Congressman Wesley Bell, AIPAC's #2 Recipient, Sued by Protesters

On July 9 a lawsuit was filed in the St. Louis Circuit Court over an incident at a town hall meeting last year with Congressman Wesley Bell. Although 400 people attended this August 19 meeting in downtown St. Louis, it was “overwhelmed” by just five pro-Palestine protesters with chants such as “liar, liar, genocide denier.” At the meeting Bell criticized the use of the word “genocide” and spoke favorably of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). St. Louis police were present, but saw no violence and did not intervene against the protesters. However, according to the civil suit, Bell’s security team, Jason Davis and Alphonso Brown, “began to violently and aggressively physically remove people from the building.” The suit states that Bell’s security personnel “threw them against the wall, and knocked them to the ground” which caused “physical and psychological damages.” The suit argues that Bell was responsible for ensuring that his security team “used reasonable force and did not violate citizens’ rights at a public event.”