As protesters in St. Louis gathered to speak out against police brutality and racial targeting, the local police department tasked Officer Luther Hall and a partner with a very specific assignment: go undercover, attend a protest, and collect photographic and video footage.
And indeed he did collect evidence. It was not, however, in the way his department intended. Instead, it involved his entire body being smashed — by his own
fellow officers.
Sign the petition to demand justice!That night, as Hall and his partner-in-undercover-work infiltrated the protest, three other White St. Louis police officers were busy
looking forward to inflicting carnage on civilians.According to text messages obtained by the FBI, Christopher Myers and another cop were amping each other up about the opportunity to hurt people. As they wrote to each other: "it's gonna be
a lot of fun beating the hell out of these [expletives] once the sun goes down and nobody can tell us [the officers] apart."
And then, that's exactly what they did. Christopher Myers, along with Randy Hays and Bailey Colletta, rushed Luther Hall, jumping out of a vehicle. They ordered Hall to put his hands up in the air and then to get flat on the pavement, which he immediately did.
Then these men proceeded to attack one of their own, simply because he was Black.**Warning: what follows is a graphic depiction of anti-Black police violence.**At that point, the officers came up behind him, grabbed the back of his skull, and
smashed his face into the ground two times. Even as blood poured out of his face, the three men surrounded him and began pulverizing him with their fists, batons, and boots, continuing to pound him directly in the head. Grabbing a shin guard, they struck him again in the face and head. Hall could only watch helplessly while they brutalized his body as well as destroying his cell phone, camera, and other gear.
Meanwhile, Hall's White counterpart faced none of this.All the while, Hall remained quiet to make sure he didn't ruin his undercover identity. After 10 minutes, the beating stopped and his fellow police officers realized he was one of their own — and
only then was he finally treated by medics. By the end, he had suffered a concussion, herniated discs, a rotator cuff tear, a bruised tailbone, and a hole in his face, above his lip.Despite all of this,
the St. Louis Police Department didn't even bother firing these criminals — Randy Hays, Bailey Colletta, and Christopher Myers — at first. Despite the fact that upper-level officials knew of the beating, and knew who perpetrated it, they remained on staff, just as if everything were "normal." Because, unfortunately, this is very, very sickeningly normal.
Only after the FBI obtained the officers' text messages to each other did the department finally let these men go. Now, luckily, they are on trial for their vicious attacks on a police officer, and one man — Randy Hays — has already been sentenced to 4 years in prison (less than half the amount of time prosecutors requested). But let's be clear:
if Hall hadn't been a police officer, it's obvious these violent criminals would not have been held accountable. Since the St. Louis Police Department clearly cannot be trusted to snuff out racism and brutality in its ranks, it needs outside help to make them do this. This is where the Department of Justice (DOJ) comes in. The DOJ must do an internal review to investigate how such rampant violence was allowed and overlooked by supervising officers.
Sign the petition to tell the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the St. Louis Police Department and implement reforms now! Attorney General Merrick Garland must launch a review before this untrustworthy police department ruins anyone else's lives.