St. Louis Cop Allegedly Tried To Get Woman Fired Over Ferguson Tweets

In this March 3, 2011 photo, empty St. Louis Police department squad cars fill the parking lot at Central division during a shift change in St. Louis. Rarely have voters in Missouri's two big cities faced a tougher d... In this March 3, 2011 photo, empty St. Louis Police department squad cars fill the parking lot at Central division during a shift change in St. Louis. Rarely have voters in Missouri's two big cities faced a tougher dilemma. When they go to the polls next month they can vote to save themselves a nice chunk of money _ but doing so could cripple their local governments. St. Louis and Kansas City each collect a third or more of their revenue from a 1 percent income tax on both residents and nonresidents who work in the city. The long-standing earnings taxes were jeopardized in November by passage of a proposition that requires voters in each city to consider whether to retain the tax. The issue is on the ballot on April 5 in both cities. Tax opponents say the cities need to find less burdensome ways to fund operation. City leaders say consequences of defeat would include the loss of police officers, firefighters and basic services. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam) MORE LESS
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A St. Louis police officer has been placed under investigation after he reportedly called the employer of a woman who criticized the police during the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The department announced on Thursday that officer Keith Novara was being investigated after the woman, real estate agent Leigh Maibes, alleged he had tried to get her fired for comments she posted to Twitter, according to the newspaper.

After the officer allegedly called the woman’s bosses to inform them of the social media activity, the woman apparently called Novara and recorded the conversation, which she posted to social media on Wednesday.

In the recording, the officer reportedly confirmed he had called Maibes’ employers to let them know about her social media activity.

“To me this feels like intimidation,” Maibes said in the recording.

Novara maintained he was simply giving her employer a “heads up” while acting in his capacity as a police officer.

The Post-Dispatch reported that Novara’s actions were under investigation but he had not been suspended.

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  1. Some cop needs his ass fired.

  2. I saw mention of this yesterday.
    The activist was smart enough to record the call of her calling the cop to inquire as to why he called her boss. His responses were weak and I did not feel he adequately justified why he needed to contact her employer about her tweets. I agreee with her assertion; he was definitely trying to intimidate her.

    But see, according to some on the right, we should just respect the cops, do whatever they say and bow to their authority. They are always right when they target us and us civilians are always wrong.

  3. Acting in his capacity as a police officer? How?

  4. It’S hIGHLy ILLEGaL to ENgage IN sociAL medIA that is OVerTLY criTICAL of POlice inCOmpetence.

  5. We should respect cops, yes.

    That shouldn’t mean they should get away with murdering people in the streets, robbing people of their hard earned money, watch child porn*, beat people for no reason, assault people for no reason, and so on.

    *cop was fired in my city for, in part, accessing the evidence seized during an investigation into a child pornographer. He was never charged with anything because they couldn’t verify he was not doing it as part of his duties despite not being his case. If I recall correctly, though, he was later charged for his part in the beating of a restrained suspect.

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