Cop suspended after driver puts video on YouTube | KOMO-TV – Seattle, Washington | National & World News — The police themselves need to “police” assholes like this idiot cop. Why don’t they? I can assure you that the locals knew that this was going on. It’s a disgrace. Why is it tolerated? And, of course, every case involving this officer now has to be reviewed. Good waste of the tax-payers money.
Oh, and THIS is the exact reason nobody wants Americans using video cams with police around.
ST. GEORGE, Mo. (AP) – A suburban St. Louis police sergeant has been put on unpaid suspension, accused of threatening to invent charges against a driver who caught the exchange on videotape.
The driver, Brett Darrow, 20, recorded Friday’s exchange with Sgt. James Kuehnlein with a dashboard videocamera he installed after past run-ins with police. He posted the video online Saturday.
“I wanted everybody to see that this kind of stuff does happen,” Darrow told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in Tuesday’s edition. “I thought if I just go to the chief or whatever, it would just get swept under the rug.”
found by Aric Mackey who adds:
Now, here’s the deal.. this kid seems to either be a troublemaker who like to piss off cops and video it, or trying to make a point about local cops. A simple google search finds this story about a prior ‘interaction.’ And there is this too.
So why didn’t AP or any other reports mention this prior incident? Lazy or am I nit-picking?
Only bloggers get the whole story.
I don’t know why he would be called a “trouble maker” simply for asserting his right to privacy.
The whole exchange is on video tape, he clearly was not out of line.
The idea that attempting to point out illegal behavior by the police is somehow a bad thing is ridiculous.
Of course this will lead to police unions wanting a law to ban this type of video taping to “protect” their officers.
I don’t see thhis kid as a troller. You aren’t “trolling” when you are doing nothing illegal. He has simply been stopped too many times for no reason and decided to do something about it.
Can you not see who is behind all this? That is not a Cop. Its an actor from the BBC.
It doesn’t at all matter what he’s done in the past (if he’s even done anything innappropriate), this clearly shows the police officer acting out of line (who should be held to a MUCH higher standard of appropriate behaviour than the civilian).
Asking what you’ve done wrong is not illegal, and police should, in fact, have a reason for asking for ID that they can give to the person. If they have no good reason, than they should be bothering the person in the first place. This is why people don’t trust the police, because there are a few bad apples that make everyone terrified of the whole barrel of cops.
This is just standard operating procedure. Cops make up probably cause then do whatever they want.
The kid clearly baited the cop. He drove by the cop and made sure he saw him, then parked in the lot. Anyone parking in a lot after hours is suspicious, but the cop was way out of line for threating to make up charges.
This was a funny comment from the referenced cite:
“The officer, I read elsewhere, got fired and now he’s only a menace to the helpless prisoner population he’s probably now guarding. And the kid, well, he’ll die an early and brutal death trying to capture his next police gone bad video.”
Too many on the other site thought the cop was provoked. Good to see we are maintain our high level of liberal values on this here webblog.
Cops are criminals with a badge
I was going to comment on how police have a very stressful job, but after watching the video that cop was definitely on a power trip…theres no excuse for his actions
6—hehe, I see we cross posted, and I was too optimistic.
undissembled — what rule do you think should apply before a cop can come up to you and start asking questions?? Parked in a car? Walking down the street? Breathing? – – – Just curious.
The cop did not follow what is standard procedure these days: pull over a kid with for a broken tail light, hold a kid with a broken tail light at gunpoint from a distance,call in a SWAT team, shoot teargas into the car, yank the kid out through the widow and then Tazer him several times.
All while ignoring the drug dealers watching the show from the corner.
The kid is obviously an asshole, but the cop is, or was, a power trippin’ moron with serious anger issues.
This was made very clear in videos of both situations.
Entertaining to see all the references the cop made to the kid’s “young ass” and him being a “boy”. I’d say he was having a psychotic break from too much meth and man ass.
That being said, anybody who taunts a cop in a deserted parking lot at night is too stupid to live. He’s lucky the cop didn’t say he resisted arrest, and beat him to death, after shoving a nightstick up his ass.
12–framitz==I’m open to the idea the kid did something wrong, but obeying the law in a public place doesn’t equate to being an asshole in my book.
