Law Enforcement Officers Crash SUV Into Local Bar, Arrest Bar Owner For Being Angry About It
from the always-right-even-where-they're-clearly-in-the-wrong dept
When law enforcement officers screw up, it’s always someone else’s fault. It’s the lack of trust or support for police officers, something that has steadily declined in the last half-decade. It’s a lack of funding, even though law enforcement agencies have rarely seen their budgets cut. It’s people emboldened by accountability efforts. It’s the hundreds of people willing to document police activity at all times everywhere with smartphones.
The laws are too confusing. There was no way to know these obvious rights violations are rights violations. People are too loud or too close or there’s too many of them. Everyone’s a Monday morning quarterback. Safety had to be feared for. Law enforcement work is dangerous. There was no time to consider all the facts. And so on.
When cops fuck up, they can charge people with crimes for responding normally, like they would respond to anyone else who damaged their property, injured or killed their loved ones, shot their pets, or otherwise behaved like inveterate assholes.
Why do they behave this way? Well, it’s because they’ve observed, over their years of service, that very few public agencies or public interest groups are capable of actually holding them accountable for their actions.
So, when officers employed by the city of St. Louis lost control of their SUV and crashed it into the entrance of a local bar, the immediate reaction was to arrest the bar’s owner for being upset about this senseless destruction of his personal property.
A south St. Louis bar owner is now facing charges stemming from an incident that began when police crashed an SUV through the front wall of his business.
The incident happened in the city’s Carondelet neighborhood around 12:30 a.m. today, when a police SUV traveling northbound on South Broadway swerved across multiple lanes of traffic and into Bar:PM just as the LGBTQ bar was closing up.
The police probable cause statement associated with the charges against Bar:PM co-owner Chad Morris (who also goes by Chad Wick) alleges that Morris began to “scream obscenities” in the wake of the collision. The officer writes that Morris “struck me hard in the chest with an open hand, causing me to temporarily lose my balance.” Morris then allegedly tried to flee into a gangway between the bar and another building, closing a gate on an officer as he did, according to the statement.
Morris is now facing a charge of felony assault on an officer and misdemeanor resisting arrest.
That’s how this sort of thing goes. Two probation officers lost control of the car they were driving at what appeared to be an excessive speed and yet it’s the owner of the bar facing felony charges for not keeping his emotions in check when confronted by officers seeking to find anyone or anything else to blame for their recklessness.
That’s the story the cops are telling. The bar’s co-owner, James Pence, says it was the officers who were the aggressors. They plowed their way into the bar and demanded to see Pence’s identification. When he refused, he was spun around and handcuffed. Then they went after Chad Morris, who was outside documenting the damage to his bar with his cell phone. All of this ended with Morris’s arrest and the final insult: the denial of bail by Judge Rochelle Woodiest.
The video released to the bar owner’s lawyer by a nearby business immediately undercuts the consecutive narratives offered by the police.
James Pence, Morris’ husband and another co-owner of the bar, said police initially told him they had swerved to miss a dog. Officers later recanted and said they swerved to miss a parked car — the same explanation that police gave reporters.
The video clearly shows no animal was present. And it shows the officers did not need to “swerve” to miss the parked car. From all appearances, the officers were overreacting to the presence of a parked car — an overreaction provoked by their excessive speed.
Somehow, this singular criminal act — the destruction of personal property following an apparent moving violation — resulted in cops swarming Chad Morris’s bar. A bystander recording of the aftermath of the crash — including Morris’s arrest — has yet to be released by his lawyer. The city is also playing its cards close to its vest, refusing to release dash cam video recording by the officers who crashed the SUV, as well as anything captured by officers who responded to the scene of the crash.
Not only is the chain of events an indictment on law enforcement culture, it’s also more anecdotal evidence that St. Louis law enforcement officers simply aren’t capable of competently driving the force’s large SUVs. Here’s another extremely stupid accident, as recorded by a St. Louis business and uploaded to X by St. Louis Followers.
That’s the kind of driving you do when you don’t have to pay for the car or the repairs. That’s the sort of impulsive carelessness you’d expect to see displayed by a teen with more horsepower than good judgment. Now, imagine giving a teen a uniform, a badge, a gun, the power to arrest people, and the amount of personal accountability you’d expect from a toddler.
Fortunately for Chad Morris, his felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor the day after his arrest and he was released on his own recognizance. But that’s about the only upside. He’s still got a damaged bar, two misdemeanor criminal charges, and — for some stupid reason — an increased police presence in his neighborhood. At some point, weeks or months or years from now, someone employed by the city of St. Louis might have to endure paid leave or, at worst, a brief suspension. But the owners of the bar have to deal with their problems immediately and without the guaranteed contribution of tax dollars to their cause until they’re made whole.
