st. louis cops who beat undercover ‘protester’ indicted

During the September 2017 protests that took place in St. Louis over the acquittal of police officer Jason Stockley, who faced murder charges for the killing of Anthony Lamar Smith, local cops beat and abused an unnamed undercover cop, dressed as a protester. Prosecutors are alleging that, on the night of Sept. 17, 2017, officers Dustin Boone, Randy Hays, and Christopher Myers threw a 22-year police veteran to the ground where they kicked and hit him with a police baton.

If that’s not sinister enough, several of the officers involved exchanged messages conveying their “excitement about using unjustified force against them and going undetected while doing so.” These are the people responsible for EVERY civilian’s safety?

The indictment indicates that the veteran cop “was compliant and not posing a physical threat to anyone.” But police beat him anyway. During the encounter, the unnamed officer sustained bloody injuries to his face and jaw, as well as additional injuries to his back which required surgery. Further, all three officers attempted to engage in a cover-up by claiming that the undercover was not compliant in the first place. And when that wasn’t enough, they tried to contact him and dissuade him from pursuing legal or disciplinary action against them.

What’s clear here is that civilian disobedience and peaceful resistance to the state is systematically met with violence and flat-out abuse. Which police like Boone, Hays, and Myers gleefully engaged in.

Boone, 35, Hays, 31, and Myers, 27, all face charges of depriving the undercover of his constitutional rights and conspiracy to obstruct justice. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Myers also faces charges related to the destruction of evidence for destroying the undercover’s cell phone. Bailey Colletta, 25, faces a charge of attempting to obstruct grand jury proceedings. #criminalcops