Something is up at the St. Louis City Civilian Oversight Board, the agency charged with reviewing and investigating “citizen complaints against alleged misconduct of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.”
Per the City’s Public Meeting and Public Event online Calendars, the June 17th COB “Open Board” meeting was cancelled on June 13th.
→ Was the City’s (Police) Civilian Oversight Board meeting cancelled because of The Plain View Project exposing racist/bigoted posts on social media by St. Louis police and State Senator Jamilah Nasheed calling for COB review of the posts?
→ Why does the cancellation say “Open Board” instead of Board? Per past meeting Agendas, the COB always meets at 3 pm and votes to go into Closed Session (not open to public) and at 5 pm begins Open Session (open to the public). Is there still a Closed Session Today?
→ What happened to COB Public Comment period? November 19, 2018 COB Meeting Agenda was the last Agenda showing a Public Comment period.
→ Where are the 2019 COB Meeting Minutes? The last online posted Meeting Minutes are for December 18, 2018 meeting. #TransparencyFail
→ Why has Public Safety Director Jimmie Edwards been frequenting the 4th Floor of 1520 Market, City Hall West, where the COB Office is located? His office is in Room 401, 1200 Market, City Hall. Edwards, as Public Safety Director, is the boss of the Police Department the COB is charged to investigate complaints on. The COB is supposed to be an independent agency.
Additional reading*. As you can see, this local news story is also a national story.
6/17/2019: The Seattle Medium: Thousands Of Police Officers Outed In Slew of Racist Facebook Posts
6/14/2019 St. Louis American: Public (and one cop) tells police leadership of their distrust and fear of police
6/12/2019 St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis Religious Leaders Want Police Officers Fired For Racist Social Media Posts
6/11/2019 St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Racist Facebook posts by St. Louis police getting ‘extensive’ review
6/10/2019 KMOX: City police Facebook posts under review
6/10/2019 Channel 2 Fox: St. Louis aldermen hold hearing to discuss police officers’ racist social media posts
6/7/2019 AP: Racist, violent posts by police: St. Louis police among those investigating
6/7/2019 AP: St. Louis officers pulled from street over social media posts
6/7/2019 Channel 5 KSDK: Several St. Louis police officers put on administrative duty while internal affairs investigation underway
6/6/2019 St. Louis American: Nasheed calls for civilian review of bigoted social media posts by cops
6/6/2019 AP: City of St. Louis Workers Headed for Social Media Training
6/6/2019 St. Louis American Editorial: Time to ‘do something about’ racism in St. Louis police ranks
6/6/2019 InjusticeWatch.org: Across U.S., officials alarmed by the Facebook posts of police officers
6/5/2019 The Root: Police Officers Get Exposed for Making Racist Social Media Posts, So Cities Decide to Investigate
6/5/2019 AP: Departments investigating racist, violent posts by police
6/5/2019 St. Louis American: Ethical Society of Police calls for firing of cops over racist posts
6/5/2019 St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis to step up anti-discrimination training for all civil service workers, not just police
6/5/2019 St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Sensitivity training coming for St. Louis officers in wake of report on racist Facebook posts
6/4/2019 Washington Post: Racist posts from police officers’ social media accounts trigger a wave of investigations
6/4/2019 CNN: St. Louis and Philadelphia police are investigating reports of racist, anti-Muslim Facebook posts by some city officers
6/4/2019 Channel 2 Fox: St. Louis police investigating reports of officers’ offensive Facebook posts
6/4/2019 KMOX: St. Louis police under investigation for racist, violent social media posts
6/4/2019 St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Police investigate racist and anti-Muslim Facebook posts linked to St. Louis officers
6/3/2019 Riverfront Times: St. Louis Cops’ Nastiest Facebook Posts Now Being Reviewed by Internal Affairs
6/3/2019 MetroSTL.com: Hundreds of racist, violent Facebook posts linked to St. Louis police officers by national group
6/3/2019 The Hill: Analysis of police officers’ Facebook accounts finds hundreds of violent, racist posts
6/3/2019 Washington Post: When Police Officers Vent on Facebook
6/1/2019 BuzzFeed: A review of the Facebook accounts of thousands of officers around the US — the largest database of its kind — found officers endorsing violence against Muslims, women, and criminal defendants.
*If I missed a news story related to the racist posts, email link to me at ward7stl@aol.com to I can update the list.
— Marie Ceselski, 7th Ward Democratic Committeewoman
1:30 pm Wednesday, June 19, 2019
11:30 am to 1 pm Thursday, May 30, 2019
9:00 am Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Noon Tuesday, May 21, 2019
St. Louis Democratic City Central Committee
