September 12, 2007
What’s the Matter With Cops Today?
Or, at least, what’s the matter with this cop?
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Officer in trouble over motorist’s video in South CountyST. GEORGE [Missouri] — 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.
The picture doesn’t show much, but the audio part of the recording, posted on Google Video and YouTube on the Internet, brought more than 300 protest calls to St. George Police Chief Scott Uhrig.
. . .
In the video, [Sgt. James Kuehnlein], a St. George officer for about two years, approaches a young man who was sitting in a parked car about 2 a.m. in a commuter lot near Spokane and Reavis Barracks roads. Kuehnlein asks for identification. When Darrow asks whether he did anything wrong, the officer orders him out of the car and begins shouting.
“You want to try me? You want to try me tonight? You think you have a bad night? I will ruin your night. … Do you want to try me tonight, young boy? … Do you want to go to jail for some (expletive) reason I come up with?” the police officer says. Later, Darrow says, “I don’t want any problems, officer.”
“You’re about to get it,” Kuehnlein is heard saying. “You already started your (expletive) problems with your attitude.”
After the officer notices the camera, he says, “I don’t really care about your cameras, ’cause I’m about ready to tow your car, then we can tear ‘em all apart.”
The 20-year-old driver, Brett Darrow, 20, who had installed a dashboard video camera “after past run-ins with police,” posted the video, in two parts, on YouTube:
Filed under: Law Enforcement, Missouri, Videos
