Deputy tasers high school student against direct orders

[JJ]

Deputy tasers high school student against direct orders
David Edwards and Adam Doster
Published: Tuesday February 19, 2008

Outside a Maryland high school gym last Wednesday, sophomore Brandon Bennett got into a small altercation with a fellow student. It was after a basketball game and tempers were high, but the the two were separated by officials and students without much problem. Only then did things get really violent.

According to Julius Bennett, the student's father, Deputy Anthony Lenzi fired a Taser at his son after being told twice by a senior officer it was not necessary.

"He left two puncture wounds just above his heart in his chest," says Bennett. "And [Brandon] said to me that he was in quite a bit of pain because he could feel electric shocks going throughout his whole body."

The father says he has written proof Sgt. Mathew Kempel twice ordered Lenzi to holster the weapon, but Lenzi fired anyway, hitting the teen in the chest.

"Brandon did absolutely nothing wrong," says Bennett, "and there was no reason to use that type of force on my son."

The Queen Anne's County Sheriff's Office says Lenzi has been reassigned to internal duties while authorities investigate the allegations. Bennett is hoping fair punishment is given.

"I will not be satisfied until I know that Deputy Lenzi will be in a position to never to this to anyone else's child ever again."

This video is from CNN.com, broadcast February 19, 2008.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Deputy_tasers_high_school_student_against_0219.html

goto site to see video report of incident.

[Russell Kanning]

shows you those guys just want to use those things any old time

[yonder]

How come it is sufficient just to see these guys get fired?

Why aren't the victims and the community demanding that the District Attorney file the same sort of criminal charges that would be filed against a civilian who committed the same sort of act of violence against another human being?

[KJM]

How come it is sufficient just to see these guys get fired?

Unfortunately, most people seem to think that those who work for the government are a privileged class who shouldn't be held to the same standards as the masses.

[Puke]

Bennett is hoping fair punishment is given.

"I will not be satisfied until I know that Deputy Lenzi will be in a position to never to this to anyone else's child ever again."

Good luck with that. 

[J’raxis 270145]

How come it is sufficient just to see these guys get fired?

Unfortunately, most people seem to think that those who work for the government are a privileged class who shouldn't be held to the same standards as the masses.

How things have changed.

5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge's bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgment.

That's from Hammurabi. Why did the tyrannies of the past know how to deal with bad government officials so much better than the "liberal democracies" we have today? Hammurabi knew how to deal with false accusations and corrupt prosecutions, too:—

1. If any one ensnare another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death.

2. If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.

3. If any one bring an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if it be a capital offense charged, be put to death.

[Copied from an earlier post I made to the FSP forum. Seemed relevant here, too.]