St. Louis, MO — In December 2011, St. Louis Police Officer Jason Stockley violated department policy when he grabbed his personal AK-47, premeditated, and then murdered Anthony Lamar Smith. The planning of the murder and the actual murder were captured on the officer’s dashcam. In spite of the overwhelming amount of evidence against him, a St. Louis judge last year found Stockley not guilty of first-degree murder in the 2011 shooting death of Smith. Months of protests ensued immediately.

“Once they put those barricades up, I knew what was up,” activist Jae Shepherd recalled to Rolling Stone. “They put those up when we were waiting for the indictment or non-indictment of Darren Wilson when Mike [Brown] was killed. It was just like this building up of anticipation and anxiety.”

During the protests, angry citizens took to the streets en masse. They were met by hundreds of police officers in riot gear, who were armed with military grade weaponry and technology.

During the protests, story after story surfaced of officers using unnecessary force, beating protesters and making false arrests. This was in spite of the fact that the protests ran relatively smoothly and were far less violent than the ones in 2014 in Ferguson after the killing of Mike Brown.

Despite the peaceful nature of the protests, police officers were seen on video carrying out extremely disturbing acts. One such act involved trampling an elderly woman. Another act involved police chanting “whose streets? Our streets!” as they surrounded protesters—otherwise known as ‘kettling’— and began a brutal assault with pepper spray and police batons…..more here