I am absolutely furious that ANY officer wearing a badge and carrying a gun acted in this manner. They are suppose to PROTECT & SERVE; not HARASS and THREATEN. Sgt. Kuehnlein's attitude is disgraceful to his entire department and ANYONE wearing a badge that has respect for citizens. I'm now a bit leary of even driving THROUGH St. George. Is this what type of attitude I am to expect?

I'm still in shock at what I viewed... even after he realized he was being taped, he continued on his warpath. He needs a mental evaulation, his gun stripped and ego put into check. It's scary to think of what he's capable of when the camera isn't on.

I completely agree with the previous post. I did not hear anything on that video that warranted that kind of response from the officer. Mr. Darrow seemed pretty cooperative as far as the audio showed. Someone with this kind of attitude towards the public is a menace and needs to be removed!

"Is this what type of attitude I am to expect?"

The answer, simply is yes. You can also expect much of the same attitude and behavior from a few other small police agencies in the area. Bella Villa, a neighboring police department to St. George, has some of the most disrespectful, hateful, lying examples of police officers an agency could have hired.

Many of these small departments thrive on harassing the unsuspecting citizens that dare to pass through their towns. Often times, they make up charges, write citations, and even arrest people for crimes that, as in this case, never were committed.

I used to give these towns and departments the benefit of the doubt. But after seeing this video, I want this young man to continue to do what he is doing. He was verbally, and likely (off camera , of course) physically assaulted. This young man did absolutely NOTHING wrong. Failing to use his turn signal - False Charge. Weaving in traffic - False Charge. Resisting arrest - False Charge.

At one point, the officer even says "You don't never take it out on a cop cause we will ruin your career and life and everything else you have coming before you." Since when are the police there to ruin peoples careers and lives?

Without this video, Mr. Darrow would have no ground to stand on. It would be his word against a veteran police officer. It would be a wise idea for this officer to be terminated. Because, it brings a bad light to the entire law enforcement community. It also put every single one of his traffic stops and arrests into question. Mr. Darrow is lucky he wasn't shot. Judging by the attitude this cop has, if he were taken to jail, he may have been physically assaulted. But, who knows?

There are too many shady-sided police officers on the force these days. Gone are the days where the badge could be looked highly upon. Agencies such as Bella Villa, Velda City, Pine Lawn, Byrnes Mill, as well as St. George - just to name a few - have attained a bad rap because of behavior such as this from many of its officers.

The men and women of the numerous law agencies throughout the country are sworn to protect, serve, and uphold the laws of this country. They are not sworn in to make up their own laws and belittle the people who come into their community, which is exactly what this officer did.

Noone should have to go through this. I never thought I would say this, but...

I hope this officer gets fired and his career ended - PERMANENTLY.

I am not surprised one bit by what happened to Mr. Darrow the other evening. I had a run in with this department a few years ago. I was doing the right thing, possibly saving lives by driving a drunk guy home to a neighborhood I don't normally travel through. I was stopped turning onto the highway by an officer whose name escapes me (probably this same guy). He insisted I get out of the car do all the sobriety tests, 2 times he made me blow in the portable and would never tell me what I blew, he then cuffed me and took me to Sunset Hills because they don't have a standard breathalizer in St. George (wonder why as they are always stealing innocent people's money). Anyway, they left my intoxicated spouse standing on the side of the highway next to our car and took me in. I blew the standard breathalizer and blew a .065 which everyone should know, is under the legal limit. This a-hole officer still wrote me a citation for dwi! I don't know how these guys sleep at night. I received a letter from the state a few days later saying that they would not take my license, etc. However, I still had to deal with the citation in that municipality. They would not drop the charges but would reduce the dwi to a loud muffler charge if I paid a $300 fine. As it would cost more to pursue the matter, reluctantly I paid the fine. I am glad to see Mr. Darrow catch this on tape, feels like Karma finally coming around. I'm not sure why they are still allowing this little crooked municipality to operate, why can't the city or county police patrol this area? Something needs to be done to shut down this kind of behavior. Even our children these days are afraid of cops, seems like they do as much harm as good, which is completely unfortunate! I do know some good police men but for every good one, I'm pretty sure there are 5 bad!

WOW !! That officer has no right to wear a police uniform. He is a disgrace !!!

This officer should be fired. I feel that much more of this goes on and the public never heres about it. I am almost 60 years old now and when I was around 20 years old, I was also stopped in St.George for no reason and was treated with no respect.
This needs to stop and I hope KMOV will not let this go.

Look into this cops background and you will find he used to work in Riverview. He was a bad seed then and apparently nothing has changed.

With cops like this, who needs terrorists?

I've dealt with that exact officer as well as chief scott uhrig. Both of those cops are really close friends so watch out for sgt. Kuehnlein coming back. They both are arrogant gentleman, even the female cop there is the same way. STAY AWAY from St. George if at all possible. I was verbally assaulted the same way but not as much as this guy and never once was ignorant. just stay away.

