Free Republic

St. Louis County, Missouri police detain and search innocent motorist for a third time. It has been almost three years since a young Saint Louis, Missouri motorist drew national attention by videotaping an out-of-control police officer's profanity-laced tirade during a traffic stop (view video). St. George Police Sergeant James Kuehnlein was fired because of the bad publicity generated by the incident captured by the taping system that Brett Darrow, 23, installed in his 1997 Nissan Maxima. On Saturday, St. Louis County Police stopped Darrow once again. Darrow was with his girlfriend that evening when he came upon a drunk driving...

Readers of this blog know I have long admired from afar the activities of the New Hampshire "Free Staters". One of the best ideas they have had is an emergency communications network dubbed Porcupine 411. Now I learn they want to spread their idea nationwide. God Bless them!

Update: In a note to me, Pete Eyre clarifies that he faces no firearms charges, but was threatened with a federal charge and with federal intervention in the case by the ATF: Firearm charge was never made. I was threatened with it at the scene of the stop and while at the jail but was never charged with that or any firearm charge. It was the stick they tried to use to get me to tell them more info. And it was the thing ("ATF hold") they claimed to deny us access to a phone for 7hrs. And on a...

A do-gooder who recorded abusive Boston police officers was himself arrested under a controversial ‘wiretapping’ law This past October, when Simon Glik used his cell phone to record Boston police officers making what he thought was an overly forceful arrest on Tremont Street, he didn’t think he would be the one who ended up in the back of a police cruiser. But cops saw Glik using his cell phone’s camera with its sound-recording feature, so they arrested him for breaking the Massachusetts law that prohibits secret electronic recording, deemed “wiretapping.”Was he wiretapping, though? In Massachusetts, a “two-party consent” state since...

According to records: He had skipped shifts. A woman complained he had sexually harassed her. Supervisors investigated McIver for "having an extramarital affair," a violation of department policy. When confronted by investigators, the officer did not tell the truth. McIver's problems in Raleigh, and his path after leaving there, are described in documents at the N.C. Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission.

ST. GEORGE, Mo. -- The mayor of the St. Louis suburb of St. George, already accused of possessing marijuana, is now facing an even more serious accusation: suspicion of possessing child pornography. ~SNIP~ Goodman, 64, is a retired police officer who was elected last year. He was jailed and unavailable for comment. The St. Louis-Post Dispatch reported that police said they found marijuana when they searched Goodman's apartment, but they didn't say why they searched his apartment. snip The mayor's legal problems come less than two months after another embarrassing incident for the city. A young man's car seat-mounted videotape...

Missouri: Police Roadblock Harassment Caught on TapeSt. 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...

Missouri: Police Stake Out Brett Darrow Home Saint Louis, Missouri police stake out the home of young motorist whose video of an out-of-control police officer garnered international attention. A young Saint Louis, Missouri motorist faces trouble with local police upset at the national attention his September 7 video of an out-of-control officer has drawn to ongoing problems within area law enforcement agencies. On Sunday, Brett Darrow filmed a Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department cruiser staking out his home. "It was the first time I've seen it," Darrow told TheNewspaper. "But my neighbor said he's seen a lot of police down...

ST. GEORGE, Mo. -- A suburban St. Louis police officer whose berating of a motorist was captured on video has lost his job. Aldermen in the tiny town St. George voted 5-0 to fire Sgt. James Kuehnlein. The vote occurred Monday in a session closed to the public. Notice of the firing was posted Wednesday at City Hall. Motorist Brett Darrow, 20, had a video recorder inside his car. He was at a commuter lot near Interstate 55 in the early hours of Sept. 7 when the officer approached the car. In a video that got wide viewership on the...

A car-mounted video camera — more commonly used by police than against them — captured a loud and threatening confrontation in this tiny St. Louis County community that left an officer on suspension and the whole world able to listen in. [snip] A voice identified as Kuehnlein's can be heard taunting the driver and threatening to jail him on fabricated charges. The tape, made late last week, was from a camera running in the vehicle Kuehnlein approached, police said. [snip] In the video, Kuehnlein, a St. George officer for about two years, approaches a young man who was sitting in...

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...