December 6 in St. Louis has officially been declared Wesley Bell Day to honor the county’s first black prosecutor.

According to Local leaders held a celebratory event at the St. County Department of Justice. Louis, after which County Executive Sam Page made a press release. Bell made history along with his appointment to this position, which he has held since 2019.

He called the recognition “a great honor” that belongs to the community he serves.

“For me, this is a testament to the men and women of the St. County Prosecutor’s Office. Louis, who wake up every day with the idea of ​​public safety, with the idea of ​​treating our victims with the dignity and respect they deserve, and keeping this region safe. In this way, it is a great honor for us,” he said.

Bell took over as St. County prosecutor. Louis after defeating longtime Democratic incumbent Bob McCulloch in the primary. After McCulloch’s controversial decision to not prosecute the officer who fatally shot Black teenager Michael Brown in 2014, Bell ran a campaign that prioritized criminal justice reform. His platform included community policing and progressive marijuana policies that were passed shortly after taking office.

During his tenure, Bell established the Diversion Commission and the Incident Review Unit. The unit enables people wrongly convicted to submit a request to the prosecutor to reconsider their case. Bell sees the measure, a first in the nation, as a step toward criminal justice reform.

But Bell will transcend local politics to assist his St. Louis on a national scale. He was recently elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing Missouri’s 1st District.

“This job, and my future job, is about work,” he added. “It’s about representing the interests of my constituents. People here in this region.

Although Bell will proceed to serve St. Louis in a distinct capability, the race to appoint his successor continues, and the escalating dispute between Page and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson continues. Page has already announced his selection of the next prosecutor, but the GOP leader said he plans to make the nomination.

It’s taken greater than three years, but Jeffrey Lemon finally got his day in court.

A 68-year-old Black man was arrested in Georgia under questionable circumstances in 2021 after Clayton County sheriff’s deputies threw him to the ground and put a knee on his back after he was accused of running a red light in suburban Atlanta County.

He was charged with obstruction and red light violations, in addition to possession of a small amount of marijuana, which police present in a pipe in the trunk of his automobile after his arrest. He ended up spending two nights in jail.

But the case dragged on for greater than three years until his attorney filed a motion for a speedy trial last month. The trial is scheduled to start Monday, and Lemon hopes prosecutors will drop the case without forcing a trial.

“I hope they throw everything away, but it’s a corrupt system, so I don’t know what to expect,” Lemon told Atlanta Black Star in a phone interview.

Lemon also said he was offered a plea deal late Thursday wherein prosecutors would drop the marijuana and red light charges if he pleaded guilty to the obstruction charge, but he declined to take the deal because he plans to file a lawsuit if he’s cleared of all charges. .

Arresting deputies Jon House and Demetrius Valentine each resigned after the incident, but House, who initiated the traffic stop, was rehired three months later.

“The arrogance I experienced from Officer J. House and Sgt. Valentine… completely disregarded me as a human being,” he wrote in a letter wherein he presented his version of the arrest.

Lemon’s arrest got here a month after the death of Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill was accused faces federal charges after he was accused of tying pretrial detainees to a restraint chair for hours in violation of their civil rights. Hill was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison in March 2023, but he was released after serving lower than a 12 months.

Throughout this time, nonetheless, Lemon’s case has remained pending, which he believes is because the officers try to cover up their illegal behavior and prevent him from filing a lawsuit.

Arrest

The incident occurred on May 27, 2021, when Lemon was driving his Camaro on Valley Hill Road and noticed a Clayton County sheriff’s deputy behind him, who turned out to be House.

He stated that he was in the left inside lane and needed to enter the right outside lane to make a right turn in front of him, nonetheless, when he stopped his automobile at a red light, the deputy pulled the patrol automobile next to him into the right lane.

He said the deputy then refused to move forward when the light turned green, stopping Lemon from entering the lane.

Lemon said he waited a few seconds, hoping the deputy would move, but then moved to the next intersection when it became clear the deputy was not going to move.

He testified that when he turned right at the next intersection, the light turned green, but the deputy stopped him and accused him of running a red light.

Lemon told the deputy that he didn’t run the red light, but gave him his license, but the deputy began accusing him of trying to avoid him, and that is when he realized the deputy was trying to escalate the interaction, and as he tried to call his daughter and friend, but he didn’t. they replied.

He then called 911 because he feared for his life when the deputy began accusing him of things he didn’t do, and that is when House called for backup.

Valentine arrived and threatened to taser him if he didn’t get out of the automobile, so he complied under duress, which occurred when Valentine tackled him to the ground and House put his knee on his neck.

“I felt humiliated,” he said. “For the guy to come up and not try to have any dialogue. He just immediately walked up and said, “Get your ass on the ground before I kick you.”

He said that when he was arrested, he was on his way to rent a latest house, so he had $1,800 in money with him, but authorities didn’t allow him to use the money to bail, forcing him to stay in jail for two days.

“They didn’t want to take the money, so I had to carry it in my shoe throughout my stay in prison,” he said.

