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I'm sick of Darrow.

deepdiver

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Darrow had prior negative experience with unprofessional St. Louis area LEOs which is why he had the recording devices in his car. He did not put them in the car to bait LEOs anymore than the cameramen on Cops are there to bait criminals. He put them there as a matter of self-defense against what he perceived as a pattern of abuse.

If I lived or spent a lot of time inside the I-270 loop in St. Louis, I would have at least a digital voice recorder in every vehicle.
 

longwatch

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XtremeDuty.45 wrote:
i have read many posts on LEOs harrassing OCers. Its sad, their ignorance of the law and that they think they have the right to do whatever it is they want (not all LEOs are like that just a handful). But going around with a recording device trying to get people in trouble is not the answer. Maybe you should take a chill pill and just relax. These are opinions and nothing more. This macho man telling others what to do through type is a bit immature. I stated my opinion about Darrow and so did others. Thats all it is... an OPINION.





Proud member of: VFW, American Legion, AMVETS, KofC, NRA and North American Hunting Club.

WE MUST FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS!!!
Darrow was doing exactly what your signature line suggests, what is wrong with that? [Deleted by me.]
 
X

XtremeDuty.45

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fighting for our rights and going out looking to get into trouble to prove a point are two different things! How about getting people together who have been harassed and having them write statements about their experience and send it to the Chief of Police or the Mayor? Doing stuff like this is just stooping to their level. There is no need for it.





Proud member of: VFW, American Legion, AMVETS, KofC, NRA and North American Hunting Club.

WE MUST FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS!!! (in a sensible way....hope that is enough clarification for you!)
 

longwatch

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There is no evidence that he was looking for trouble. It sure took very little to make that now former officer lose his mind don't you think? There is nothing wrong with catching a bad LEO in the act.
 

Deanimator

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XtremeDuty.45 wrote:
fighting for our rights and going out looking to get into trouble to prove a point are two different things! How about getting people together who have been harassed and having them write statements about their experience and send it to the Chief of Police or the Mayor? Doing stuff like this is just stooping to their level. There is no need for it.





Proud member of: VFW, American Legion, AMVETS, KofC, NRA and North American Hunting Club.

WE MUST FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS!!! (in a sensible way....hope that is enough clarification for you!)
The kid didn't get ANYONE in trouble. The cop got HIMSELF in trouble, just as any moron who resists arrest or tries to flee gets HIMSELF in trouble when you see him on the a squad car dashcam. Had the cop not been an unprofessional idiot, there would have been nothing on the video of any interest, except perhaps the PROPER way to do a routine investigatory contact.
 

FreedomJoyAdventure

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DKSuddeth wrote:
PrayingForWar wrote:
mkl wrote:
I disagree entirely. This kid stood up for himself while the police abused their authority. I have nothing but respect for him. If 99% of cops are out there doing their best, they better start getting the other 1% of cops to fall in line, it seems like there is a police abuse story every day. Seems like they need to learn their lessons, and if it takes a kid with a camera to do it, so be it.
Slapping a dog in the face and crying when you get bit gets no symapathy from me. Standing up for your rights is when you are going on about your business and you are detained and harrassed for no reason, and challenge the offending person in open court. Its not doing something to draw attention to yourself and being a wise ass, when someone commisioned by the state to safeguard the public, simply wants to make sure you aren't smoking crack, commiting suicide or setting up a carbomb. Like I said the cop was wrong, VERY wrong, and should be put in jail himself and never wear a badge again. I've been the victim of bad cops myself, yet its never occured to me that egging them on would benefit me.

so you're idea of standing up for your rights goes something like this?

take a verbal tongue lashing, degrading and humiliating treatment, threatened with wrongful arrest because you aren't being an obedient little lapdog, all the while saying 'yes sir' and 'where else can I kiss your butt, sir?', then when all the abusive behavior is over, get all indignant, file a complaint, file said lawsuit with the courts who will side with law enforcement, walk away with nothing to show for it, and claim victory in standing up for your rights.

good one, let us know how that works out for you.