I think this is just one more instance of the St. George overstepping its authority. I live near the area and on many occasions I have witnessed them running radar traps on clocking motorists that aren't even in the city limits.

I applaud the young man for having the courage to stand up for his rights.

johnny5,

While I cannot condone the methods of the officer, why in the world were you driving under the influence?

If you were stopped, interviewed, given all the field sobriety tests, blew into the portable breath machine, then driven to Sunset Hills and blew a .065, then my assumption would be that at the time of the stop, you would have been at least .080 or above.

A .080 is the threshold for the State DWI. Anything below is still driving while impaired.

YOU are entirely wrong in this instance and not the officer. I am glad he stopped you and took you off the road. You could have injured, or worse yet, killed an innocent motorist, pedestrian, your intoxicated wife and yourself.

In this case, I would thank the St. George Police Department for stopping you.

While I do believe the officer stepped over the line, if you read the full transcript you will clearly see that this kid gets off on this. He drives around in his car, puts himself in suspicious situations and waits for the police to approach him. Then he starts acting like a smug little jackass and tries to provoke a response from the officer.

When a police officer pulls you over and asks for information you just give it to them. If you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about. With this kid he is doing something wrong...he is intentionally antagonizing the officers to illicit a response to avenge something that happened to him years ago. I have never been offended or felt as if my rights were being trampled on because on officer asked me where I was going after being pulled over. You know why? Because I am never going to do something illegal and I am not looking to get into a confrontation.

This kid is a punk and anyone that defends him needs to read the full transcript of his encounters(there are more) and doing some searching around for his name and you will see that he is playing you...like a fiddle.

Its about time someone finally caught a St. George Policeman on tape. They have been doing this sort of thing for years and getting away with whatever they want. They abuse the people in the neighborhood. The average person can't protect themselves because they don't have the resources to go against them - even in court. Get rid of them & use St. Louis County - the area would be safer.

hrt7250
you are absolutly wrong

he had the right to do as he did
if you read it all he spoke of a couple prior times he had problems with cops

therfore when such problems exist one must take it upon themselves to defend themselves (so long as it is done so legally)

myself i had 3 prior issues with cops
one i had internal affairs asking me to press charges
when i refused to press charges the station and city the officer was from fired the cop

i think i will look into putting camera and video in my car and RV

the cop in this video
needs to be removed from the force and not be allowed ever again to work on any other force anywhere
beyond that he should be arrested himself

i look foward to seeing how it plays out in the end

And? Police do stings on bad folks all the time. You have weights and measures checking up on whether the gas pump is delivering enough gas, the health department spot checking the restaurant down the street, and so forth. While Darrow may have been "baiting" the cops, he is perfectly within his rights to do so and the correct response to Darrow being evasive is simply to just wait there for a few minutes, run his license plate number if any breakins occurred with the cars in the area or if there is anything suspicious with the car, and leave him be. God forbid if he was deaf or wasn't fluent in English.

I live in St. George, and it's hell driving around here. I'm pretty sure this is the same officer that pulled me over for expired plates, then told me it looked like I was trying to run from him when I pulled into the parking lot and gave me another ticket for "Failure to Yield to an Emergency Vehicle". By the time he was done, I had 4 tickets that were pretty much impossible to contest. It doesn't stop with the police officers, either. I wrote a letter to the judge (or whoever is in charge up there) explaining that I couldn't pay my fines and asked for some way to rectify the situation, and a police officer came to my apartment and arrested me for failing to pay! I had to scramble to find $500 to bail myself out and now I've got another court date, not to mention I can't pay my rent this month. Thanks, guys!

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:CnVHU5nxjH0J:www.oa.mo.gov/ahc/case/Uhrig01-0435PO.KAW.doc+scott+uhrig+sexual+girl+17&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:CnVHU5nxjH0J:www.oa.mo.gov/ahc/case/Uhrig01-0435PO.KAW.doc+scott+uhrig+sexual+girl+17&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

So....
We conclude that Uhrig’s unwelcome sexual advances to a teenager, while on duty and under the guise of enforcing the laws, indicate an especially egregious mental state, show that he cannot enforce the law, and are cause for discipline.....
obviously means that u make in chief in just a few years.

You news guys with some money n sway to the public should keep on this and report the long term affects that become of this cop.

This police officer is an absolute disgrace. I'd feel safer dealing with criminals than this thug. Whatever happened to protect and serve? A criminal investigation should be pursued against the officer. You can be sure that this is not the first time this dirt bag has pulled this type of stunt. A formal state investigation should be launched and some heads need to roll if there is any justice left in the state.

@hrt7250

"If you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to worry about."

If im doing nothing wrong, why should I have to put up with being detained and questioned by anyone, even a police officer.

Even if the guy is looking to annoy police officers, it exposes the bad ones.

A police officer carries a gun, a lot of responsibility and extra rights compared to your average citizen. If they cant do their job because a teenager is doing what teenagers do best (being annoying) then they really should not be in the job.

