St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell is slated to enter Congress in January. He will replace Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., after ousting her in a Democratic primary in August with help in the form of $17 million from the leading pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. As one of his final acts in office, Bell is charging at least eight protesters who demonstrated outside the Ferguson Police Department in August on the 10-year anniversary of the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. with felonies.
Bell’s office charged the eight protesters with trying to intervene in the arrests of other protesters, causing property damage to a gate outside the police department, and attempting to disarm an officer. One man was charged with assaulting a police officer who fell to the ground after they collided on the sidewalk, and the officer suffered a severe brain injury. The defendant was held on cash bail for $500,000. Two of the other defendants are still in custody. The cases are pending in the circuit court of St. Louis County.
A spokesperson for the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said the majority of people at the protest were not charged with a crime and that those who were charged were not targeted because they were protesting. “In these cases, we didn’t charge protesters; protesting is not a crime,” said public information officer Chris King.
“Almost all of the people who attended this protest were not charged with a crime because we were presented with no evidence that they had committed a crime,” King said. “All defendants........