St. Louis asks for outside investigation of protest response

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and interim police chief Lawrence O'Toole on Wednesday called for the U.S. attorney's office to investigate allegations of police misconduct during protests that followed the acquittal of a white former police officer in the death of a black man.

Krewson and O'Toole said in a statement the St. Louis Police Department's internal affairs division and the civilian oversight board will investigate the police response to protests over the past nearly two weeks, during which more than 200 people have been arrested across the region and nearly three dozen officers injured.

But they said a third-party investigation is necessary because it is "important that the public have confidence in the results of this process."

Email messages seeking comment from the U.S. attorney's office in St. Louis were not returned.

The statement said police internal affairs has received a dozen complaints.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri also has filed a lawsuit accusing police of unnecessarily forceful arrests and rounding up innocent bystanders Sept. 17, when about 120 people were arrested after an unruly protest downtown.

Police drew complaints for a process known as "kettling" that confined protesters and others to a limited space. Some of those arrested, including bystanders and a St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalist, said they had nowhere to go when ordered to disperse.

Others have complained about officers chanting, "Whose streets? Our streets," after the arrests, using a common refrain from protesters. That protest was among several since Sept. 15, when Circuit Judge Timothy Wilson ruled former officer Jason Stockley was not guilty of first-degree murder in the 2011 shooting death of drug suspect Anthony Lamar Smith.

The statement said St. Louis officers have worked long hours in "high-tension situations" to keep demonstrators safe and to protect people and property.

"These are troubling and difficult allegations, and it is important to determine if they are merited and, if so, what policy, training or discipline issues need to be addressed," the statement said.

The protests have not been limited to St. Louis. Several people were arrested Sept. 16 in the suburb of University City. And Saturday, 22 people were arrested in another suburb, Richmond Heights, during a protest at the St. Louis Galleria shopping mall.