Charlotte Ottley needs a new kidney
@stlouisamerican
See page A10
@stlouisamerican
St. LouiS AmericAn The
CAC Audited DECEMBER 6 – 12, 2018
Vol. 90 No. 37 COMPLIMENTARY
stlamerican.com
Cops indicted on felony charges ACLU: ‘St. Louis officials must address this rampant lawlessness by its police’ By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American A federal grand jury in St. Louis indicted four St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers on November 29 for their conduct in the arrest and assault of Luther Hall, a black St. Louis police officer who was working undercover at a September 17, 2017 protest, when city police beat, maced and arrested more than 100 people while chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets!” The protest occurred two days after former St. Louis Police Officer Jason Stockley was acquitted of a firstdegree murder charge relating to the 2011 shooting death of Anthony Lamar Smith. The indictment charges officers Dustin Boone, 35, Bailey Colletta, 25, Randy Hays, 31, and Christopher Myers, 27, with various felonies, including deprivation of constitutional rights, conspiracy to obstruct justice, destruction of evidence, and obstruction of justice. The four officers have been placed on administrative leave
n The indictment charges four officers with various felonies, including deprivation of constitutional rights, conspiracy to obstruct justice, destruction of evidence, and obstruction of justice.
without pay. “Law enforcement officers have an important duty to protect the members of the communities they serve and to enforce the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband in a statement. “The Justice Department will continue to investigate and prosecute matters involving allegations of federal criminal civil rights violations.” According to the indictment, the police department
See FELONY, A6
Photo by Lawrence Bryant
St. Louis police subdued a man during mass arrests at a protest in downtown St. Louis on September 17, 2017. Four officers have been indicted on multiple felony charges for their conduct during that protest, when then-interim Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole boasted that his officers “owned the night.”
Homegrown Black Males
Holiday helper Hamilton Elementary School librarian Keisha Pettis helped third grader Makiaya Mayes, 9, make a decorative holiday card in the school library on Wednesday, December 5.
Learning to Nurture By Marcel Scaife For The St. Louis American
video first shows Franks lying on the ground, shielding his head and yelling repeatedly to an officer standing over him, “I’m not fighting.” Then the video is slowed down to show that officers appear to be beating Franks with a baton and kicking him while he was already held face down with his arm behind his back. Franks is suing St. Louis County, BelRidge Police Officer Philip Von Der Heydt,
Part of a year-long series, presented by The American and the Brown School at Washington University, on changing the narratives and outcomes of young black males in St. Louis. I grew up in a two-parent, two-income household in Jennings. I would say I had it pretty good. In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, Jennings was a great place to be. I can remember my dad taking me to Northland or River Roads to shop. I had white classmates and white neighbors. I understood that I was black, but in my limited view of the world there was nothing wrong with that. From an early age, my father taught me that a man should always work and provide for his family. This is something I carry with me to Marcel this day. Scaife With all my fathers’ great attributes, there was still something missing that I now see I needed: emotional support. Most black boys are taught to grow up tough, to man up, not to cry, and that showing their nurturing side makes them weak. Black boys often must go to extreme measures to prove how tough they n Black boys often are. There was also must go to extreme little encouragement measures to prove growing up. I didn’t how tough they are. hear how great I was or that I could do anything I set my mind to. My father would often tell me that getting good grades was a requirement and that’s the only job I had. Countless rejection after countless rejection would define me as a person. When it was time for me to step out and face the world, I had a lot of insecurities. I struggled with communicating because holding a conversation wasn’t something done too often in my home. While in high school I joined the U.S. Army to
See COPS, A7
See MALES, A7
Photo by Wiley Price
‘I got a couple good licks on somebody’ Body cam footage shows cops casually discussing brutality during protest By Rebecca Rivas Of The St. Louis American On Christmas Eve 2014, hundreds of people had gathered at a gas station in Berkeley to protest the death of Antonio Martin, 18, at the hands of a Berkeley police officer. Martin’s body – which had just been moved – was still visible when the unrest got underway. That night several protestors were
allegedly beaten, maced and arrested – including Bruce Franks Jr., who was acting as a Peacekeeper, or a conflict de-escalator between protestors and police. Now almost four years later, Franks – who was elected to the state House of Representatives in the meantime – obtained footage from the body cameras that St. Louis County police officers wore that night. On November 25, Franks released a two-minute edited video on his Facebook page. The