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.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

I think he forgot to include the sarcasm tags.

[Don Joe]

Think of it as MAD for the relationship between government and citizenry.

Thanks for the free advice, but I think I had it nailed the first time. It's bear-baiting.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

key difference: bears are not sentient beings; police officers supposedly are.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... and what kind of cop can't drive a stick??"

A young cop that would probably be bewildered if they ever encountered a dial telephone and needed to use it. Someone who would be astonished to see a black-and-white dial-tuned television with a mysteriously indecipherable 'UHF' dial. A caveman seeing a time travelling astronaut flick a cigarette lighter. Someone like that.

"... Officer #4: Nineteen years old and you know everything."

It wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out the cop who said that line was no more than 23 years old.

[Don Joe]

You assume that we aren't already living in that world.

Well, let's just say that I'd HOPED that we -- you know, "conservatives" -- the folks who putatively stand for the stuff the founders gave their lives to hand down to us -- are above that kind of dog-eat-dog hey-everyone's-doing-it anarchy.

But hey, I've been wrong before...

Values are apparently SO "yesterday"...

If they're corrupt sumbitches, well by golly WE'RE gonna be every bit as despicable ourselves! Yee-haw!

[SwankyC]

You basically did say roll over and play dead.

I say just because they're cops doesn't mean they should get away with what they did. they should be severely reprimanded for the "we'll find something" BS line.

You didnt offend me, I dont roll over well for anyone.

[The KG9 Kid]

'/sarcasm' tags are for amateurs.

[DelphiUser]

>>This forum is becoming populated with more of the perpetually offended everyday.

HEY!, I resemble that remark (Humor fully intended).

[Publius Valerius]

I actually find myself wondering whether or not you live in America. You honestly seem like someone who knows English as a second language and isn't aware of the idioms and turns of phrase that come from having English (or any language) as a native tongue.

Note my first example: "How ya doing?" Reply: "Hey."

Again, I note that when you are greeted, in America, by someone saying "how are you," they don't really mean "how are you doing?" They don't want an actual answer; rather, it is simply a greeting.

Now, perhaps this could be a confusing turn of phrase for a foreigner or, say, someone who never interacts with people, but for the rest of America, we have this unspoken understanding that "How are you?" is not an invitation to spill out our life's joys or problems. Rather, it is a simple "ice breaker" (if you're foreign, that's also an idiom--it doesn't really mean "ice-breaker" like an ice pick. Rather, it means a phrase that is used to begin a conversation. I know it can be very confusing. Perhaps, one day, with lots of practice, you'll be able to figure all this out.) that allows the speaker to then move on to more substantive conversation.

So, good luck with your integration into American society.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Are you a troll? Trying to make Freepers look like extreme right wing thugs? :)

[Diplomat]

That is correct. He did not give an accounting...and he was on his way.

Good God man, he was required to leave his vehicle, he was unlawfully detained for a period of time and his car was ILLEGALLY SEARCHED, clearly without his consent.

How about I go rummage through your car because I think you're a smartass? How about I threaten to have you arrested for not kissing my arse?

[Swordfished]

this kid is a hero.

[rbmillerjr]

Here is my peace offering through a quote (below). I don't think we disagree in principle. I am certainly not one who wishes to be restricted in any way. But, as we admonish thouse who serve as police officers. Let's remember that many, I'd say a majority are freedom loving patriots who are huge believers in the 2nd Amendment, serve in NG and Reserve units etc. They are there to serve and protect and that includes DUI checkpoints (if you don't agree complain to politicians not officers)which attempt to keep drunken drivers off the roads. If you've ever seen a family lose a loved one via a drunken driver, you will understand the loss and need.

But PaleHorse, here is your quote to use in your defense -from me, the S.Adams one is good but overused.

"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go around repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in their struggle for independence."
--Charles A. Beard, American historian

[Don Joe]

Yup, I stand corrected.

I gotta go now. I guess I need to burn the manuscript for my novel, call my publishers and tell them to burn my books and magazine articles, and then change my name and live in ignomy, because some anonymous twit in an Internet forum has fixated on me and refuses to take his fangs out of my ankle.

Yeah, I'm a born and bred American MORON, in my sixth decade, obviously having lived a completely sheltered existence, who cannot wrap my mind around the fact that YOUR fantasy that you cook up carries more weight than the actual transcript.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of letters to write, and a big trash barrel to warm up. (Gotta get rid of all my comp copies, lest someone see a book with my name on the title.)

