The mayor of St. Louis is facing backlash for reading aloud during a public briefing the full names and street addresses of protesters who are calling on the city to defund the police department.
Democratic Mayor Lyda Krewson was answering questions during a Facebook Live briefing Friday afternoon, which she has held regularly during the coronavirus pandemic, when someone asked about a meeting she had with demonstrators outside City Hall earlier in the day.
The mayor responded that the conversation “wasn’t really a two-way conversation… because there was a very loud response from the demonstrators," NBC's affiliate in St. Louis, Missouri KSDK reported.
But protesters had given her written outlines of their proposals for how the city could better allocate money that now goes to the police department, and Krewson stepped away from the camera to grab the papers from her desk as the briefing was still streaming live.
The mayor started reading the suggestions out loud, including giving out the first and last names of the writers, as well as the streets where they live. In some instances, she gave people's exact addresses, KSDK reported. Many of the proposals suggested that the city should budget zero dollars for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.
During the Facebook Live video, which has since been deleted, Krewson said multiple times that she is against defunding the police, according to KSDK.
Her reading aloud protesters' names and addresses prompted a wave of criticism, some calling her actions "shocking" or comparing them to doxxing, which is the broadcasting online of private or identifying information about an individual or organization.
St. Louis Alderwoma... (Read more)
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