One of the biggest problems facing southern Illinois is centered around the law and the courts, and mainly pertains to errant police officers.
The piece-of-feces Billy “PeeWee” Darnell.
We have whole municipalities and even at times entire counties who have a police force/sheriff’s department full of pugilistic punks who were picked on in high school, and when they got a police certification, were handed a gun, badge, oftentimes high-end paycheck thanks to a union deal here or there, and worst of all: authority which comes with a case of big-head.
This has been the rule, rather than the exception, for a number of years now in Lawrence County. While there are a couple of decent officers, the rest, including those in the small burgs, are nothing but little pompous asses who don’t give a shit about the residents of their areas of responsibility, and see them as even less than sources of revenue…but instead, as we’ve said for years, are there to “restrain and beat” them as opposed to “serve and protect.”
Compound that with the inability of the court system to get anything done with these rogue cops once they start acting out, and it lends the cops an aura of untouchability that only serves to exacerbate the situation. It can make complete monsters out of these “cops” and, unfortunately, members of their families, including their spouses and kids…which is our first Read the Lead for the current issue (January Special Edition), “Barroom fight, cop, son involved“:
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LAWRENCE CO.—A mistaken report by Lawrence County public officials in mid-December proved definitively that Billy “PeeWee” Darnell remains one of the most despised police officers—and quite possibly one of the most despised humans—in downstate Illinois.
A report was made to Disclosure on the evening of Tuesday, December 17, that Darnell, long-time “police chief” of the tiny town of St. Francisville on the Wabash River in Lawrence County, had been terminated from his tenuous position following an embarrassing and violent scene at the Towne House bar in downtown Lawrenceville on the previous Friday evening.
The report came from the county prosecutor, Chris Quick, who advised that his source on the matter was the sheriff, Russell Adams.
Disclosure wrote up the reports as issued by the two officials and placed the information online…where it was immediately beset upon by people from all over southeastern Illinois hailing it as a victory for all decent and law-abiding citizens everywhere, and a great day for St. Francisville and Lawrence County in particular, as Darnell, who had come to be known at decade ago as “PeeWee,” has long been one of the most violent, and vile, people ever to bear a badge and a gun.
Unfortunately, the report turned out to be untrue…at least, by that Tuesday.
What may actually have transpired between the night the fight broke out and the moment Adams was told of Darnell’s termination remains unknown at this time.
Disclosure later questioned Adams, who stated that he had understood from various sources in the area, including some in St. Francisville, that Darnell had indeed been terminated at some point in time over the weekend.
However, by that Tuesday the 17th, the status was that Darnell was still on the payroll. Whether or not he’d been terminated between the 13th and 17th, but somehow managed to wrangle his way back into his job, remains a possibility, but if that actually happened, no one’s admitting it.
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Read the rest of the story by clicking this link to get started with your online subscription, or pick up a print version at these vendors! You can get your print copy of Disclosure in Lawrence County at Jim’s Guns between Lawrenceville and Bridgeport on Highway 250, and Lou’s Restaurant in Bridgeport; and in neighboring Wabash County at CJ’s in Allendale, and neighboring Crawford County at Maxwell House in Flat Rock!