Three officers accused of beating up an undercover colleague; while tax returns show gun lobby group took a considerable hit

Police charged with beating during St Louis protests

Three St Louis police officers have been charged with beating up an undercover colleague during protests last year that followed an officer’s acquittal over the death of a young black man.

According to the criminal indictment, the trio believed their undercover colleague – who was helping other officers to identify criminal acts – was a protester, and assaulted him “while he was compliant and not posing a physical threat to anyone”.

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The incident came amid a wave of protest in September last year. Officer Jason Stockley, who is white, was found not guilty in the shooting death six years earlier of Anthony Lamar, who was black. The widespread anger over Stockley’s acquittal sparked weeks of protests and hundreds of arrests.

A fourth St Louis officer was also indicted, accused of covering up the beating and lying to a federal grand jury.

The Huffington Post reported that “the indictment alleges that at least three of the defendants ‘expressed disdain for the Stockley protesters and excitement about using unjustified force against them and going undetected while doing so’.”

The officers allegedly exchanged texts before the protest saying they were looking forward to violence at the demonstration, and more texts afterwards discussing beating people up.

“it’s gonna be a lot of fun beating the hell out of these shitheads once the sun goes down and nobody can tell us apart,” wrote Boone. “We really need these fuckers to start acting up so we can have some fun.” Boone later wrote that it was a “blast beating people that deserve it” and bragged about chanting “OUR STREETS” with other cops after they locked “fools up on prison busses.”

The NRA lost $55m in income last year

That’s according to the Daily Beast, which managed to get hold of the National Rifle Association’s tax returns.

The NRA took in $128m in membership dues in 2017, the Beast says – “a significant sum, but down considerably from the $163m it took in the year prior”. It also reported $98m in contributions – down from $125m in 2016.

That loss in funding comes at a tricky political moment for the organization. Rarely has the NRA had so staunch an ally in the White House. But the group, which built significant political heft on the back of Obama-era threats to key gun-rights priorities, has also become a lightning rod in the still-raging debate over gun control and mass shootings in the U.S. And several recently elected House Democrats ran explicitly on pledges to go after the gun lobby when in office.

The Daily Beast story comes on the back ofreports about cost-cutting within the NRA – apparently staff are no longer allowed free coffee – and after several staff members were reportedly fired from NRA TV, the group’s video arm.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Hogg and his fellow Parkland survivors have been opposing the NRA. Photograph: Larry Marano/Rex/Shutterstock

It is worth remembering, however, that the NRA likely found it much easier to sell its “they’re about to take all your guns” message under Barack Obama than under a Republican president. There’s a chance some of those members dropped off as they feel their AR-15s are safer – for now.

What we’re reading

Tracking demographic shifts is usually the terrain of the right, says Bhaskar Sundara, founding editor of Jacobin. But increasingly the response of liberals is “questionable in its own way”.

“Progressives believe in a kind of demographic destiny, in which brown and black voters will necessarily vote for center-left candidates, despite the Democratic party neglecting these loyal voters for decades,” Sundara says. But grouping people together under the catch-all term “people of color” risks ignoring the fact that certain ethnic minority groups suffer more than others.

“The solution to solving the crisis facing the most oppressed black and brown people in the US is the same as solving the problems facing working-class white people – a federal jobs program, universal healthcare, guarantees to daycare and affordable housing, ending violent policing and mass imprisonment, and more,” Sundara says.