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Two St. Louis deputies were dismissed last month for working on progressive Rep. Cori Bush’s security detail without permission — days before the “Squad” member defended spending tens of thousands of campaign dollars on private protection while pushing to “defund the police.”
St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts told KMOV that he initially warned now-former deputies Tylance Jackson and Maurice Thompson to quit moonlighting as muscle for Bush (D-Mo.) and fill out the proper forms after they accompanied her on a tour of St. Louis jails in April. However, Betts said he was told by Veterans Affairs Police several weeks later that Jackson and Thompson were providing security for Bush again.
In addition to violating policy by not getting approval to work a secondary shift, neither Jackson nor Thompson have licenses to work private security, Betts told KMOV.
Jackson claimed Thursday that he and Thompson were dismissed because they “didn’t push the agenda of the sheriff on the client [Bush].”
“I do feel that the hand that was dealt to us was unfair and unjust,” Jackson told KMOV. “You let us go, but you still have a plethora of individuals doing that but you don’t say anything.”
Betts, a Democrat who was elected to a second four-year term as city sheriff last year, insisted to the Associated Press that the deputies were not fired because of who they were guarding.
“I didn’t fire them for working security for Cori Bush,” Betts said in a phone interview. “I fired them for not following proper procedures for working secondary. So they just happened to be working for Cori Bush. Doing what they did, they would have gotten fired no matter who they were working for.”
The sheriff added that of his 160 deputies, an estimated 150 work at other jobs — with permission.
Bush, who helped lead Black Lives Matter protests in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson following the 2014 police shooting of Michael Brown, has spent at least $70,000 in campaign funds on private security since taking office.
In an interview with CBS Aug. 5, Bush insisted she needed special protection because “I have had attempts on my life and I have too much work to do, there are too many people that need help right now, for me to allow that.
“So if I end up spending $200,000, if I spend 10 more dollars on it, you know what? I get to be here to do the work,” Bush added. “So suck it up.”
In a dramatic pivot, Bush then insisted: “And defunding the police has to happen. We need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets because we’re trying to save lives.”
Critics were quick to call out Bush for her hypocrisy in demanding protection for herself while advocating for the removal of police from neighborhoods across America.
A spokeswoman for Bush’s campaign office declined comment on the firings, saying in an email that personnel matters “are handled by the specific firms retained.”
The email reiterated that Bush uses hired security due to a “non-stop barrage of death threats and targeted harassment.”
With Post wires
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