Kimberly Gardner files lawsuit against St. Louis for racist conspiracy

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch / Getty

Kimberly Gardner Files Lawsuit Against St. Louis For Racist Conspiracy

There’s some janky s#!t afoot in the city of St. Louis.

The very first Black woman circuit attorney, Kimberly Gardner, has filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the police department charging that have engaged in a racist conspiracy to obstruct her investigation into the shady former governor Eric Greitens. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the lawsuit states that the Police Officers Association hired unprecedented special prosecutors to investigate her investigation.

“Gardner was elected in 2016 on a promise to redress the scourge of historical inequality and rebuild trust in the criminal justice system among communities of color,” says the lawsuit, filed on Gardner’s behalf by three outside law firms from St. Louis, Washington and New York. “Unfortunately, entrenched interests in St. Louis, including Defendants, have mobilized to thwart these efforts through a broad campaign of collusive conduct, including the unprecedented appointment of a white, ethically conflicted Special Prosecutor to investigate the activities of Gardner’s office and a patently overbroad and unconstitutional ransacking of the office’s electronic files.”

Gardner says this type of racist conduct is a direct violation of, check this out, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871:

“The Ku Klux Klan Act was adopted to address precisely this scenario: a racially-motivated conspiracy to deny the civil rights of racial minorities by obstructing a government official’s efforts to ensure equal justice under law for all,” the lawsuit alleges. “The stakes are high. This case cries out for federal enforcement.”

In addition to the obstruction of the investigation into the ex-governor, Gardner says that local courts have blocked efforts to have the murder conviction of Lamar Johnson who she claims was railroaded with provable lies and prosecutorial misconduct.

We saw the way the city of St. Louis handled the Michael Brown case. We heard the stories of longstanding racism and shady dealings. Sadly, this story comes as no surprise.