Missouri: Police Roadblock Harassment Caught on Tape.

TheNewspaper.com ^ | 12/30/2006 | Brett Darrow

[The KG9 Kid]

Missouri: Police Roadblock Harassment Caught on Tape
St. Louis County, Missouri threaten to arrest a teenager for refusing to discuss his personal travel plans.

A teenager harassed by police in St. Louis, Missouri caught the incident on tape. Brett Darrow, 19, had his video camera rolling last month as he drove his 1997 Maxima, minding his own business. He approached a drunk driving roadblock where he was stopped, detained and threatened with arrest when he declined to enter a conversation with a police officer about his personal travel habits. Now Darrow is considering filing suit against St. Louis County Police.

"I'm scared to drive for fear of being stopped at another checkpoint and arrested while doing nothing illegal," Darrow told TheNewspaper. "We're now guilty until we prove ourselves innocent to these checkpoint officers."

On that late November night, videotape confirms that Darrow had been ordered out of his vehicle after telling a policeman, "I don't wish to discuss my personal life with you, officer." Another officer attempted to move Darrow's car until he realized, "I can't drive stick!" The officer took the opportunity to undertake a thorough search of the interior without probable cause. He found nothing.

When Darrow asked why he was being detained, an officer explained, "If you don't stop running your mouth, we're going to find a reason to lock you up tonight."

The threats ended when Darrow informed officers that they were being recorded. After speaking to a supervisor Darrow was finally released.

"These roadblocks have gotten out of hand," Darrow told TheNewspaper. "If we don't do something about them now, it'll be too late."

A full video of the incident is available here. A transcript is provided below as the audio is at times very faint.

[bluetone006]

1. I have known plenty of Marines that were "less than honorable". I don't let that brush tar them all however. I don't call Marines pigs. Marines as a whole are again the salt of the earth.

2. There are cops that have really screwed up attitudes about the 2nd amendment. There are leos with arrogant attitudes. They are not the majority so calling them all pigs stinks. Marine.

3. There are lots of bad laws on the books now. There is liberal leadership in most cities from the Chief to the Mayor. The courts are full of liberals. Bad law. Bad culture. But the cop on the street still has to enforce all this crap - while taking daily abuse from jerks calling him a pig - while getting sued for frivolous reasons etc. etc.

I'm arguing for perspective here. Take the advice in your final paragraph, change your attitude, and quit calling them pigs. What you are really saying, and what most negative posters are saying, is they don't like the law behind the actions. Well quit acting like an emotional liberal and change the law. Or start a revolution.

[rednesss]

Well not rookies anyways. Throw on top of that fully paid health care for the employee and his family ($1,000+ per month)and retirement in 20 yrs versus 30 for every other public employee except firefighters (most retire @ 80-100% of final pay grade, and 35-45 paid days off a year plus if they don't want some of that overtime they can take it as comp time(more days off)plus court days, plus side jobs. Yeah your right they're standing in the soup kitchen lines and getting welfare. If you don't like the derision of LEOs maybe all of the LEOs need to take a long look in the mirror and ask themselves if they can do better by the citizens that they collect revenue from, I mean write tickets to all day long. And I didn't hire any of them, we mere citizens have little if any input into the goings on of any of our law enforcement agencies. I.E. fighting checkpoints, if they didn't make such insane amounts of money collecting revenue from motorists, then maybe you could count on the agencies themselves to refuse to partake in them in the first place. Rule #1, it's always about the money. They might try and cloak it in the un-assailable "public safety" argument, but it's always about the money.

[rednesss]

"Ask El Rushbo or Scooter about that sometime."



What are you saying, you mean people in a position of power can abuse that power???? This does not jive with your previous 50 posts, I'm confused. Or do you agree with frivoulous prosecutions, do you live in Durham, did you vote for Nifong???? They've got a tough job and should be given all the latitude that they need dammit. So what if they use the constitution as Charmin. It's a tough job. It's tough. Fitzgerald for hall monitor. $2+ million to prosecute a guy for perjury. He's probably your hero.

[MEGoody]

No it's a sign of somebody who is pissed off about being hassled by stupid roadblocks.

And of someone who has been drinking or using drugs.

[MEGoody]

It really has nothing to do with being mature.

Yes, it does. Grow up and stop trying to garner attention and play the victim.

I broke no laws, but yet the police violated my rights.

Oh hogwash. The cops only asked you where you were headed. You could have just answered calmly and LIED if you actually felt threatened by answering the question honestly. But of course, you were just being a moron, building a mountain out of a molehill.

Go play with your toy trucks, child.

[MEGoody]

another juinor g -man heard from

No, just someone who is sick of brat kids who have been brought up to think the world revolves around them.

[rednesss]

Based on the audio of his encounter, and it is clearly audible at first before the cop tells him to get out, his reply is perfectly coherent, polite, and non-combative. "I don't wish to discuss my personal life with you officer" = polite. On the other hand had he answered: "It's none of your f'n business you scum sucking pig, you can kiss my arse." Then that would be an entirely different situation. He was calm, polite, and his demeanor was obviously that of someone in control of themselves. Even I, a mere citizen, can discern that.

