Four St. Louis police officers charged over brutal beating of a Black undercover cop
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Four St. Louis police officers, who conspired to cover up the brutal beating an undercover cop who posed as a protestor, were charged Thursday for attempting to conceal their actions.
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Officers Dustin Boone, Randy Hays, Bailey Colletta and Christopher Myers are at the center of a controversial investigation that involves street protests that erupted in 2017 after a former officer Jason Stockley was acquitted in the fatal shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith.
Many have said that St. Louis police used unnecessary and excessive force against protestors and things came to a head when one particular demonstrator was brutally beaten up and able to prove it.
That protestor happened to be a 22-year veteran of the St Louis police force, who was planted in the crowd to pose as a protestor.
Boone, Hays, and Myers are charged with knocking the undercover cop who was monitoring protests, to the ground and then kicking and striking the officer with a police baton, Yahoo reports.
The officers who attacked a fellow cop face several felony charges, which include deprivation of constitutional rights and obstruction of justice.
“In a few instances, some officers have fallen short of the professionalism required to work in our Police Department,” St Louis Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards said in a statement.
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“I believe (the four) officers… are outliers and that the charges levied against them are isolated and not indicative of our Police Department.”
The officers have been indicted and were suspended without pay, according to the city.
The American Civil Liberties Union said still the officers have not faced enough repercussion as a result of their actions.
“While these officers have been indicted for illegally abusing an undercover officer,” said the ACLU’s Tony Rothert, “there has still been no real accountability for… officers who engaged in the same behavior toward protestors.”