I get it. Accidents happen. But when you screw up, you’re supposed to apologize and take responsibility for your actions. What you’re not supposed to do is attack and punish the people you’ve wronged.
Filed Under: bar, chad morris, chad wick, felony assault, james pence, police, property destruction, st. louis, st. louis police
Companies: bar:pm
Comments on “Law Enforcement Officers Crash SUV Into Local Bar, Arrest Bar Owner For Being Angry About It”
Don’t forget that cops also didn’t do any drug or dui test of their friend.
Looks like that entire department is just corrupt criminals in uniform.
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Show me a department that isn’t.
Still crazy
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/bar-pm-owner-arrested-by-st-louis-police-was-beaten-terribly-attorney-says-41479575
It looks like these hammerheads will be given the heave as they were bot probationary officers. Lying on the report.
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The police are a private government body and can do what they want.
Don’t like it? Make your own police.
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Cute, but stupid. Try harder.
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Private government body?
Did you just throw words together?
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Re: Re: AC asking AC questions
When you ACs talk to each other its plainly obvious it’s one loser talking to himself. Asking yourself a question is equally pointless.
If you’re too lame to sign your name,
fuck the hell off till you can up your game.
Ehud
Re: Re: Re:
Good for you.
Thanks for letting me know you are a named asshole that’s braindead as well. Thanks for letting me know to ignore you completely.
Re: Re: Re:
Maybe you and Anathema can get together and whine about how the comments on Techdirt aren’t some imaginary reasoned Utopia.
And then maybe the two of you can fuck off and get lost.
Re: Re: Re:2
Oy, keep my name out of your cowardly mouth, and out of this stupid argument you’re whipping up, fuckface
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Re: Re: Re:3
Triggered snowflake is triggered.
Re: Re: Re:4
Stop that. She’s completely within her rights to call me out on this. And as much as I don’t care for a lot of her comments, they’re a hell of a lot more useful than those from idiots who think “snowflake” and “triggered” are clever comebacks.
Re: Re: Re:4
Why do you believe you need to announce that you’re triggered?
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literally every word of what you just said was wrong
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Whoosh!
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Their bar was struck by a goldmine.
Police car crashes into a bar and then they arrest the bar owner. Tell me there aren’t a thousand lawyers begging for this case.
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Maybe the cops should have just complied eh bro?
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It really is that hard for you to admit cops fucked up, isn’t it davec? Maybe you’d prefer it if these chucklenuts crashed their SUV into your house…
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And into his wife!
davec did say that if his wife ever dies there’s a 34% chance he was responsible, after all.
Standards
Cops are the worst.
Cops should be held to the same standards they want to hold others to.
I’m not saying “civilians” because no matter how they pretend, cops are civilians. The people they should be protecting are as well.
And then we have:
Teens are pretty good drivers. It’s a new experience. They have no complacency of “I’ve done this for twenty years and I know what I’m doing” and drive better and follow the law. Cops don’t.
If you’re the type who doesn’t come to a full stop, doesn’t use your turn signals “because there’s nobody behind me” or any other stupid excuses, YOU are the problem, not TEENs and not COPs.
COPs are the worst.
It’s part of their culture. That “thin blue line” delineates assholes from the rest. Cops are on the asshole side.
I have so many dashcam vids of cops running intersections code 1 later to exit that same intersection code 4 because it was convenient.
Cops are the worst.
Like the song says. Fuck the police.
E
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“Teens are pretty good drivers.”
They really, really aren’t.
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Cops should be held to the same standards they want to hold others to.
Counter-argument: They should be held to higher standards, as with great power should come great(er) responsibility.
Coverup, gay bashing, or both?
It’s not a good idea to break into any kind of bar to accost the owner, and the patrons as well.
The only exception would be if you’re in the first level of the Sega Genesis classic, Streets of Rage 2 (1992). Barbon had a point when you think about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjGL2XoKJz0
Hmm?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ED9qfaUYRg&t=14s
Lets see.
Late night. Fast driving? OVER SIZED VEHICLE? NO SKID MARKS. A DIRECT HIT ON THE DOOR, NOT the WALL on either side.
Braking Started Just past the PARKED SMALL CAR..REALLY small car.
Suggestions? Observations?
Best News site Iv seen, with Links to Followup. WOW.
MY OPINION.
The person driving DOES NOT know how to drive. No AGE was mentioned, but he SHOULD NOT be the primary driver without 5+ years of experience.
This seems Like a targeted hit. More then 40% suggested by this 1 video. And there are supposedly a few more.
the Judge Should release the person, for no better reason then ITS showing a bad perspective on his JOB.
On to the Vehicle.
WHO the hell decided to use a Vehicle 4 times the size NEEDED for a cop car? its Top heavy and has NO weight. Hitting the breaks? Just SKID around and ROLL over. Driving at SPEED? Stupid.
