St. Louis prosecutor invokes ‘Ku Klux Klan Act’ in lawsuit

(AP) St. Louis’s elected prosecutor says the city, its police union and others violated a Civil War-era law meant to rein in civil rights abuses against former slaves. Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner filed a lawsuit Monday that claims the defendants violated the so-called Ku Klux Klan Act by allegedly engaging in a racist conspiracy to force her from office and prevent her from reforming racist practices. Gardner is black; the named defendants are white. The act was signed in 1871 to help enforce the 14th Amendment, which had been ratified three years earlier. Gardner’s lawsuit cites racist Facebook posts by St. Louis police officers, and claims the police union went “out of its way” to support white officers accused of violence and excessive force against blacks,