TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Author: Trench Reynolds

  • Marshfield: The Year in Review

    Marshfield: The Year in Review

    A tragedy prevented, a town shocked:

    This article seems like a year in review of the Marshfield High plot incident. It’s actually a pretty good article, but I have to take issue with a couple of things…

    However parents of MHS students said the harsh media spotlight was particularly difficult for their children. At a PTO meeting shortly after the initial news conference, parents told principal Robert Keuther that many of their kids had expressed bewilderment at seeing news cameras and reporters outside their school, on top of just finding out one of their classmates may have been planning to kill them.

    Oh no, not bewilderment. :-O Anything but that. In the grand scheme of things, seeing reporters outside their school is low on the list of things that will harm your child. I love it when the media and the soccer moms get together. And if the media didn’t show up, they’d be complaining about the fact that it wasn’t being reported.

    This from Joseph Nee’s father…

    “Everybody keeps calling this a Columbine. It’s not a Columbine because my son had the courage and conviction to come forward,” Thomas Nee said.

    Coming forward to accuse someone who may not have been involved is not courage and conviction. It’s called covering your own ass and deflecting the blame.

    From Joseph Nee’s attorney…

    Drechsler, Nee’s attorney, pointed out that while Toby Kerns has a criminal history, getting arrested several times for breaking and entering, and that he also has been treated in a psychiatric facility, Nee has never been in trouble with a law or treated for mental illness.

    Let me see, a cop’s son who has never “been in trouble with the law”. I wonder why that is. Being a cop’s son can go a long way in getting out of trouble with the local police. And just because Nee was never treated for mental illness doesn’t mean he’s not mentally ill. I offer the following as evidence of that…

    Nee also reportedly wore a homemade shirt with the date of the Columbine massacre and “Remember the Heroes” – a reference to Columbine killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris – written on it in German to school several times. At one point he dressed as Harris for Halloween at school.

    There’s no reportedly about it. I’ve had more than one Marshfield student e-mail me or leave me a comment that says that actually happened. Not to cast aspersions here, but I’m going to. What kind of father, let alone what kind of cop, would let their kids out of the house wearing clothes that pay tribute to known killers?

    The more I read about this incident, the more I start to think that Tobin Kerns was just a scapegoat. Especially since, as I’ve said before, that so many people have contacted me in defense of Tobin Kerns and I have yet to hear from one person in defense of Joseph Nee.

    That speaks volumes.

  • No Sympathy for Killers

    No Sympathy for Killers

    Occasionally, I lurk at message boards and discussion groups that are sympathetic or downright worship killer scumbags, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Even after 5 years, I am still amazed at some of the things that people post. For example, I found this posted the other day on one of the discussion groups…

    My heart goes out to Eric and Dylan: they were normal kids who played soccer and baseball, who planned on going to college or joining the military. They had normal parents and friends, they were not the monsters that the media—based on very little information—made them out to be after the fact. I am so glad I have found other people here who actually understand that!

    Yeah, they were just normal kids. As we all know, all normal kids stockpile weapons and explosives in their house and go on to kill 13 people. Just your average, normal kids.

    Ok, sarcasm aside, what bothered me most about this post that it wasn’t from some angst-ridden goth wannabe high school kid. After checking the author’s website, it turns out that the author is a well-dressed, well-behaved, well-spoken, college student.

    One of my fears is that this “sympathy for killers” mindset will start to gain legitimacy in the mainstream. Which I guess means I have to repeat myself once again for the sake of common sense…

    ahem…

    First of all, I don’t think that Harris and Klebold were bullied. If anything, they were the bullies themselves. Even if they were bullied, it’s no excuse to gun down 13 people who had little to no connection with them.

    They did not have normal parents. They had parents who were obviously very lax in their parenting skills. Allowing an arsenal to be amassed under their noses is proof of that, not to mention the fact that the Klebolds feel like they did nothing wrong. They may not be monsters to you, but considering they’re mass murderers the term monster might not be that much of a stretch.

    Nothing that ever happened to those two scumbags warranted the merciless execution of 13 people. Harris and Klebold were not victims nor martyrs nor heroes. They were nothing but cowards, undeserving of anyone’s praise for their actions.

