Caught on tape:
Cop fired for harassing a motorist 
Friday, September 27th,
2007
Warning: explicit
language
In St. George, Missouri, a police officer has been
fired this month for his shocking conduct towards a motorist he'd pulled
over. Brett Darrow, 20, was pulled over by Sgt. James Kuhnlein
on September 7th, and what happened next was a disgruntled cop taking
out his anger through yelling, profanity, and threatening Darrow.
Darrow had questioned what he had done wrong, and said that he should be
able to park in the lot where he was. It set Kuhnlein
off.
"You wanna try me tonight?...I will ruin your f***ing night...Do
you want to go to jail for some f***ing reason I come up with? Do
you want to see who knows the law better, me or you?...You ever get
smart-mouthed with a cop again, I show you what a cop
does."
"Talk back to me again," Kuhnlein taunted. "I'll say you're
resisting arrest, or something. You want to come up with
something? I'll come up with nine things. Do you want to try
something?...Do you want to try me some more? Huh? Come on,
smartass. Give me an attitude a little bit more. I can
guarantee I tow this car by the time I'm done with you. You wanna
try me now? Gimme a little bit more lip. Come on, boy.
Come on, boy! Give me some more lip!"
But Darrow had something Sgt. Kuhnlein didn't know about: a
video camera. And it was recording, the entire time. And if
it weren't for Darrow's video camera, the incident wouldn't have been
taped at all, despite the police department's policy that all encounters
must be captured by the police car's camera. The police car camera
was functional, but no footage was found: Kuhnlein wasn't taping
it.
Darrow acted quickly: he posted the footage
on the internet, getting thousands of viewers and media coverage. He met with St. George Police Chief
Scott Uhrig to ask that Kuhnlein be
fired.
It was announced on Wednesday that the board of alderman voted
unanimously - 5 to 0 - to terminate Sgt. James Kuehnlein. Uhrig
recommended that they fire him based both on his language, and violated
department policy by not using the police car camera.
"It's what I wanted the whole time," Darrow said. "The
conduct was not forgivable." So, it sounds like justice was
served, right? A happy ending? But consider this: what
if Darrow had not had his camera? And what about the
recent tasering incidents? What if the cameras hadn't
been rolling then, either?