[MEGoody]

Luckily, your posts on this thread are a constant reminder.

Ah, there's still a bit of teenie bopper in you. Teens with poor self-esteem like to launch personal attacks on others to give themselves a temporary self-worth boost. Maybe some day you'll grow out of that.

[MEGoody]

At what point did he become belligerent?

When he said "none of your business" instead of just answering the very non-threatening question the cops asked.

The police officer was the one who became belligerent.

The cops were doing their jobs when this kid got belligerent. While I don't think they handled it correctly, I don't blame them for having their 'something's wrong here' antenna go up. People who have been drinking or doing drugs sometimes get belligerent. People who have something to hide sometimes get belligerent.

I have to wonder how you treat your own children when they become "belligerent".

When my kids got belligerent with me, they got spanked. They don't do it any more, because they know better. What do you do when your kids get belligerent with you?

[MEGoody]

Saying that you don't care to discuss your personal life with police is not belligerent.

Sure it is. This is a common question, asked of hundreds of people by cops all the time. It's not all that personal a question. It's totally non-threatening to answer. The kid could have just smiled at the cop and lied.

But no, he chose to make an issue of this very non-threatening (unless you've been doing something wrong) question from the cops. (And of course, that was what he set out to do from the beginning.)

[MEGoody]

Based on the audio of his encounter, and it is clearly audible at first before the cop tells him to get out, his reply is perfectly coherent, polite, and non-combative.

Refusing to answer the question is combative. There's no reason not to answer it except that this kid wanted to make a mountain out of a molehill. He was set to stir things up before he even got stopped. He succeeded, and now he's whining about it.

Further, you have no idea what this kid's body language was. A great deal of what we say is communicated by body language. The cops saw that body language, we didn't.

[Poser]

Poser: Saying that you don't care to discuss your personal life with police is not belligerent.

MEGoody: Sure it is. This is a common question, asked of hundreds of people by cops all the time.

Saying it is belligerent does not make it belligerent. A loud, "None of your damned business," would be belligerent.

Once again: The purpose of the question was to get a response so the cop could determine if the citizen had slurred speech or was confused. The cop got the necessary response, indicating that the citizen was sober. End of story. Instead, the cop chose to pull the kid out of his car and search it as specifically prohibited by the courts in their narrow drunk driving roadblock decisions. The cop broke the law.

Thank you sir. Drive safely.

[MEGoody]

Saying it is belligerent does not make it belligerent.

I suppose belligerent is a subjective word. The question asked was non-threatening. It's asked hundreds of times of hundreds of people, and historically speaking, it's only those with something to hide from the cops that refuse to answer it.

We know that this kid had every intent of making a mountain out of a molehill in this situation, because of the handy dandy little video camera he just happened to have present. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that his body language, et al, screamed 'belligerance'.

The purpose of the question was to get a response so the cop could determine if the citizen had slurred speech or was confused.

True. Both of those are signs of drinking. Belligerence is a sign of drinking AND drug use.

The cop broke the law.

If the cop broke the law, there should be criminal charges pending. There aren't. This kid IS thinking about suing for money though.

Ugh, I hadn't even addressed that issue. Just what we need. . .another whiner suing for money.

[rednesss]

belligerent
One entry found for belligerent.
Main Entry: bel·lig·er·ent
Pronunciation: -r&nt
Function: adjective
Etymology: modification of Latin belligerant-, belligerans, present participle of belligerare to wage war, from belliger waging war, from bellum + gerere to wage
1 : waging war; specifically : belonging to or recognized as a state at war and protected by and subject to the laws of war
2 : inclined to or exhibiting assertiveness, hostility, or combativeness
- belligerent noun
- bel·lig·er·ent·ly adverb


Now the cop was acting belligerent. Exhibiting assertiveness, hostility, and combativeness.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... True. Both of those are signs of drinking. Belligerence is a sign of drinking AND drug use."

If that's true, it appears that a lot of the posters here who support the police to the point of clubbing this kid with a nightstick or slapping him around a bit are either drunk or on drugs. Perhaps both.

Fascinating, isn't it?

[rednesss]

Main Entry: com·bat·ive
Pronunciation: k&m-'ba-tiv
Function: adjective
Date: circa 1834
: marked by eagerness to fight or contend
- com·bat·ive·ly adverb
- com·bat·ive·ness noun

Seems the cop was combative.

[rednesss]

"and historically speaking, it's only those with something to hide from the cops that refuse to answer it."


So since you have nothing to hide, you won't mind if John "Beercan wrist" Law does a little body cavity search then?? Since you have nothing to hide you won't mind the imposition, you might feel a little pressure however. Oh and by the way this will be a weekly thing, you won't mind the inconvenience will you??? Since you have nothing to hide.

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Thomas Jefferson

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Ah, there's still a bit of teenie bopper in you. Teens with poor self-esteem like to launch personal attacks on others to give themselves a temporary self-worth boost. Maybe some day you'll grow out of that.

Extremely weak.

[rednesss]

That should be said in a Cartman accent: "Weeeeak"

[rednesss]

This clip similates this "traffic stop" so closely I'm still laughing so hard there's tears rolling down my face.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx_6GZJUs5A

"Step out of the car please sir."