A Black police officer was undercover with a white colleague during a protest in 2017 when they were both arrested by their unknowing co-workers. The white officer walked away unharmed—but the Black officer had his phone smashed, was beaten, and suffered permanent neck injuries.
Dustin Boone, a former cop with the St. Louis Police Department, was found guilty Thursday of depriving his injured fellow officer, Detective Luther Hall, of his civil rights.
The deprivation of rights under color of law is a felony civil rights charge and could put the ex-cop behind bars for up to 10 years.
Two former cops with the department, Randy Hays and Bailey Colletta, both also pleaded guilty to the beating earlier this year, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
On September 17, 2017, Detective Hall was working undercover during a protest for Anthony Lamar Smith, a Black man who was shot five times by cops in 2011. Hall, who was dressed in plainclothes, was mistaken for a protester by his fellow policemen.
The cop was documenting the protest with a camera, and that’s when he was detained and beaten, had his phone destroyed, and was finally arrested by fellow members of the St. Louis police department. Hall immediately underwent multiple surgeries following the attack by his co-workers and still suffers from permanent neck damage.
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Aside from being embarrassing for the department, this case helps show how deeply rooted systemic racism is within American law enforcemen. For ex-Officer Boone, his racism made him unwilling to follow proper protocol, to the point of assaulting a fellow officer because you f their race.