Watching the Watcher Who Watches the Watchers

Thursday, September 27th, 2007

From TheNewspaper.com:

A young Saint Louis, Missouri motorist faces trouble with local police upset at the national attention his September 7 video of an out-of-control officer has drawn to ongoing problems within area law enforcement agencies. On Sunday, Brett Darrow filmed a Saint Louis Metropolitan Police Department cruiser staking out his home.

“It was the first time I’ve seen it,” Darrow told TheNewspaper. “But my neighbor said he’s seen a lot of police down our dead end street since all of this happened.”

When Darrow walked outside to his 1997 Nissan Maxima, he noticed two officers sitting in a marked squad car, numbered 65. There is little question as to why the officers were there.

“As I got into the car, he started to pull up the street and he and his partner just stared me down,” Darrow explained.

The patrol car drove away as Darrow started his car and followed. Because his camera had been set to capture night-time footage, the first 45 seconds of the video is obscured. It does, however, capture the police car making questionable turning maneuvers in order to get away. Members of the police community are on the record regarding their desire to stake out Darrow’s home and harass the twenty-year-old. In late June, users of St. Louis CopTalk, an unofficial forum for Saint Louis area law enforcement, posted Darrow’s home address along with messages containing apparent death threats in retaliation for the young motorist’s taping of a DUI roadblock in November and a traffic ticket in June. One CopTalk user repeating the address wrote, “Every copper, City and County, should etch this little punks [sic] name in their [sic] memory. Brett Darrow, [address deleted], city of St. Louis.”

There’s video at the link.

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