Just curious - what would you have had him do?

I'm all ears for your better option.
 

no carry permit ?

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I watched that film on ytube, the kid is a hero !

He installed the cameras after lots ofpolice harassment. People tend to believe adults over kids till there is other evidence. He did a great job of collecting evidence. The police chief refused to fire the officer so the town council fired the officer. They should have fired the chief as well (he has had his own problems/ under age girls). The police department then retaliated by setting up surveillance of the kids family home and following him from his drive way to wherever he was going. He filmed that also and the media got involved.

Check out some of the news accounts on the web about the incident. One mentioned numerous death threats mad on Police officer social websites, like officer.com etc. I checked out a few of those and the comments cops were making were over the top. One said he should be shot and a throw down gun dropped. When the media started mentioning those crazy postings they disappeared quickly. Some whole threads on Darrow were deleted.

So yes, I don't trust the police. I have seen way too much of this crap to be gullible enough to believe that "most are good people." I just don't buy that anymore.

I'm considering mounting a Flip video camera in my vechile for these situations. Many officers are flat out out of control, ego driven, non-thinking thugs. They deserve to be filmed, and prosecuted / suedwhen necessary.

Don't "cut the police a break" when you are talking about our Rights. Too many soldiers died winning and protecting our freedom, that makes it too expensive to give away.
 

FreedomJoyAdventure

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XtremeDuty.45 wrote:
fighting for our rights and going out looking to get into trouble to prove a point are two different things! How about getting people together who have been harassed and having them write statements about their experience and send it to the Chief of Police or the Mayor? Doing stuff like this is just stooping to their level. There is no need for it.

Proud member of: VFW, American Legion, AMVETS, KofC, NRA and North American Hunting Club.

WE MUST FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS!!! (in a sensible way....hope that is enough clarification for you!)



Strongly disagree.

Personally, I think writing statements about their experience is usually useless. I am all for doing whatever works. Unless you have a lot of citizens making similar complaints against the same cop(s), it's easy for your complaint to be dismissed because many people make bogus complaints. Making bogus claims is a very easy, very common scam. How does the Chief or the Mayor know that YOUR complaint is any different? What if your Police Chief or your Mayor is part of the problem?

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video has to be worth a million. Even after being confronted with the videotape of Sgt. James Kuehnlein, Police Chief Uhrig failed to fire him. Chief Uhrig questioned Darrow's motives for having made the tape, probably to cast suspicion on Darrow. This is a standard tactic of police apologists - discredit/blame the victim. Sgt. Kuehnlein threated to trump up charges against Darrow! So how effective do you really think it would have been for Darrow to "write a statement" to Chief Uhrig? It would have been Darrow's word against Kuehnlein's. I assert to you that writing a statement would have been utterly futile.

There's all kinds of cop apologists on the Internet claiming that Darrow 'set up' the police. Well, so what? It doesn't change the fact that Sgt. James Kuehnlein threatened Darrow with trumped-up charges! If Sgt. Kuehnlein had been professional and done his job properly, there wouldn't have been anything to 'set up', and we wouldn't be having this discussion. There are cops (and plenty of other folks as well) out there who seriously need to be caught on camera. Sgt. Kuehnlein was clearly one of them, especially since something happened to the tapefrom his cruiser.

It wasn't until after the video made the rounds on the Internet and there was a major public outcry that the Board of Aldermen fired Sgt. Kuehnlein. I don't know about you, but as far as I'm concerned, any cop caught threatening to trump up charges against a citizen needs to be fired immediately and prevented from working in law enforcement ever again. There are some things you just don't do. Oh, and the videofootageof that incident from the police 'couldn't be accounted for'. That should also be a fireable offense - tampering with evidence. Why wasn't Kuehnlein held accountable for the tape from his cruiser?