Thank you so much. I feel so dirty. Or rather, I did, before YOU came to shine the Light of Fantasy on my life. How can I ever thank you. Wait, don't say anything -- I know I can't thank you -- so I won't even try. Instead, I will fall on the floor laughing my ass off, since it just dawned on me that as you read this, you are probably patting yourself on the back for a job well done.

Mpfhmrhahahahahahahhaha!

Damn, sorry 'bout that. I tried to restrain it (at least until I hit the POST button, but hey, no one's perfect. Except you, of course.)

[rbmillerjr]

"Are you a troll"

Yes I'm going to hunt you down from under my bridge and cut you cats tongue out.

[antiRepublicrat]

arrested for videotaping?

Some guy a while back had video cameras covering his house, and police came to his house looking for his son, harassing him in the process. The guy took the surveillance tapes to the police office to complain, where they arrested him for taping the officer without permission.

[Publius Valerius]

Well, I do carry on conversations with people every day. It's a skill for life; don't just dismiss it.

There's a reason why no one brought it up for "hundreds of posts." It's because people speak like this every single day.

As a side note, I'm not fixated on you. I'm fixated on anyone that actually, for even one-half second, believes this tripe. It's so utterly devoid of merit that it's simply absurd.

And hey, that's great that you can write things, but, you know, funny thing: we're not really talking about how people write; we're talking about how people speak. These turns of phrase really just don't show up in writing. Maybe now that you've gotten some of these books out of the way, you can move on to conversation. It, too, can be very gratifying. Really.

[supercat]

He is under no legal compulsion to answer that question or any other, which is my point.

Right; I was merely wanting to amplify your point by offering an example where even the original question may be something a motorist may be rightly loath to answer.

[-YYZ-]

"it's also their "right" to give you dick police treatment"

Really? I thought it was their duty to enforce the law, not make it up on the spot and harass people who are "rude" to them. What fricking business of theirs is it where he's going? Or coming from, for that matter. In fact, DUI checkpoints themselves are pretty questionable in a supposedly free society.

[Don Joe]

---

How about I go rummage through your car because I think you're a smartass? How about I threaten to have you arrested for not kissing my arse?

---

Many years ago, one of my employees told me a story, it was something that happened while he was driving his car, with his father sitting next to him.

These guys were (at that time) "good ol' boys", GM factory workers. His father was what you might call a roustabout.

As they're driving down the road, his father sees a police car coming from the opposite direction. He notices that it's being driven by a cop he despises -- and the feelings are mutual.

Just as the car is passing them, his father yells out "Prick!" at the top of his lungs.

My friend (well, my friend now -- back when he told the story, he was an employee) is wishing he was on another planet, I think he said something like "Why did you do THAT?!?!?!?" (I toned it down, heheheheh)

Surprisingly (hah!), the cop does a 180 after passing them, and pulls 'em over.

My friend is mumbling unmentionable words under his breath.

The cop walks up and says "Hi, [____]. Did you call me a prick?"

My friend's father says "No, I didn't."

The cop mumbles something, and starts walking away from the car.

My friend is having waves of relief pass over his body.

That is, he was, until his father sticks his head out the car and yells, "A prick has a head on it!" -- and then reaches his left foot over and stomps on the gas pedal!

We laugh now. But this was back then. Not that long ago, in the grand scheme of things.

Back then, that was the end of the story, except for the telling about it. They didn't call in the reinforcements, the tire strips, flashbangs... they didn't punch out the windows with batons and haul the occupants out of the car and... That would have been so "today".

If it'd happened now, I suspect the outcome could have been pretty ugly -- as in "I never would have hired the guy, because he'd have been buried long before we advertised for the job." At the very least, I'd expect them both to have been roughed up, hauled in, and had their lives for all intents and purposes destroyed.

This is what's happening to our country. And compounding it, are people who, in their frustration, think it acceptable to engage in bear-baiting tactics to even the score.

Well, that doesn't even the score. It just ups the ante.

I don't have any good answers. There aren't any good answers. But there are certainly various degrees of bad answers. And bear-baiting, upping the ante, is a pretty bad type of bad answer.

And I think that's all I'm gonna say on the matter (unless someone manages to bait me into going back on my intention.)