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 ...
It says the parking lot was deserted. I don't seem to see anything about the street he was on (where he would have turned on that turn sigal) being deserted, but you seem to know that. It's almost like you were there.
and i would have been nice and polite about it. the kid wants to agitate, fine. but i'm going to do my job to the letter.
Bull. No one forced ex-Officer Keuhnlein to engage in his disgraceful conduct.
instead of saying he would invent charges, the cop should have said, "i'll find something" and proceeded to find a legit violation.
But he didn't, and now he's been fired.
cops are held to a higher standard for a reason. and as we see now, cops can be fired not for violating a person's rights, but for verbally THREATENING to violate a person's rights.
Good.
i'll be sure from now on to ask permission to approach suspicious people.
He was not fired for approaching a suspicious vehicle - so once again, you make no sense.
(BTW, you should capitalize the first word in a sentence, as well as the word "I".)
Yep. Even though he was legally in the right, living in a town where the cops hate you is a guarantee of Trouble sooner or later.
Honest cops are great. A dishonest police force, however, is nothing more than a legally-sanctioned street gang with guns, nightsticks, and judges on their side. When the criminals ARE the law, there’s no way to fight them.
What is scary is that you seem to think this meets the higher standard that you mention. Even a burger flipper would be fired if they threatened customers.
I think that would be best.
WTF are you talking about? Why should ANY leo LOOK for an equipment violation? Why? To prove some point? What kind of an attitude is that? Who works for who here?
The kid was in a public parking lot and did NOTHING wrong. The cop (if he had a brain) should have checked him out, laughed, and left.
But he had to play “tough guy” and play right into the kid’s hands. He must have the IQ of a hamster.
Are you confused? First you say you would require a public apology from your son to the officer....then you say the cop was just doing his job...then you say the cop should be fired? Is a field sobriety test in order?
Eventually.
"You must be a cop groupie"
And you must be a dope-smoking, liberal hippie anarchist.
Yeah. Maybe we just just assume that at 2am it was bumper to bumper.
BTW...I’m 18 years old and I use my turn signals. As a matter of fact I obey the traffic laws.
I got news for you, this cop is like most cops. Black, brown or white, you absolutely must train your children on how specifically to deal with police in this country.
As evidenced here, if the cop brings a bad attitude, they can and will screw your life on a drop of the hat. Hence the need to train your kids. If this kid dig rig his car video to over-air transmit to file in a location other than his personal pcs, more power to him. I like the layer of protection that brings.
Pshaw. It was obviously on a secluded, quiet residential street. With a commuter parking lot in the middle of it.
I see you’re still a goose-stepping cop groupie. I sincerely hope you run into a bad cop some day soon. You won’t be such a “good German” after that.
Yep. I wouldn't want my son talking to police officer his way. Nothing to be gained by it
".....then you say the cop was just doing his job"
Yep again. There were crimes being committed in the area. The kid pulls in at 2am (for no reason). The cop asks a few questions and the kid acts as though he has something to hide.
"then you say the cop should be fired?"
He got caught. There's no other option.
People cruise empty parking lots all the time looking for cars to break into.
“And you must be a dope-smoking, liberal hippie anarchist.”
Oh yeah, that’s it. What a clever argument you make.
Cops enforce the law, that’s not the same thing as being the law. Isn’t the saying “To Protect And Serve” not to “Bully And Harass” This cop wasn’t even a very good bully given that he let himself be taped, after being told he was being taped.
Like it or not. The kid was doing what the cop told him to do.
He had stepped out of the car, and showed his ID. Maybe this cops disposition is better suited to guarding a shopping mall, or flipping burgers somewhere.
And you can say the same for almost all your friends, right?
I saw something on Dateline or 60 Minutes where they put cameras in the cars of teens. They didn't do so good, iirc.
I agree completely. Cops = trouble, even if you have done nothing wrong. My advice to our son will be to never look at them, talk to them, or have any interaction with them whatsoever.
As a kid, I found out the hard way what police are really like. I want Baby Chan to learn the easy way.
(Note: I have never been convicted of a non-UCMJ crime.)
Lets' hear a big AMEN to that statement.
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