Kudos to that kid for standing up for his Constitutional rights with that clever camera system. Such methods are really the last defense of our rights against these thugs before we have to turn to the Second Amendment solution. And may that pig rot in hell along with all others who think of themselves as gods who have the right to do whatever they please to satisfy their inflated egos.

Rich, you have one line of modest criticism for an officer who threatened to fabricate evidence and three paragraphs attacking someone who decided the police need policing too.

By the way, the chief of police disagrees with you and says Darrow wasn't disrespectful. Apparently, unlike you, he doesn't think -- or at least isn't willing to say publicly -- that the police must not be questioned.

Kuehnlein was not so much enforcing the law, as he was using the law as a weapon to control a U.S. citizen by instilling tremendous fear and intimidation - just like terrorists do. That behaviour is disgusting, and has no place coming from a PROFESSIONAL who we pay to protect and SERVE. Sounds like 1940s Germany - right here in the USA.

Kuehnlein is worse than a terrorist - he is a rabid animal with a gun, given a position of trust within our society. Nothing is more dangerous! Kuehnlein needs to be FIRED and then SUED by the kid. Failure to do so condones police force terrorism, and using the law as a convienient "on-site" weapon against a society that is INNOCENT until PROVEN guilty.

The police like setting up citizens but when the shoe is on their foot it sure pinches. Guess they don't think it's a two-way street. Bravo for this young man to have the smarts to record this rotten little community.

So, since the chief is refusing to fire the officer, is there any talk in your area of calling in the FBI to look into this obscene issue?

this policemen loved to harass the young adults in riverview.everyone was so glad when he left( for whatever reason)

I cannot believe your poor journalism. Could you please verify the accuracy of the film that has been posted by Darrow? I mean specifically, was it edited before he posted it on YouTube? And exactly what was said? I found it a little difficult to hear. But the written editorial was written by Darrow- his words of who said what. Actually, I think it was Darrow's whispering voice that begged the officer "you gonna make something up on me". That may be when the Officer responded with a question like "do you want me to make something up on you?"

(Nice touch don't you think? You whisper but place the microphone just under the place where the officer will have his head)

You know it makes me sick to see a local newspaper make a case for some punk who has been driving around the town begging the officers to arrest him for over a year because they gave a speeding ticket.

Seriously- YouTube is now a credible source of news? Oh, good... some 12 year old was on there imitating Britney at the MVT awards. You're St. Louis for heavens sakes!

Rich,

He didn't antagonize. He asked the officer what he was doing wrong (I would ask had I gone through what he went through before, as well) and upon that - the officer lost all self-control in a matter of SECONDS. Not minutes - SECONDS.

No one expects an officer to lose their temper in a matter of SECONDS if they ask, in return, if they were doing something wrong. The fact that it only takes seconds ought to make anyone realize precisely how much of an anger problem this 'officer of the law' has.

I hope this 'officer' moves away - it's terrifying to think that he'll potentially get hired at another force and the next crime he commits against another unknowing victim be worse than this because he got away with what he did to Darrow.

BTW, I DID read the transcripts - four times - to make certain I didn't make unfounded assumptions either. I read them as I watched the almost 13 minute long video. Time to face the facts...it's right before your eyes.

---------------------------

JAC,

You TRULY come off as a possible friend to the officer in question here; and I use the word officer lightly.

Regardless even IF the tape HAD been edited - the officer in this case was also extremely rude, threatening and then some. There is NO EXCUSE that you could hand the citizens of St. George, St. Louis or otherwise that will convince them that it is acceptable for ANY officer to use excessive verbal force and/or threats.

He was clearly intimidating this guy who is a mere 20 years old & feeding his own ego right along with it.

Furthermore, the Sergeant also said he had his camera (in the video) on and Chief Uhlrig even stated recently that they are suppose to; but guess what - the officer did NOT have his camera on. INTERESTING; don't you think?

I mean, for my own safety if I were a police officer, I would have that camera on 24/7... then again if I had something to hide (perhaps my anger issues) I wouldn't want anyone catching it on tape either. Particularly when I know I abuse my power and have no problems on making up false charges for anyone who doesn't 'bow to my badge'. That way it can be my word against them and since I'm such a big, bad cop I'll get away with it.

Uh, yeah. Try again.

Oh, marie! How naive are you? Did darrow imitate the sgt's voice and threaten himself? It seems that, even when you have solid proof like video with sound, there are still those who refuse to see the truth. Which is; this is a scumbag cop who got caught. Whether it was a teenager baiting him, or the cop really did have reason to stop him, he threatened to make up reasons for his arrest and "...ruin his career...". Is that the kind of peace officer you would want in your town? I really hope that you get pulled over by one of these rogue cops so you can live it, instead of just wathcing it on youtube. Then again, you probably won't believe your eyes and ears.

Who wants to bet "marie" is also known as James Kuehnlein?