Officer who berated driver loses job in St. George

STLtoday.com ^ | 09/21/2007 | Kim Bell and Greg Jonsson

[beltfed308]

ST. GEORGE — A police officer who was recorded berating a motorist earlier this month has lost his job.

The board of aldermen voted 5-0, with one member absent, to fire Sgt. James Kuehnlein on Monday. The vote was cast in a session closed to the public and wasn't announced until Wednesday, when a notice was posted at the City Hall of this tiny south St. Louis County community.

In a video that got wide viewership on the Internet, Kuehnlein taunts and threatens motorist Brett Darrow, 20, sometimes shouting and using profanity, after questioning him in a commuter lot near Interstate 55. Darrow posted the footage of the Sept. 7 incident on the web.

[rednesss]

I believe the technical term for what you just did to RP was to be “foisted on one’s own petard”. Bravo.

[SubGeniusX]

Isn't this your main argument in all the WOD threads?

RP, I do believe the proper term is YOU JUST GOT PWNED

[monkfan]

way too funny.

[thefactor]

"Can I have a beer? I need to get the taste of weed and hooker spit out of my mouth."

-brian griffin

[rednesss]

Profound.

[BearCub]

This kid needs to make sure every future employer of this a$$hole cop (whether a police department or not) sees that video. This should haunt him forever & keep him from holding any job other than flipping burgers.

In addition, oppression under color of authority comes to mind. Criminal charges should be filed against the officer and he should lose him immunity to civil suit because he was acting outside the scope of his official duties.

[BearCub]

would expect a cop to react when a punk mouths off. You don't think he will. Fine.

React by threatening to make up charges? You're a bootlicking idiot.

[BearCub]

Unbelievable. A cop posted this on a web site frequented by St. Louis County police.

"I hope this little POS punk bastard tries his little video stunt with me when I pull him over alone- and I WILL pull him over - because I will see "his gun" and place a hunk of hot lead right where it belongs."

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/19/1967.asp

[NittanyLion]

Now, are you going to conclude that I'm an alcoholic who needs help? Probably.

I concluded that somewhere back around Post 300.

[elkfersupper]

What does "where he works" have to do with the content of his posts? You guys and your personal attacks, turning this board into DU.

Contrary to your mindset, this is (for now) a (relatively) conservative and open forum.

If you want to continue parading your agenda of government control of every aspect of everyone else's daily lives, I suggest that you migrate over to DU.

[elkfersupper]

Good evening, officer.

Where exactly do you ply your trade, so that we can all avoid it?

[tacticalogic]

DU doesn’t need him, and in many ways he’s the best example of a bad example we’ve got.

[pray4liberty]

No the citizen was reasonably declining to give information to the LEO that he was not required to provide. If he was older and smoother, the perp might have been more restrained and kept his job. Instead he used the victim's youth as an excuse to go off like Krakatoa.

I like your style.

[pray4liberty]

They then asked if I thought it was a good idea to lie to a police officer.

At that point I would have told them I wasn't going to answer any more questions without legal counsel. It's okay for a cop to lie to you, but it's not okay for you to lie to them (though you did it under duress).

You need the "Bust Card."

Take a look at this, too. Free Legal Information

I hope you were taping this session.

[Brett Darrow]

Yes I was taping it. I tape everything now. I’m probably video taping me typing this right now.

[Starwolf]

the kid was wrong for going out looking to get messed with. that’s all.

There is nothing to indicate he was trolling for bad cops. Brent has stated that he records continuously. Given the circumstances, Occams Razor supports his position.

[Starwolf]

I would expect him to say no differently. Which is why I didn't ask.

Occams Razor would support his statement...it also makes sense if you have ever run a data collection or monitoring system.

[rednesss]

Upload that, I’m sure it would be good for a laugh. Have you contacted the St. Louis office of the FBI yet???

[robertpaulsen]

"Occams Razor would support his statement"

Does it support his reason for being in that lot at that time?

[Starwolf]

Does it support his reason for being in that lot at that time?

Per Brett, the police checked with the person he was going to meet and she backed up what he said.

A while back when a cop asked me why I had taken a particular course of action my reply was "sovereign election". While I am sure you would have considered that smarmy, he accepted it as a reasonable response.