ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal investigation will look into possible civil rights violations by police in the St. Louis area in the two months since protests broke out after a white former police officer was acquitted in the shooting death of a black suspect.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the investigation in a statement Monday. The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in St. Louis also will help with the investigation.
Protest leaders, Democratic U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay and others called for a federal investigation. More than 300 people have been arrested at protests since Sept. 15, when a judge ruled that Jason Stockley was not guilty of first-degree murder in the 2011 death of 24-year-old Anthony Lamar Smith.
Several of those arrested have alleged heavy-handed arrests and even taunting by police.
Yes I’d call it heavy handed when they give an order to disperse 6 blocks away from where they corralled people on the street (not protesters, not anyone throwing stuff or breaking stuff), and then pepper sprayed them once they were handcuffed and sitting on the ground. They arrested journalists and residents that were in front of their apartment buildings, people who stepped outside of bars for a smoke, and others that were protesting but had dispersed and were on their way out of the area.