  • 12/26/04: From The Mail Sack

    12/26/04: From The Mail Sack

    Merry Christmas, it’s time to bring on the love, as we actually have some mail for the first time in a while.

    Just one piece, though…

    Monday, December 20, 2004 08:27 AM

    From: Ugabuga

    Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are my hero’s

    Hail REB, Hail VoDkA

    there story made its way all the way to the bloody land of israel.

    were, sadly, i live.

    i personly think it was heroic, it is a dream for me to do something in that standerd… allthou i have plans of my own 🙂

    keep killing

    Hail? Hail, huh? Who uses the word “hail” anymore unless you’re talking about precipitation.

    Sounds like you were using it in the context of the German “heil”. I’m assuming that since you claim to be from Israel and your IP address traced back to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, that you’re Jewish. If that is the case, then I find it ironic that you worship two murdering, rotting in hell scumbags like Harris and Klebold who in their own right just about worshiped Hitler.

    You know that guy, don’t you? Funny haircut, little mustache, and oh yeah, he slaughtered millions of your own people. You’re even worse than most of the American kids who worship these two scumbags because you’re a betrayer to your own country.

  • GTA: Grand Theft Apprehension

    GTA: Grand Theft Apprehension

    ABC13.com: Robbers scared off by Playstation game get jail time:

    Last March, four would be burglars broke into a house where there were some kids playing GTA at the time. When they heard the police in the game say, “Stop, we have you surrounded. This is the police.”, they thought it was the actual police and fled. The four men were arrested. Two are serving time, one got probation and the fourth is awaiting trial.

    All of you busybodies are wrong about this game. It doesn’t cause violence, it saves lives.

  • So What?

    So What?

    Deadly revenge for bullied kids an absurd idea:

    This is a great editorial from the Miami Herald by a man named Leonard Pitts Jr., who writes what I’ve been saying for years, bullying is no excuse to shoot up a school…

    We have become sadly experienced with school massacres in recent years. We have seen many disaffected loners turn campuses into killing grounds. And then comes the inevitable explanation.

    He was an outcast.

    He was jilted by a girl.

    The other kids bullied him.

    And I repeat: So what?

    And just like myself, Mr. Pitts has also been accused of not knowing what it’s like to be bullied…

    My wife, who I’ve known since fifth grade, once had to run and get my folks after some boys jacked me up and tried to inject me with hypodermic needles they’d found in the trash behind a medical clinic.

    Now that’s hardcore. How many of these Harris and Klebold wannabes have been harassed to the level of their tormentors wanting to inject them with medical waste? I can almost guarantee you not one of them. Did Mr. Pitts plan to shoot up a school? Not according to his article…

    So yeah, I know a little something about being bullied. And yeah, too, I know something about wanting to mash the face of some jerk who’d made my days miserable.

    There is, however, a gulf of difference between wanting to do that and wanting to indiscriminately massacre a schoolyard full of people.

    It takes a special kind of arrogance, self-absorption and entitlement to believe that your humiliation and pain merit the lives of a dozen strangers.

    Mr. Pitts also disagrees with the criminal as victim mentality and sums things up with an obvious question…

    So to say a child killed people because he was bullied or ostracized is to dignify the act with false rationality — and to shift the onus for the crime to its victims.

    I get impatient with hearing that because it explains everything and explains nothing, because it does not help me understand how a child can become so alienated from his own humanity and finally, because it does not address, much less answer, a question that ought to be painfully obvious.

    Kids have been bullied and ostracized from the beginning of time. Why is it they are just now picking up guns?

    Why indeed, Mr. Pitts. Why indeed.

    I’m not doing the piece justice at all. So click on the link at the top.

    I’m not familiar with the rest of Mr. Pitts’ work, but after reading this I think he deserves a Pulitzer.

  • A Little More From Valpo

    A Little More From Valpo

    Valpo teacher talks about stabbing:

    There is not a whole lot of information forthcoming from the Valpo school stabbing incident. The only mention of a motive that I’ve found so far comes from this interview with the teacher in the class at the time of the incident.

