Missouri: Police Threaten, Detain Motorist for Parking After Hours

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Wow. How scary. I have had bad encounters with police officers. I have always acted respectful to them but I guess being young is a violation of some sort. I have had my vehicle searched more than once without consent. I had an officer ask me if I was "smoking a little weed". When I told him I didnt smoke he put me in the back of his car and searched my car. He tried to ticket me for no license plates as I had temporary registration since I just bought the car. When I informed him, he said he will still give me a ticket for no front plate. When I told him I never got one from the dealship he yelled "Just pay the damn fine!". Im seriously considering a camera in my car now.

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Ah....NYC....new slogan: "Almost as Left wing as California, without the earthquakes"

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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5goEMHavVR5m_srP3HbS4OI4nt5NQ

Officer Suspended After Video Threat 3 hours ago
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."
In the video, Kuehnlein approaches Darrow, who was sitting in a parked car at about 2 a.m. in a commuter lot. 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?"
Darrow says no.
"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."
After about 10 minutes, Darrow is allowed to go.
The recording, posted on YouTube.com, brought more than 300 protest calls to St. George Police Chief Scott Uhrig.
"I was very displeased when I saw the actions on the video," Uhrig said. "My officers are not trained and taught to act like that."
A listed number could not be found for Kuehnlein for comment.
Uhrig said Kuehnlein stopped to talk to Darrow because police have received reports of thefts from cars in the area. But Uhrig said the officer's actions and tone were inappropriate.
"Someone either violated the law or they didn't. You don't say, I'll lock you up and then come up with why afterward," Uhrig said.

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My interactions with police officers have been this scary. I'm affraid of them.

Montana 2003: officer lied in court that he saw me smoking marijuana (long story short, I wasn't smoking, so that wasn't possible) and that I had a prior record and had been warned several times about MIP (I had no record what-so-ever and had never been warned about MIP). I also had a good lawyer, and he objected to the legality of everything the prosecutor said, but the judge kept saying "I'm going to allow it" to things like hear-say that are illegal to use in court. When I filed an appeal, they sent me a letter saying that I hadn't filed correctly (it was correct, but whatever) and that I had until february 24th to re-file. This letter was postmarked march 4th. I called to protest, and the court clerk said that I would have to beg a judge for another chance to file, and that meant driving back to montana AGAIN, so I didn't.

Ellensburg, WA2004: I missed a court date in Bellevueto contest a speeding ticket, so I had to pay it along with a $48 late fee for missing court. They said that the fee hadn't applied, so I would be refunded. I got a refund check and that was the last time I heard from them. I get pulled over for 35 in a 25 in ellensburg, and I find out that my license was suspended. Apparently, after they refunded me the $48, they tacked the fee back on and never bothered to tell me, suspending my license for not paying it.

Fife, WA2005: My friend was a security guard and friends with the bouncers at a night club. It was an 18+ club with a 21+ bar. He gave me his spare badge to clip onto my belt under my jacket, and told me to claim to be his partner so that I could get in free. I figured claiming to be a security guard to bouncers wouldn't be a big deal. We were getting ready to leave and there appeared to be the beginnings of a gang fight in the parking lot. I went to my car and got my handgun, and returned to get our carpool and leave the club. This was not illegal, although it was against the club policies. As we were leaving, we asked the bouncers if everything would be ok or if they needed help. The cop talking to them asked them who we were. They told them that we were security, and had badges. The cop asked to see them, and arrested us for impersonating police officers because our badges looked too much like police badges (they weren't marked as police badges, and the cop was 100% wrong about that being illegal). He then searched me and found my gun, adding the charge of weapon in an illegal place (it wasn't an illegal place, in washington state). He decided at the department that he was going to "make sure I never carried a gun again", and logged my wallet, CWP, and ID into evidence (there was no reason to confiscate my CWP or my ID).

Tukwila, WA2005: Harassed for open carry at Southcenter mall. See the thread in the WA state section of this site for details. I got the police reports and they lied about the whole thing. They said that they never questioned my rights and I was jumping around and shaking violently like I was having heroine withdrawls. It was humorous, but agrivating to hear blatant lies in the police reports.



Anyway, long story short, I'm affraid of cops at this point.

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.......could you tell a cop from alawyer when he'sbutt naked ...... a maid from a secretary........... an A student from a C student.......seriously??

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Cop from a lawyer? Nope. A studen from C student? Nope. Maid from a secretary? Maybe maybe not, but I'd take a good long time trying to figure it out :celebrate.

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expvideo wrote:

My interactions with police officers have been this scary. I'm affraid of them.

...

Anyway, long story short, I'm affraid of cops at this point.

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I still have yet to understand how, in today's society with our level of technology, a police officer's statement is taken as the Word of God. If anything, because police officers have an interest in seeing cases "solved" to make their crime stats improve, they have a conflict of interest in testifying about a crime. But hey, the United States is no longer a free country, so I guess we should either get used to it, or hole ourselves up inside a compound... then at least it would be a fair fight against the BATFE as they try to murder our families.