Re: I know why?
On purpose.
To get RID of the crappy Vehicles.
So add into the mis-adventure, HIT a couple spots you DONT LIKE.
Which Cop got kicked out, or is gay?
Stonewall boogaloo incoming.
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Sucks to be this stupid
Re: Re:
You’ll be fine. They let stupid people do all kinds of things these days.
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Like join law enforcement, for one…
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Why does TD never publish coverage of the good work that our brave law enforcement community does? Why is the only writing about law enforcement here anti-police hate speech? Does this site (and this author) have an agenda and clear bias?
Just curious.
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Every day is Children’s Day.
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The thing is, THAT’S THEIR JOB. Why should they get accolades when they do what they were hired to do? That’s like asking to be praised for doing you are paid to do.
Also when cops do bad shit and abuse their position of power, they often do get away with it and at worst get a slap on the wrist. It is a proven fact we as a society hold them to a less accountable standard than what they expect of us non-cops and there’s a mountain of evidence behind it.
Also you missed a spot bootlicker.
Re: Why do they call you a holster?
Why are you still here asking stupid questions? Are you stupid on purpose? Or do you have a neurological condition?
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Challenge.
Find video of any cop in the country condemning these officers.
Re: Very small percentage
It’s probably because only a very small percentage of what cops do can be called good. I mean in the single digits percentage of what they do is actually good for anyone not on the payroll.
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Because “good” is not dirt. For reference, review the name of this site.
Re: how many
News sites, NOT part of the police system.
Are reporting good news about them?
as well as doing the job We paid for, isnt a special thing.
Its like the cashier at the store, trying to keep up, and has time to ask how your day was. And then you realize the STORE wants to cut that persons hours.
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‘Person does the job they are being paid to do competently and without screwing up’ is the default standard for any other profession, why should be it be lower for police?
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Because cops are dumber than the average citizen I guess.
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I mean I would agree with that, and the courts certainly do, it’s just a strange complaint to come out of the mouth of someone trying to defend them.
Re: Re: Re:2
You use whatever helps to justify your case, then frantically draw attention away from it when it’s no longer helpful.
Pretty standard strategy.
There’s video of this vehicle speeding and running a red light just before the crash.
Does the St. Louis Police Academy have a GTA course?
“Win the game! Get an A+ rating! The more crashes, the better!”
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Why oh why?? when there is widely available video of this very incident for all to see… Would Tim the author of this Techdirt story insert an unrelated video of a completely different incident..???
Seems like journalism 101 would say that you post the actual video and not just some randomness…. Hey guys I got a ton of cool TikTok video’s if you want to just start posting random videos like some Sunday afternoon home video show.
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Probably for the same reason that you didn’t include any links to any of these “available for all to see” videos.
Misdirection?
The police officers wildly excessive and irrational behaviour would seem to hint that they were under the influence and this was all just a distraction.
Charges will be dropped, a multi-million dollar payout will be made to the bar owners, and St Louis PD will keep on driving around drunk and reckless.
What was also missing from this story.
The bar owner was taken to the hospital and not the police station as no ambulance was called on the scene the owner wasn’t injured at the time of the arrest… but when his lawyer finally found him at a hospital he had multiple bruises and a story about how he was attacked by the officer.
Bystander video shows no assault on the officer by the owner only the owner attempting to get away from the officer (again the victim of the officer loss of control vehicle was being chased)
Plus the bar was closed so it wasn’t like the owner had a reason to freak out about refunding orders and sending people home.
In the days afterwards the bar has had multiple police cars parked across the street in an apparent show of force.
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But he had to arrange to secure the bar to protect his stock before rather than doing whatever he planned to do once he closed the bar.
Police SUV plows into a bar
Lets face it. The police are holding out on releasing the body cam and var cams video because both proves the police are liars. Eventually they will try to get the 2 owners to accept a payout if the don’t admit to the city and the police doing so and will drop all charges. I’m hoping the 2 men sue the officers as individuals, as officers of the law, and the city itself for hiring, falsifying officialreports, and detainging them under false pretenses. The judge should not have refused him bail either. True, he didn’t know the truth. But it’s his job to get facts from more than just the involved officers before deciding. I feel very badly for the 2 gentlemen, they were personally assualted as well as their property heavily damaged, and mistreated by the legal system in many ways. And then officers act surprised that no one trusts in the law or its officers. This event is the perfect example of why they are not trusted.
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Yeah, I watched the ‘shot dog’ link here? They killed a pit bull that was charging at them. Pit bulls are statistically the most dangerous type of dog breed. Pretty trivial to find instances of pit bulls attacking cops and it looking just like the video linked in that article.
The relevant stats for pit bulls are, responsible for 65% of dog-human deaths, 81% of dog-animal deaths, and between 22-47% of dog-human attacks (depending on how you categorize ‘mix’).
