't want to be part of this.'"

Onnen then "walked away from the cell but returned a short time later to find L.P. lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the cell.".

As we stated above, how convenient for Wendell.

Way to act like a law-enforcement professional, Mr. Onnen, you spineless coward. Instead of upholding your oath to protect and serve, you decided to step out of the way in some sort of bizarre "professional courtesy" and allow a helpless suspect to be brutally assaulted by your nominal colleague.

"Officer" Wendell has now been charged with felony assault in the incident. Coincidentally, the story also reports the following about this fine fellow:

"Wendell is on unsupervised probation in Anoka County for a misdemeanor domestic assault case. He pleaded not guilty to the domestic assault charge filed in April 2008.

It was continued for dismissal last July 14 with conditions that he not commit assault, abusive behavior, terroristic threats, disorderly conduct or other offenses, according to the court register of actions."

When regular peasants get charged with misdemeanor domestic violence, they are pretty much always enjoined from possessing any firearms, even before their day in court arrives. If they're convicted, they lose their Second Amendment rights forever, thanks to the execrable Lautenberg Amendment, which has been unlawfully applied retroactively (in violation of the ex-post-facto clause of the Constitution) to anyone who had ever been convicted of such a crime, even many decades ago.

(How many of those who lost their rights because of this unfairly applied law just pled guilty to put an ugly family situation behind them, or would have gone all the way to trial had they known that this draconian additional extrajudicial penalty would be unfairly levied against them dozens of years later?)

When the "special people" in Anoka County, Minnesota get charged with the exact same crime, however, they apparently are given the courtesy of being placed on some sort of "double-secret" probation while their case is "continued in contemplation of dismissal" (which seems to be an official way of allowing someone to plead "no contest" without it in fact being considered a guilty plea), and which in this case seems to mean that an officially-designated violent abuser (why is he on probation, otherwise?) is allowed to not only keep his firearms, but is also permitted to remain on official duty as a cop, which then gives him this golden chance to commit another assault against people connected to his family in some fashion.

Back to "Officer" Onnen, this week's JBTotW honoree since he was on duty and responsible for the suspect's well-being when the incident took place. We are patiently awaiting the obvious criminal complaint charging him with being an accessory to the assault on L.P., since the crime never would have happened if he had shown even a smidgen of professionalism and dedication to his job.