Thursday, January 14, 2010

Today's TASER Travesty

Kankakee, Illinois police officer Lonnie Netzel apparently thought it would be a capital idea to TASER some junior high students who were part of a special-needs class as some kind of twisted "demonstration", as the microcephalic cop is accused of actually doing this very act on Tuesday.

Netzel has now (thankfully) been put on administrative leave (with pay, no doubt), and the parents of two of the students have today (naturally, and in this case quite rightly) filed a federal lawsuit against him, the school district and the city of Kankakee, as well as the two teachers who apparently stood by and watched Netzel perform his little experiment on their charges.

"The Netzel [sic] allegedly Tased a few students in the finger a week earlier, and allegedly has a history of intimidation."

What a "shocker". Another bully with a badge who probably should have been bounced years ago, but most likely thanks to his union and his fellow officers who overlooked his claimed "intimidating" behavior for 19 years is still around to do breathtakingly stupid stuff such as this. That's just the sort of valued "professional" who should be working as a school-resource officer, isn't it?

"In one of the more gruesome incidents detailed in the lawsuit, Netzel allegedly laid out sheets of newspaper and asked a boy to sit on it before being Tased, in case he defecated or urinated."

Oh, what a lovely spectacle. We're ill just imagining such a scene.

It's absolutely unbelievable that a two-decade veteran cop actually thought that this was a good idea, and imagined that his decision to low-level electrocute some vulnerable kids would somehow end well.

Hopefully the people of Kankakee, after having to pay out what will almost certainly be a multi-million dollar judgment against their city, police department and school district, will insist that "Officer" Netzel never again wear a badge.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

First of all, you should get all your facts and information straight. Office Netzel is a personal friend of our family. Our children grew up together. Lonnie is a very dedicated office who loves his job. He is also dedicated to all the children at the school. He would never intentionally harm a child. He has been very active through the years giving back to the community in various aspects, among them, as a little league coach, etc. I have never known him to be intimidating to children. If anything, he has gone out of his way to help them. Maybe you should do some more research and see if the children didn't ask Officer Netzel to "taz" them. Let's face it. It is very likely some of the children asked to be "tazzed". Children at that age think many things are funny to do, even if inapproriate. Yes, I belive Office Netzel should have used better judgement and not used the Tazer Gun. But, as they say, hind sight is fore sight; and, in this day and age, there is always a lawsuit just looking around the corner. I wonder, if he had "tazzed" a white child, if there would have been such a commontion made over this ordeal. Don't get me wrong. I AM NOT FOR "TAZZING" CHILDREN. What I believe happened was a bad judgement call that was taken all out of proportion. By the way, most of the children at the Junior High School really like Officer Netzel. It is just too bad something like this happened. All the good things Lonnie has done through the years will not be mentioned or remembered, he will always be remembered as the police officer who "tazzed" children. In my estimation, this is just a shame.

Bike Bubba said...

Um, tasing special needs students--with two teachers apparently right there--is a little more than a "lapse in judgment," anon.

Put differently, if a retarded child asked you to beat the **** out of him, would you oblige, or would you use a bit of sense and say "no, this isn't how I treat a fellow human being."?

More or less, you're using a Nuremberg defense--just following orders. Yeesh.