The people shouldn't be afraid of the government; the government, LEO included, should be afraid of the people

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I've had a cop lie. To make a very long story short, accused me of going 74/55. I was going 65. When we got to court, it became 76/55. The summons just said "reckless" and he had other asertations for that charge. Ended up getting dismissed.

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T-RaV wrote:

gregma wrote:

Wonder how long before they make it a crime to record LEO actions?

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Well, here’s step 1 to implementing that…
City May Seek Permit and Insurance for Many Kinds of Public Photography

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Seems like a big 1st Amendment violation to me. But since when did NY City care about the Constitution?!?

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paramedic70002 wrote:

I've had a cop lie. To make a very long story short, accused me of going 74/55. I was going 65. When we got to court, it became 76/55. The summons just said "reckless" and he had other asertations for that charge. Ended up getting dismissed.

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I would like to point out that not all LEOs are problems.

I hope something doesn't happen to make this a false statement -- but every Prince William County, Fairfax County, Arlington, and Alexandria officer I have had interactions with have not caused me any problems.

I ask if I'm free to do, and they don't answer, so I leave, or I have told them no, that I will not stop doing what I'm doing unless it is illegal.

I have run into nothing but professional Law Enforcement here. There are a few encounters that should have never been started by officers, but they dropped it when I refused the encounter. So I have no problem with it. This does not hold true for DC and MD.

With that being said, you do have to watch yourself around all, because you never know. I think for the most part Northern Virginia Officer have it right - they might not like it, but they have it right.

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uh-oh:
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/19/1967.asp

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unrequited wrote:

uh-oh:
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/19/1967.asp

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And of course, if one of St. Louis's "finest" were to attempt to put a "hunk of hot lead where it belongs", which probably will miss given the levels of police training, and the victim were to shoot back, I'm sure he'd automatically get thrown behind bars and fried by the state in no time for being a "cop" killer. :banghead:

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unrequited wrote:

uh-oh:
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/19/1967.asp

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From the end of the article:

[font="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"]

The videotape from Kuehnlein's police cruiser is currently missing and the sergeant is currently on unpaid leave.

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LoveMyCountry
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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,284075,00.html

There seems to be a law in Pennsylvania prohibiting the taping of police. Whether the law is valid or not is another story, but it got at least one person a free trip to jail. See the story above.

Next time I OC my XD, I'll also CC an audio recorder.

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XD Owner wrote:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,284075,00.html

There seems to be a law in Pennsylvania prohibiting the taping of police. Whether the law is valid or not is another story, but it got at least one person a free trip to jail. See the story above.

Next time I OC my XD, I'll also CC an audio recorder.

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Wow, and I though PA was a free state... think I'll have to give a call to a representative's office...

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Here's an insight on how this is being viewed from the cop's lawyer, and some other officers:

http://www.policeone.com/officer-misconduct-internal-affairs/articles/1354122/

You can see that a lot of the officers commenting see the"kid" as a threat to the officer's "control" of the situation. The problem with that is that it's impossible for someone to be "in control" of every situation. Now the cop's lawyer is making it look like we should be permissive of officers recording the public, but not the other way around.

Quick! somebody CALL THE WAAAHHHHMBULANCE!

IMO, his lawyer should've kept hiscake holeshut. If the "kid" is a baiter, then that makes most LEOs who have recorders in their cruisers ... :uhoh:well ... :uhoh: master baiters I guess...



After all, if the local cops don't want to get in trouble, all they have to do is ...well... obey the law!

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Did you read some of the comments?

I like the "only thing he did wrong was drop the F-bomb".

So, threatening to make up charges is OK?

Why should an officer know wherehe isgoing? All they have is hatred for a "kid" that knows the law.

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So, the kid said: "I don't wish to discuss my personal life with you, officer." Big deal.

What's wrong with that? I said much the same to "my" Henrico officer. When he asked why I had a gun, I repeatedly and calmly answered "That's my personal business, sir".

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Wow, he's really got these guys over a barrel.

Here's a story from 30Dec06.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/15/1522.asp
St. Louis County, Missouri threaten to arrest a teenager for refusing to discuss his personal travel plans.

Brett: Why am I being detained officer? (directed toward Officer #4)
Officer #4: You better stop runnin your mouth or the other officer will {b]find a reason to lock you up[/b] tonight.

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AbNo wrote:

Wow, he's really got these guys over a barrel.

Here's a story from 30Dec06.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/15/1522.asp
St. Louis County, Missouri threaten to arrest a teenager for refusing to discuss his personal travel plans.

Brett: Why am I being detained officer? (directed toward Officer #4)
Officer #4: You better stop runnin your mouth or the other officer will {b]find a reason to lock you up tonight.

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Hmm at all of the DUI checkpoints that I've gone through in PA, the officers either say "hi" and look into my car from the outside, or ask me if I've had anything to drink that night. I've never been asked where I was going or where I've been... Though I like to answer the "have you had anything to drink tonight" question with, "yeah, pretty much, probably a bottle or two of water and a glass of Pepsi."

Still don't know how these could be constitutional, though... Especially considering that they catch one-time offenders much more than repeat DUIers, since the habitual DUIers will know where the checkpoints are and avoid them...