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.

[Shellback Chuck]

If he doesn't answer ze questions or show ze papers, he should get a cigarette in ze eye!

[sam_paine]

I used to hate cops. Then I grew up, got some experience, got an education, and spent time overseas doing work much like their own.

In my nearby town, I know -the- cop (yes, there's only one.) Out here though, I'm only covered by the county sheriff. I've never actually seen him or one of those deputies out here though.

Perhaps "freeper cop haters" are just free Americans whose only experience with cops is (1) having a radar gun pointed at them, (2) writing them a ticket for something, (3) what they see on tv.

[TexasTransplant]

>>>>>"Remember, everytime a cop has to approach a car, in today's world, it could be his last. ..try to maintain good faith in those circumstances. . .its easy to sit behind a computer screen and type about the friggen constitution. . .its quite another to put on a badge in today's world and pray that some 19 year old punk who thinks he's god doesn't end your life. I cut the cops some slack here."<<<<<<

Which is exactly why Law Abiding Citizens are targeted, they are the Cash Cow Soft Targets, they aren't dangerous they don't shoot cops...they just PAY.
TT

[RobRoy]

They are intimidated because they know they are wrong and I assert myself in a way that they get the imopression that if they pursue a ticket, they will be in court. They have to decide if they really want to go to court for that particular stop.

Yes, that is the kind of country I want to live in: Where the cops respect the rights of the citizens and know they cannot intimidate them.

[Filo]

Your post is dishonest in the protrayal of most policeman and factually mispresentative of the event.

You (deliberately) skipped a couple of lines:

(I roll the window ALL the way down.)
Officer #1: Do you have a driver's license and proof of insurance?
(I begin to get my information out of my wallet)
Officer #1: Where you headed tonight?
Brett: I don't wish to discuss my personal life with you officer.
Officer #1: Alright, come on up here.

So, none of what I wrote is dishonest.

From my experience, most cops in the USA, especially those on traffic duty, are generally less than pleasant. They assume guilt until they prove innocence and have no concern for the basic rights, both Constitutional and human, of the people whose lives they disrupt.

Like I said before, it's clear the cop wanted to get a sniff of the "perp's" breath to see if he had a DUI on his hands. When faced with someone who had the unmitigated gall to question his absolute authority and suggest that something was none of his business (correctly, I might add) he got belligerent, rude and proceeded to act illegally.

This attitude is not atypical of American police today.

[daler]

Agreed.

In the post-9-1-1 world, "suspicious person" takes on a whole new meaning when compared to the Hugh Beaumont days of yore.

I'll concede that it's sad and very hard to swallow...but it's now a reality reasonable people can't deny.

And I don't begrudge the Thin Blue Line thinking the same way.

[ASOC]

The cable TV just a piece on several "Video Vigilante" types. Out to bust hookers and dopers.

Seems they also caught cops threating to kill someone. Twice. Oops.

I have no problems with police officers, asshats in uniform, on the other hand.....

[RobRoy]

>>I haven't seen anything yet that shows the cops need "exoneration". Since they taped it all, it will show that they followed proper protocol......the punk demonstrated from the git that he was uncooperative - plenty satisfactory for the cops to take a closer look in proper performance of their duty as regards traffic safety.

snip

This punk PLANNED to be "victimized", but he only succeeded in causing the cops to follow their lawful procedure.<<

Yes, they tried to set him up and he tried to set them up. He won. They lost.

You are living under the false impression that it is somehow criminal behavior to not cooperate with the police, especially when they are inserting themselves into your schedule simply becuase they "can"...

I believe it is still legal to even be a jerk.

[RobRoy]

The kid was clearly not confrontational. He was assertive. The cops were confrontational in their response to him. Without cause they REQUIRED him to do things YOU OR I could not have successfully required.

I should try what the cops did and see how far I get.

[Defiant]

There's an authoritarian streak in a lot of cops. Its why they become cops.

Oceanside just lost an officer who was assisting another officer in a traffic stop in a bad part of town. He was shot by a 17 year old gang member who used a rifle scope from some distance away to gun him down, for sport I guess. The officer was about 24 years old, with a wife and baby girl. Let's think about the good guys, and their families, too, and what they do for society. I absolutely respect cops, I just wish that there were fewer who enjoyed the power, and I despise any of them that would look for excuses to lock up a kid because he refused to tell them his personal business.

[RobRoy]

Irrelevant to this case.

[hoosierham]

This does sound like a setup;one that I'd like to see a thousand times more until these anti-freedom police "fishing for dollars" roadblocks cease.

And no warrant shall isue except on probable cause.

And it's not all cops some of us hate the mindset and actions of,just the totalitarian ones.

[Ecliptic]

Cops volunteer for their jobs...if cops didn't have the attitude of: "we'll find some reason to put you in jail"....

Maybe you're too close to cops to realize how bad they can be.....I have a long list of things cops did to mistreat me in my past.....If MOST cops were good cops, there would me hardly any cop bashing...

[UCANSEE2]

"Yep it was a set up!"

Isn't it? And in the retail industry, they PAY people to do these little 'setups'.

They call them things like "secret shopper".

It is to test the quality of service.


Where is is 'wrong' that we citizens monitor and test the service of our police forces?????? Or is this a communist country now ????

[Larry Lucido]

"I can't drive stick!"

LOL!! That dude got P3WN3D!

Or should that be "PRNDL'D"?

[RobRoy]

Watch the pianist. There is an especially poignant moment where a young woman is complaining to the germans for rousting her and her husband (with a few other Jews) to stand in the street in the middle of the night.

Her husband wishes she had not complained. She no longer cares.

[The KG9 Kid]

After reading some of the replies in this thread from hyper-authoritarian 'LAW AND ORDER' Freepers, I think that I retract any notion that I once held that if I were ever to be put on trial that I would prefer to have a jury of Freepers decide my case.

I think that I'd do lots better letting a Ouija board decide my fate.

I just don't know how this place has changed as much as it has in the years since I first joined. I barely recognize the place compared to how it was then. Back during Clinton I's years in office, our mission was to 'roll back a half century of government abuse' and lift the weight of the crushing force of government pressing down upon us and holding bureacratic tyrants accountable. Anyone else remember those days?

Now we have far too many Freepers that are a bunch of weepy hand-wringy ninnies who think that the Hubble Space Telescope should have been employed to search for the comically-inept James Kim family, welcome police abuse from our blue-uniformed overlords, and dismiss all attempts at rectifying government fraud, cronyism, and monumental waste by quoting something from their bible about 'rendering unto Caesar' and how these earthly things are not of His kingdom so who gives a crap if the country goes to shit because it will just help us die faster so we can go to everlasting paradise with Jesus.

Probably why JimRob doesn't post anymore. I wouldn't even recognize my own creation if I were him, either.

[RobRoy]

>>The response should have been, "Fair enough. Have you been drinking? No, ok have a nice evening."<<

Ding ding ding ding! We have a winner. It was at that point where the cops, instead, decided to become confrontational.

[TexasTransplant]

>>>>>"The deep issue here is, how do you feel when around cops. Do you feel like a citizen of a free country with God given rights protected by the constitution, or do you start breaking out in a sweat and hoping they don't notice you, as a Jew in 1930's germany might have felt.

It is ALL about the quality of life of citizens, which is supposed to be enhanced by the existence of police, not damaged by fear of their attention, while you are doing NOTHING wrong."<<<<<<<

Perfect! That is exactly what I was thinking and trying to wrap words around.

TT

[RobRoy]

Ha, I just saw Bladerunner last night. One line: "If you're not cop, your "little people".

Fortunately, not yet...