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Activists concerned by prosecutors joining police union

(AP) – Supporters of criminal justice reform are questioning a move by assistant prosecutors in St. Louis County to join a police union, as well as the timing of the vote just weeks before a change-minded prosecutor takes office.

Assistant prosecutors and investigators voted Monday to join the St. Louis Police Officers Association.

The vote came just a couple of weeks before the first-ever African-American elected as prosecutor, Wesley Bell, replaces Bob McCulloch, who gained a reputation as a tough law-and-order prosecutor in nearly three decades in office.

Bell, running on a reformist platform, defeated McCulloch in the August Democratic primary and ran unopposed in November.

Police accountability activist John Chasnoff says the assistant prosecutors are rejecting the “clear mandate” of voters who want to see the criminal justice system changed.

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