    Police reports later revealed Lewerke believed God directed him to do it because his classmates were “sinners.” While school violence is sometimes traced back to bullying, Dobis said she did not think that was the case. She told police Lewerke was a quiet student who got A’s and B’s and showed no signs of violence.

    More on this if I receive anything.

  • Violent Video Games 2004

    Violent Video Games 2004

    How gory is that game?:

    Just in time for the fucking holidays, we get yet another “why won’t someone think about the children?” group who has their panties in a wad over violent video games.

    Of course, they’re naming the usual suspects of GTA: San Andreas, Halo 2, Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. All pretty violent games. All games that are Rated M you dumbasses. It’s the video game equivalent of an “R” rating.

    You can blame the game companies for making such games. You can even blame the game retailers for being lax in their enforcement of the ratings. But here’s a thought, how about laying blame on THE PARENTS who buy these games for their kids.

    The rating is clearly marked on the packaging, and it even states why the games received that rating. The fact that “parents” keep buying these games for their underage kids means one of two things. They’re either oblivious to the ratings or they just don’t care.

  • Knife Attack in Indiana High School

    Knife Attack in Indiana High School

    Student Slashes Five Classmates in Indiana:

    I waited to do anything on this story because it happened the day before Thanksgiving and I wanted to wait until a possible motive was discussed, but something else has happened to make me comment on this.

    For those of you that have not heard 15-year-old, James Lewerke attacked 5 students at Valparaiso High School with a machete and a tree saw. Luckily, none of the injuries were that serious and all those injured have been treated and released.

    So far, the only thing the media in Indiana covering this story has talked about was security concerns at Valparaiso High School. I have yet to find one story that tries to address the problem of why James Lewerke did what he did.

    This also comes after a kid brought a gun to school that was used in a suicide. While security is a great concern in these issues, why isn’t the reasons behind these incidents being addressed?

    Apparently, it’s a question that the local school board needs to address.

  • A Special Trench Reynolds Thanksgiving

    A Special Trench Reynolds Thanksgiving

    If I could be serious for a moment.

    (Lights dim, soft piano music plays)

    We here at The Trench Reynolds Charity Foundation are always looking for ways to help better our community and our country, and this Thanksgiving should be no different. While many of us are scrambling at the last minute to try to get a turkey for our families and coming up empty-handed, I say that we should no longer terrorize the poor turkey.

    As we all know, the turkey would have been our national symbol if Ben Franklin had his way. That makes the turkey an also-ran. A runner-up. A loser. Not to mention that the turkey is a bird so stupid that it will drown if it looks up in a rainstorm. As Americans, is this how we want our holiday feasts to be looked at? Feasting on a sub-par, sub-intelligent, too stupid to live, ugly bird? No, of course not. We’re Americans, we’re all about being the best that we can be. We’re all about being #1. So why would we want to eat an also-ran bird? That’s why my friends I am imploring you as a proud American to start a new Thanksgiving tradition. A tradition where we feast on the noblest and proudest of all birds and PETA be damned…

    (more…)
  • Idaho Teen Honored in Michigan

    Idaho Teen Honored in Michigan

    Idaho teen honored for helping avert Detroit-area school attack:

    Celia McGinty is the Idaho teen who tipped off authorities to Andrew Osantowski’s school shooting plot after online chats that they had.

    The school and community where the shooting was to take place are now honoring her. She should be honored. A lot of kids don’t have the courage that she did, or would just dismiss it as idle talk.

    However, one person is not too happy about the celebration. Andrew Osantowski’s lawyer, Brian Legghio. He had this to say…

    “I’m absolutely appalled at the rashness of the Macomb County law enforcement community,” Brian Legghio told The Detroit News. “Their conduct taints the judicial process.”

    “By glamorizing this young lady and claiming that she prevented some tragedy is to convict my client in the press and to deny him a fair trial by impartial jurors,” Legghio said.

    Translation: There’s no way in hell I can win this case, so I wish people would stop talking about it.

    Mr. Legghio, I think, would best serve his client by doing his talking in court and not in the media. Then again, I didn’t go to no fancy lawyerin’ school.

    It will be interesting, to say the least, to see what Mr. Legghio’s defense strategy is going to be.