Sometime in the not-too-distant future the videotapes will hopefully be replaced with solid-state hard drives that cannot be removed without special tools and the police won't be able to 'disappear' the video record. Hopefully the technology will also allow real-time streaming front and rear view video back to headquarters and to a civilian review boardfrom each cruiser.

I've done a lot of reading about the Darrow case, and there's many different people saying that St. George, Missouri is nothing but a ticket trap, and that the police there have a horrible reputation (Police Chief Uhrig was himself dismissed later for allegedly trying to force himself on a 17-year old girl). I'm really glad I don't live there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George,_Missouri

http://www.beloblog.com/KMOV_Blogs/n4idailybriefing/2007/09/first_a_seregant_now_the_chief.html

http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2007/09/who-is-supervising-supervisor.html

http://drx.typepad.com/psychotherapyblog/2007/09/brett-darrow-me.html

http://www.officer.com/web/online/Top-News-Stories/Missouri-Caught-on-Tape-Case-Draws-Controversy/1$37868

http://www.tupelovoice.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=19&id=7695&catid=6&func=fb_pdf

"A check of court records shows Kuehnlein himself pleaded guilty of assault and stealing in two different cases, in 1988 and 1990. He successfully petitioned a judge in St. Louis County in 1998 to expunge his criminal record, which was making it hard for him to get work as a cop." - I think the judge who did this showed very poor judgement, and should be fired also.

OK, now I'm going to very carefully climb back down off my soapbox. (Robocop voice) "Thank you for your cooperation!"

PS. I'm not sick of Darrow.
 

Mack 12ga.

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Springfield, Missouri, USA
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I don't understand how Darrow instigated the cop, Darrow didn't pull over the cop ! the cop approached Darrow in a parking lot, it doesn't matter what time it was he hadn't broken any laws and the cop had no right to expect any cooperation from any one.

What Darrow did should get him the key to the city for exposing a rogue cop and help to clean up the streets, just because the cop had a badge didn't make him above the law or better than any one else matter of fact cops should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us do to the fact that they work for the community and draw there paychecks from the citizens they are sworn to protect.

Way to go DARROW !!!!!!!!!11
 

FreedomJoyAdventure

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lancers wrote:
Hey guys. I see this thread popped back up. I'm Brett Darrow, the one who made the video tape. I appreciate those that have defended me. If you have any qestions, let me know.

BTW guys, the chief was just recently fired without an explanation

http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/ContentDetail?contentId=7686614

 

Dude, you rock! You scored! MONSTER KILL!!! Flawless victory! You PWNED them!!! WOOT!!!

You did what worked, and achieved the desired result. Sgt. Kuehnlein was a criminal and a bully with a badge. He needed to be exposed for the bully that he is.

Thanks to you he is no longer on the force, at least until the next nitwit judge expunges his record and he gets hired by another mediocre department.

Chief Scott Uhrig was let go without an explanation because the city council does not want the embarrassment of having to explain how Uhrig, who was believed to be guilty of having tried to force himself on a 17-year-old girl, had come to be Chief of Police. (I assume he's appointed by City Council? Or is it an elected position?)

After your video made the rounds on the Internet some articles came out about Uhrig's alleged past. What I don't understand is why Uhrig was allowed to remain a cop if the State Administrative Hearing Commission believed the allegations against him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George,_Missouri

"Sexual harassment allegations

In 2000, St. George Police Chief Scott Uhrig, while serving as an Arnold, MO patrol officer, was accused of sexually harassing a 17 year old girl during a traffic stop. The State Administrative Hearing Commission found that Scott Uhrig called the teenager "beautiful, hot and tempting." Uhrig also allegedly asked the teen to come to his car for sex. Although Uhrig maintained his innocence, the Commission believed Uhrig acted outside the law. They said his unwarranted sexual advances showed he could not enforce the law and was cause for discipline. Uhrig was suspended for weeks without pay and put on probation. Several years later he took the helm at the St. George Police Department."
 

