About 1 a.m. Tuesday, I found myself a bystander at the surreal blue-and-red flashing scene of a car crash on McKinley Avenue. Police officer Jason Lyons gave three freshman girls a ride to their residence hall in his squad car and apparently the testosterone in his blood boiled over.
Instead of acting professionally, logging his mileage and driving them straight there, he gave them a joyride, speeding up to 80 mph up Tillotson Avenue, across Bethel Avenue and down McKinley Avenue before slamming into a light pole, ripping it up from its base and narrowly missing a tree. According to police, the skid marks imply speeds of 53 mph leading into the crash, although the car would have begun skidding only after Lyons started to slow down.
Human reactions do not generally exceed one and a half seconds from stimulus to response; Lyons, though he is a professional driver (although not an accomplished one: he has crashed nearly a half dozen times as a police officer), is no exception. That means a second and a half from the realization he lost control of the car to the beginning of the movement of a foot to the brake. When traveling at 70 mph, that's more than 150 feet.
If Lyons had lost control near the Duck Pond, he could have plowed into the water, my girlfriend or me. This goes for everyone along McKinley Avenue, and, to a lesser extent, Tillotson and Bethel avenues. It was 150 feet before he could even begin to do anything about a problem.
Lyons was not only acting criminally, recklessly and unforgivably stupidly, but he was also abrogating his responsibilities and duties as an officer. We trust police with our safety and our lives; Lyons directly threatened the lives of at least four people and indirectly threatened many more. As if this grievous breach of trust and his nigh-terminal idiocy weren't enough insight into his character, Lyons also shooed off the passengers and cursed at the gathering crowd as he roughly ordered them to move back and stop taking pictures. He even went through his car in front of dozens of witnesses in what I firmly believe was a search for potential evidence. And then he lied about it all to fellow police officers.
Officers are routinely subjected to high levels of stress. They are in life-threatening situations, see violence surpassed only by battlefields and are constantly exposed to the dregs of society. Lyons should have acted calmly and coolly, even in the face of his own wrongdoing. Instead, he lied to cover his rear, shooed away witnesses and searched for evidence that could potentially be used against him. Behavior under pressure is a window into character; Lyons' is severely lacking.
Ball State students, Muncie police are investigating this crime. Chief Joe Winkle was the right to go as far as his authority takes him and suspend Lyons, who will come before a hearing of the Muncie Police Merit Commission before this next week is out to determine what sort of disciplinary action will be taken.
But in order to press charges, the police needs all the evidence it can get. If you have pictures or video of what happened, please - please, please, please - turn in a copy. The sooner dangerous men like Lyons are removed from the streets of Muncie and Ball State, the safer we all will be.
Write to Neal at necoleman@bsu.edu
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