Posted on 09/22/2007 8:03:54 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Well, there goes that theory, RP. Let's review the score:
1. "High crime area" - debunked
2. "Punk trolling for trouble" - debunked
Any other foolish theories you'd care to advance and have subsequently slapped down?
The work you've done here absolutely rocks IMO. While we all might not like to set up video equipment in our cars, the little pocket recorders that will record 15+ hours of MP3 files are dirt cheap. Everyone should have one and use them when appropriate. Perhaps we could get rid of more bad cops.
Do you have any vids of cops stopping you that have acted professionally?
Z
Yes, I do have a scanner. I have had one since my parents bought it for me back in 3rd grade to listen to all the stuff going on when there would be an accident up on the highway I live near. Although a scanner won’t do you any good in St. George. They use Nextel cell phones as walkie-talkies to talk to each other. This PD is a big joke.
Then hopefully you have no children. Outrageous that you condone a police officer threatening to make up false charges and that you would attempt to blame it on someone else. This is the officer's responsiblity and no one elses - he should have been fired and thank goodness he was.
And you know this how?
Like I said professor, LEOs get antagonized, flipped off, spit on, yelled at constantly.
Let me guess, you think video boy is pro-law enforcement right? And if caught off guard with out his camera, he'd be "yes sir no sir" show total cooperation like the good citizen he is.
wow..
And what does all this matter?
My wife, when she was younger, and a girlfriend attended a play on the north side of Chicago. Afterwards, they couldn't get a cab and decided to walk to where their car was parked, quite a distance away.
The Chicago police intercepted them and asked what the hell they were doing walking through that dangerous neighborhood at midnight. He gave them a ride to their car. Maybe they should have exercised their Constitutional rights and told the cop to buzz off, huh?
"The kid was doing absolutely nothing wrong. Nothing."
Neither was my wife.
Suing in a grand jury? Some expert on the law.
You’re stretching. I doubt that there’s been any significant change in that lot as it is visible to at least a half dozen (if not more) houses. It is also visible from the 55 freeway and from Reavis Barracks Rd which gets a reasonable amount of traffic.
Sure there could have been a rash of recent break-ins, but there could also have been a rash of people drinking wood alcohol that post on here. You wouldn’t happen to be one of them?
This gist was that every country, every civilization, every little town, has both decent people and people who would be the Gestapo over us if they could get away with it legally.
Not only that, but the number of people who would be "good Germans" and look the other way regardless of what is going on as long as they weren't being assaulted is astounding. People think that a Nazi-like police state couldn't happen in America. They are horribly wrong. All it takes is the right push to get the ball rolling.
If the cop was half the professional he thought he was he should have been able to handle this situation without resorting to threats and intimidation. The force--and all other cops--are better off that he's gone.
So he used the turning signal deliberately to obey the law knowing that a cop would say he didn't really to "set him up"?
Folks, it doesn't get much more ridiculous than this.
No cars broken into in that lot? That should be public information and easy to find. Yet this lie wasn't reported by the press?
"And yes he should honor my constitutional right to be in a public place at a legal time and in a legal manner"
If it is not safe for a citizen to be in that public place (even at a legal time and in a legal manner), I don't believe he has to. I am, however, willing to make an exception in your case.
wow...
As if that had anything to do with this incident or the lack of professionalism this LEO exhibited.
This is something I would expect when watching "In the heat of the night" with some gum chewing, slack jawed moron with a badge.
This LEO needed to come across someone that was audio/video wired.
It's diabolical! Brett Darrow is more powerful than Dick Cheney, Spiderman and Keyser Soze combined!
In what way is that comparable with lying about what someone had done and then getting into their face screaming at them that they will invent false criminal charges against you? The officer did not say to this guy "I think you need to move along. We've had some problems around here and it is not safe - what are you doing here, anyway?" He threatened false charges. You are refuting points that are not being made. I think you should just admit you were wrong in what you initially said rather than trying to shape this discussion into something that it is not. Obviously you realize you were wrong or you wouldn't be trying to do this.
Your wife was lucky. Had she instead met officer friendly, he would have thrown her on the ground for being suspicious. After all what was someone that appeared out of place doing in that neighborhood. Having said that, it should still have been her choice to either accept the ride from the cop or to continue walking. Had that choice been taken away from her, you would probably been singing a different tune.
Let me put it another way. The officer stops your wife and friend. He decides that the only reason women like them would be in that area is either they are buying drugs, or are high class hookers heading home. He detains them and asks all kinds of questions that are not his business - such as “So how much do you charge for a blowjob?” or “So what are you willing to do when you’re high?”. Bear in mind that them being upset over the comments just prove their guilt. If either of them should abusively answer back or say “Good-night, I feel no desire to talk to you” and start to leave they would then be arrested for resisting arrest. This is not so different that what Brett endured.
The cop originally coming up to Brett to see if everything is OK, is fine. Actually the type of behaviour that we expect of our police. We also expect to not have to answer to the police as we are a free people. The officer should have taken the hint that Brett didn’t want to talk and left after checking his I.D. and noting his plate. Brett was not rude, but he was probably curt (nothing illegal about that). Had the officer not continued to harass him, he most likely would have been appreciative of him.
Everything from that point on was the officer harassing the kid (Brett - I’m twice your age so I can call you a kid, there is no disrespect intended). Illegal detainer (potentially rising to the level of kidnap), threats of force and intimidation, stating that he would trump up charges and ruin the kid’s future.
This officer deserves jail time, and you deserve our contempt for trying to justify in anyway his behaviour.
And this was a particularly smarmy sort of snitch.
HAHAHA! Maybe you should join the stop-snitching movement. You could even get a "Stop Snitching" T-shirt, like rap artists and professors!
FR Thread: Anti-snitch movement gains steam
The Washington Times, 3-29-06
The stop-snitching movement has spread across the United States, worrying police and prosecutors who often use informants to win convictions, a report said. The movement got its start two years ago in Baltimore in an underground DVD featuring armed drug dealers. Since then, the movement and T-shirts that say "Stop Snitching" have gone nationwide -- being worn by a diverse group ranging from rap artists to college professors...
-snip-
And Karl Rove's weather machine.
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