He said the aggressive arrest put him in a state of so-called cervical stenosis, where he’s currently in constant pain and has already spent hundreds of dollars on medical bills.

Report

The House deputy describes the arrest in a very different light, stating in his report that he became suspicious when Lemon failed to stop at the intersection after the light turned green, believing he was doing all the pieces in his power to avoid being stopped.

He further claimed that as Lemon moved forward, turning right, he ran a red light and that is when House stopped him.

However, this claim contradicts his initial claim because if Lemon was truly trying to avoid being stopped, he would never have run a red light knowing the deputy was behind him.

House also claimed that he began to fear for his life after he noticed a knife in the center console of Lemon’s vehicle and then called for backup and ordered him out of the automobile, but Lemon stated that the knife was never there.

“There was no knife,” Lemon said. “I would like to see their list of things they faraway from my automobile. This will show there was no knife.

House stated in his report that he found pot in the trunk while taking a listing of things in the automobile, which he ordered confiscated. He also claimed that “evidence was dropped in the sheriff’s office room,” but didn’t specifically mention the alleged knife placed in the room.

Valentine resigned two weeks later without explanation, according to personnel records obtained by Atlanta Black Star. He was then hired by the nearby Fairburn, Georgia Police Department the following month.

Personnel records obtained from the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office show House resigned in November 2021 because he was dissatisfied with “a change in the mission of this agency that does not align with my personal goals.”

House was then hired by the nearby Riverdale Police Department, only to resign from the job three months later because “the city-provided health insurance is expensive and does not provide adequate health care for my family,” according to a resignation letter obtained by Atlanta. Black Star.

He was then rehired by the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office in March 2022 and stays employed.

Lemon believes there may be body camera and dash cam video that might prove his innocence, but when Atlanta Black Star asked public authorities for any available footage of the arrest, the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office said “no records exist” ” regarding arrest.

“That sounds like another lie,” Lemon said.

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis, who was elected Tuesday as the brand new president of the Pennsylvania Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association (DLGA), believes the Democratic Party could learn loads from other lieutenant governors across the country.

“We need a Democratic Party and a national party that is focused on winning and organizing everywhere, building the field from the ground up,” said Davis, 35. “I think that’s one of the things Republicans do so well; they start at the local, municipal level and go up.”

He continued: “We need to make sure we support candidates from the state legislature to lieutenant governor and in all positions.”

As the newly elected president of the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, Davis hopes to provide Democratic local officials with assist in addressing the electoral challenges evidenced within the 2024 elections, including declining support from working-class voters.

“The first thing we have to do is not try to solve the problem. We need to really get to know these communities deeply and listen to what they have to say; listen to the policies that they expect from their leaders,” said Davis, who noted that Democrats “haven’t understood the economic pain that people are feeling and really haven’t put forward a plan that addresses people’s concerns about it.”

He said of Democrats: “I think sometimes we try to write a political prescription for everything. One thing I’ve learned as an elected official is that I can’t be a good leader if I don’t listen to the people I’m supposed to represent. And I think that’s what we really need to do as a party right now.”

Davis said that for future elections, Democrats need to take into consideration running candidates who’ve “real, lived experience,” like many Democratic local governments across the country.

“We are at a crossroads as a party and we have a tremendous opportunity to invest in and build the next generation of leaders in our party,” said Davis, who noted that the Democratic Party’s lieutenant governors’ caucus is “extremely diverse,” which incorporates some of the nation’s first Black local governments resembling Garlin Gilchrist of Michigan, Sabina Matos of Rhode Island and several other other Black and brown lieutenant governors.

Davis emphasized that the range of DLGA members, which represent greater than half of the U.S. population, goes beyond race and gender – additionally they differ in terms of their general backgrounds.

He continued: “They can engage with voters in other ways. “It’s going to be important for us to make progress, not only to bring new people into the Democratic Party tent, but also to continue to make sure that the people who have been with us have traditionally felt like they had a home in the Democratic Party.”

But as Democrats work to repair their relationship with working-class voters, it is also necessary that they do not alienate their base: Black and brown voters.

“When I was growing up, my dad used to say, ‘You don’t get rid of old friends by making new ones,'” Davis said, adding: “We need to make sure the Democratic Party is a place where everyone feels heard, seen and supported.”

LG Davis said the DLGA is especially focused on potential future electoral success in moving Virginia’s lieutenant governor’s office – currently held by Virginia’s first black LG, Republican Winsome Sears – from red to blue and retaining the New Jersey LG office, which is held by Democrat Tahesha Way. He said the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association will even address key policy issues resembling gun violence prevention, Black maternal health and overall health care quality.

“What you’re really going to see as a result of, frankly, a lot of the dysfunction that’s going to come out of Washington is … lieutenant governors leading in their states,” Davis said.

He added: “As Democrats, we may have lost the election, but we have not lost our values ​​and we will continue to stand up and fight for true freedom in our states and to make sure we are there fighting for working families.”