Cops killing pit bulls is problematic support for the idea that cops are bad because they kill dogs ‘just because’.
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Wow.. Just no.
Good job ignoring all context of the how and why.
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I just listed the statistical evidence that provides the ‘context’ for the cop’s actions. The video supplies the further context that the pit bull was approaching the cop at speed. The cop was there because the owner trespassed the people that owned the dog. Should the cop have been there? Sounds weak, but legal. Should the animal have been unleashed and so ‘at large’ per Larimer County code? No.
You’re trying to hand-wave away the reality that pit bulls are just more dangerous than other dogs, by a significant statistical certainty, which provides the relevant context. What the dog was doing immediately before it charged the cop isn’t relevant, because it doesn’t show anything. Pit bull aggression doesn’t have to be universal in order to exist. It can exclude other animals and people and be specific to things like unknown persons.
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“the owner trespassed the people that owned the dog”
You wanna try that sentence again?
Re: Re: Re:2
You think he can drink this much again?
Re: Re: Re:2
“Trespassed” is the verb used when someone identifies someone on property they control and takes legal steps to eject them.
Given you seem to be making excuses for people owning unleashed pit bulls, I’m not terribly surprised you did not know this.
Re: Re: Re:3
Trespassed is an intransitive verb and you used it as a transitive verb which makes no sense, ie you cannot say “he trespassed someone” which Anathema Device rightly pointed out which made you turn into a raging asshole.
But do keep wallowing in your ignorance.
Re: Re: Re:4
Could be a local colloquialism, but that’s how it’s commonly used in the Midwest in both police reports and legal filings related to trespass as the threshold requirement for the crime of trespass.
Don’t really see how I’m the raging asshole here. Sounds like you guys just defend pits out of emotional instinct and assume everyone else is operating at that level. Me noting that using the shooting of dogs is problematic support for cops doing a bad thing when those dogs are pits (because of the long term statistical evidence which supports that pits are uniquely dangerous) certainly seems to have caused an inordinate amount of outrage. And since we’ve proceeded to the nit-picking phase of an internet argument, I guess you guys must understand that what I said was accurate and having nothing left to do but complain about the way in which I said it.
Re: Re: Re:5
I doubt any legal filings would ever use trespassed as a transitive verb, because lawyers would have field day with that. If you think it’s a local colloquialism, that lends Anathema Device’s comment even more credence.
And as I said, you went straight to raging asshole instead of answering it as a normal person just because AD asked for clarification, and that’s entirely on you.
Who’s emotionally defending what here? From the above context it’s absolutely you defending…something.
I’ll just add that the Justice Department has said that the frequency of dogs killed by has reached levels comparable to an epidemic, and that is kind of telling, isn’t it?
by by little piggy
this little piggy is done! after his paid vacation is over, he will most likely get the option of quitting in Lew of being fired. then move on to the next pig farm over! had he not still have been on rookie probation. he would have gotten the usual well… you damaged our piggy mobile. so you get the standard slap on the wrist! rinse and repeat!
In Lew
Imagine if aynnglisheth was something you rote.
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My hovercraft is full of eels.
Re: Re:
My nipples explode with delight!
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I love you too.
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Or even French (from whence “in lieu” comes), not English.
Why is it that the hiring agency the city or town always on the hook for a Police officer negligent lawsuit. Why don’t we start requiring the Police unions to purchase insurance.
Real-estate agents have to purchase on their own Errors and Omissions coverage. Doctors pay for malpractice etc…
Put it on to the Union and officers for doing things wrong. If they foster a culture of police misconduct let them pay more for insurance till it gets under control.
'How dare you park your store where we were trying to drive?!'
Crash into storefront, arrest owner for being rightly pissed off and charge them with a felony while you escape any penalties for such abysmal driving skills that it would see anyone else’s license revoked on the spot, followed by blatant intimidation after making the local department look as incompetent and corrupt as it truly is.
Ah the perks of having a badge for those smart enough to get one of those instead of a prison jumpsuit.
There are rumors that the cops involved had been in an earlier argument with the bar’s owners. No material support for them as of yet, but it is possible that this was an intentional act.
It may also be rumor with no truth, I would expect to learn more during or after the case that will inevitably follow.
So the package is labelled thus: overpaid professional ex-playground bullies with Union protections, guns, vicious dogs and cool uniforms get to wild-ass around public streets, and private properties owned and/or managed by tax-paying, law-abiding citizens with complete immunity, suffering penalties involving extended paid vacations and promotions, as often as not. And remember, most fat trump worshipers say we must “Back The Blue”, in order to proliferate patriotism and ultimately save the Fatherland. This is how we Own The Libs! This is how we Make Amerika Great Again! Happy Sieg Heil MAGA, everyone!