Why/How was the kid being an asshole?
Well the video really doesn’t SHOW anything. There is lots of hard to hear audio but the kid could be doing lots of stuff we don’t see.
13–MM, how did this young ass boy “taunt” the officer? He was obeying the law, answered all the questions quite reasonably. Just love authority figures or is it something else?
Regardless of what you think you know about police procedure, it is very common for cops to check out parked cars in parking lots AFTER HOURS. I have been on a few night ride-alongs and this always happens. It is procedure to check parked cars in lots AFTER HOURS, especially when a person is inside. The officer I was with would normally just ask what they were doing and then drive off.
“Only bloggers get the whole story.”
And that is why McCain, Hillary, and any number of other US politicians are trying to censor the internet. It’s also why Red China, Egypt, Iran, Syria, and a dozen other countries is trying to clamp down on the internet.
17==I made no claim to expertise. Now how did the kid “bait” the officer?
Via local news: Interesting how the cop says HIS video will show things differently, but oh, when his chief was asked about the tape, he told the news reporter there was no tape running in the officers car. (policy states that the office must record all traffic stops)
The officer has, (not yet) been fired, is on “unpaid administrative leave”.
In the past the kid has had problems with the cops in this area, so he installed the camera.
>>MM, how did this young ass boy “taunt” the officer?
Well, for one, he pulled over into a place where a reasonable cop might have thought he was up to no good. That a cop would check out an occupied car in a deserted parking lot in what appears to be the middle of the night seems just common sense. If I did that, I would expect the first thing to happen would be that the first cop to drive by would pull over and check me out.
And anyone who has ever been on the business end of law enforcement knows that you don’t mouth off to a cop with no witnesses present, unless they’ve really got something to cover up. You say “sorry officer, I’ll be leaving right away”. Sad, but true. The kid’s just lucky he brought along his videocam, otherwise he might be dead with a nightstick up his ass. Maybe John Stossel or Geraldo could get away with this kind of a reverse sting unscathed, but anybody else is playing with fire.
#16,
He was taunting the cop when he said “Did I do something wrong?” Well I think most cops would feel that way, a civilian asking them questions.
Also, I loved the part when the cop realized he was busted and his demeanor changed almost instantly.
But yeah, a 20 year old doing a sting on dirty cops… That takes equal helpings of courage and stupidity.
21–MM–well you are confusing probable cause (the cop had a right nee duty to investigate) with taunting–which does NOT mean minding your own business and nothing illegal while simply existing.
Cops deserve our cooperation and respect. That is met by answering questions and providing the required information. “I don’t want to talk” is totally appropirate.
[Duplicate post. – ed.]
14
I had a full reply, but it was lost when the post failed for some reason.
But the second paragraph in #24 is essentially what I had said. The uncooperative attitude makes the kid an asshole in my book.
So you kind of answered the question for me.
It doesn’t matter if the kid deloberately baited the cop- although I’m not sure how doing something perfectly legal in front of an officer is “baiting.” The officer still abused the public trust with his outrageous behavior, and if that’s how he reacted to the kids’ relatively polite questions, imagine what he’s done to other motorists not smart enough to have a camera?
Looking at this, I can see why anyone would want to keep a camera on board, and I’d encourage everyone to do it if it will cut down on behavior like this.
Further, “Did I do something wrong” is a perfectly acceptable question, and something any officer should be accustomed to answering.
>>“I don’t want to talk” is totally appropirate.
Anyone who would say that to a cop in a deserted parking lot in the middle of the night has obviously never seen Law & Order (or been on the business end of law enforcement). The next stop is invariably “OK, we’ll finish this conversation down at the precinct”. Unless the cop gets pissed off, then you end up dead with a nightstick up your ass.
The first cop wasn’t a real cop, he was a Sergeant.
Not all – but most – Sergeants are assholes. That’s how they get to be Sergeants in the first place. They treat real cops the same way this guy was treated. No surprises here.
#5 – Cops make up probably cause
Gotta watch out for that probably cause….
Cops deserve our cooperation and respect…
Cooperation? Sure I can agree with that..
Respect… has to be earned as far as I’m concerned.
Because someone has a badge and a gun and happens to be a civil servant, doesn’t mean they are automatically deserving of respect.