FreedomJoyAdventure

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lancers wrote:
Hey guys. I see this thread popped back up. I'm Brett Darrow, the one who made the video tape. I appreciate those that have defended me. If you have any qestions, let me know.



BTW guys, the chief was just recently fired without an explanation

http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages/ContentDetail?contentId=7686614

 

BTW, I hope the cops have learned to stop stalking and harassing you. That is inexcusable.
 

lancers

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St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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I haven’t had too much interaction with the police in the last year. There have been some times where they've come into gas stations I'm in and made comments to me. One time 3 cops walked in and must have seen my car outside because my back was to them. They yelled across the convenience station, "It's video boy" for everyone to hear. Then they came back and said they could give me tickets I couldn't beat and so on.

They also illegally towed my car one day and kept changing the report to fit their lying story when I went to get answers. After all the amendments had been made to the report and it was clear they had violated the law, the county council gave me my tow money back.

 

FreedomJoyAdventure

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DKSuddeth wrote:
PrayingForWar wrote:
mkl wrote:
I disagree entirely. This kid stood up for himself while the police abused their authority. I have nothing but respect for him. If 99% of cops are out there doing their best, they better start getting the other 1% of cops to fall in line, it seems like there is a police abuse story every day. Seems like they need to learn their lessons, and if it takes a kid with a camera to do it, so be it.
Slapping a dog in the face and crying when you get bit gets no symapathy from me. Standing up for your rights is when you are going on about your business and you are detained and harrassed for no reason, and challenge the offending person in open court. Its not doing something to draw attention to yourself and being a wise ass, when someone commisioned by the state to safeguard the public, simply wants to make sure you aren't smoking crack, commiting suicide or setting up a carbomb. Like I said the cop was wrong, VERY wrong, and should be put in jail himself and never wear a badge again. I've been the victim of bad cops myself, yet its never occured to me that egging them on would benefit me.

so you're idea of standing up for your rights goes something like this?

take a verbal tongue lashing, degrading and humiliating treatment, threatened with wrongful arrest because you aren't being an obedient little lapdog, all the while saying 'yes sir' and 'where else can I kiss your butt, sir?', then when all the abusive behavior is over, get all indignant, file a complaint, file said lawsuit with the courts who will side with law enforcement, walk away with nothing to show for it, and claim victory in standing up for your rights.

good one, let us know how that works out for you.

Duane, I'll still waiting to hear your better option. What would you have had him do?
 

FreedomJoyAdventure

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FreedomJoyAdventure wrote:
DKSuddeth wrote:
PrayingForWar wrote:
mkl wrote:
I disagree entirely. This kid stood up for himself while the police abused their authority. I have nothing but respect for him. If 99% of cops are out there doing their best, they better start getting the other 1% of cops to fall in line, it seems like there is a police abuse story every day. Seems like they need to learn their lessons, and if it takes a kid with a camera to do it, so be it.
Slapping a dog in the face and crying when you get bit gets no symapathy from me. Standing up for your rights is when you are going on about your business and you are detained and harrassed for no reason, and challenge the offending person in open court. Its not doing something to draw attention to yourself and being a wise ass, when someone commisioned by the state to safeguard the public, simply wants to make sure you aren't smoking crack, commiting suicide or setting up a carbomb. Like I said the cop was wrong, VERY wrong, and should be put in jail himself and never wear a badge again. I've been the victim of bad cops myself, yet its never occured to me that egging them on would benefit me.

so you're idea of standing up for your rights goes something like this?

take a verbal tongue lashing, degrading and humiliating treatment, threatened with wrongful arrest because you aren't being an obedient little lapdog, all the while saying 'yes sir' and 'where else can I kiss your butt, sir?', then when all the abusive behavior is over, get all indignant, file a complaint, file said lawsuit with the courts who will side with law enforcement, walk away with nothing to show for it, and claim victory in standing up for your rights.

good one, let us know how that works out for you.

Duane, I'll still waiting to hear your better option. What would you have had him do?
Ripley: I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
 
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