ST. LOUIS — More than 300 St. Louis police officers are facing a federal lawsuit for how they rounded-up and arrested people during protests back in 2017.
That's when former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley was acquitted in the murder of Anthony Lamar Smith.
On night three of the protests, activists took their message to downtown St. Louis. After most of the protesters had disbanded, police surrounded about 100 people who were still in downtown near Washington Avenue and North Tucker Boulevard.
Police said they refused to "disburse."
But the lawsuit claims officers used something called a "kettling" technique – surrounding people, refusing to let them leave and arresting them.
Included in the group of more than 100 arrested were journalists, at least one Air Force officer and other downtown residents who said they were never part of any protest.
The lawsuit alleges people were pepper-sprayed and beaten even after they complied with officers.
At least a dozen other lawsuits have made similar claims. But in this latest case, attorney Javad Khazaeli is going after 343 individual officers and hopes the lawsuit will be classified as a class action to represent all who were arrested in the September 17, 2017 incident.
"When you have officers sitting there staring while innocent people who are peaceful are getting beaten and pepper-sprayed and not doing anything...they didn't protect and serve," said Khazaeli. "And that's how you get sued in a conspiracy."
St. Louis Police Officers Association spokesman Jeff Roorda said in a text message, "Kettling is a word that was invented by people who think they have a right to break the law. There is no legal requirement to allow people who are breaking the law to escape."
The attorney behind the lawsuit said all of the charges against those arrested that night were eventually dropped.
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