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St. Louis police sergeant who runs military-style training business is a lightning rod at protests

St. Louis police sergeant who runs military-style training business is a lightning rod at protests

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ST. LOUIS • The Facebook post featured a candid photo of two uniformed St. Louis police officers keeping watch from behind the hood of an SUV.

“They love us. They hate us. Depends on their particular situation at the time. But they know where the line is … when we’re allowed to draw it.”

The Aug. 14 post seemed to talk directly to protesters by including the hashtag #protestseason and another hashtag calling out a protester-given nickname for one of the officers — #riotking. And it conveyed a complaint that policymakers do not always let the police be as aggressive as they want to be.

It wasn’t a post by the St. Louis police department. It was from 0311 Tactical Solutions LLC, a private tactical training and security firm managed by one of the officers in the picture, St. Louis police Sgt. Brian Rossomanno. He’s a 20-year veteran of the department and a supervisor in its civil disobedience unit.

In his police department role, Rossomanno, 45, is frequently at the center of attention at protests. He’s typically the supervisor in charge, following the march in his SUV, sometimes ordering protesters through a bullhorn to disperse or move on. Protesters frequently target him with taunts and names.

In his private role, Rossomanno represents the epitome of warrior-style policing. His company is named for the U.S. Marine code for rifleman. His online bio says he had been a Marine security guard at the presidential retreat at Camp David and the Marine Barracks in Washington.

Rossomanno’s tactical company employs several SWAT officers from across the area, for an array of services. His firm provides military tactical training to law enforcement, military, private security, institutions and individuals. Its clients are nationwide. Since early 2016, according to its Facebook posts, the company has provided a “quick reaction force” of SWAT officers for St. Louis Cardinals games. Earlier this year, after a terrorist attack at a concert in England, the firm was hired to conduct a safety assessment of The Muny.

Rossomanno has been highly visible recently across the region since the Sept. 15 acquittal on murder charges of ex-St. Louis police Officer Jason Stockley — even showing up to keep his eye on protests outside the city. At least twice last week during protests downtown, Post-Dispatch journalists observed him ordering protesters to disperse from streets because their assembly had become unlawful.

In an email, the police department called Rossomanno its most qualified team coordinator, “who plays an integral role in civil disobedience training.”

Rossomanno declined to be interviewed for this story. In an email on Friday, he said that 0311 Tactical did not bid on contracts from the St. Louis police because it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Later that day, his company’s website was edited to delete the St. Louis police department and its SWAT team as clients.

Frequent presence

Protesters tend to single out Rossomanno over social media and on the street for his connection to 0311 Tactical and the very thing they decry — an unflinching and combat-ready policing style.

One example of this was on Tuesday on Clark Avenue outside the Cardinals-Cubs game, as protesters lingered between the north side of the stadium and Ballpark Village. Over his loudspeaker, Rossomanno ordered the protesters off the street four times because it was “private property.”

Many protesters were incredulous that he could kick them off a public street where even fans without tickets could feel free to mill around. (A review of city ordinances shows the city permits the Cardinals to close that stretch of Clark on game days.)

The police department said Rossomanno was working for the police department — not the Cardinals — that night. The Cardinals did not respond.

Protesters Block Streets After Town Hall Meeting

St. Louis Police Sgt. Brian Rossomano tells protesters over his loud speaker that they have an illegal assembly in downtown St. Louis on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017, as protesters yell at him as they block Washington Avenue at Tucker Boulevard. Photo by J.B. Forbes, jforbes@post-dispatch.com

On Thursday, as a crowd blocked Tucker Boulevard and Washington Avenue, Rossomanno drove his SUV up to the crowd. Protesters surrounded his vehicle and started yelling at him. He ordered them to disperse, but they didn’t move until a line of police moved in with riot gear.

Heather DeMian, a well-known live streamer, said she thought Rossomanno “threatens chemical munitions a little too fast. He’s a little too quick with mace sometimes. But I’ve seen him be friendly with protesters. I think it depends on the situation. I’ve also seen him go off.”

Rossomanno’s group has described itself as hoping to “instill in our first line of defense a combat/warrior mindset complete with the skills necessary to provide our citizenry with a level of security they can (trust.)” And it has written that every police department in the country needs to recognize that riot control training is in its future.

On the ground

Is Rossomanno’s dual role in St. Louis a conflict? David Klinger, a criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said not necessarily.

“It all depends on if the doctrines that they are teaching in their classes are consistent with the doctrines that American police have vis-à-vis the constitutional protections of protesters,” he said. “If he is giving a fourth dispersal order, it sounds like there is a more than appropriate patience to ensure that people understand the order, to ensure the avenues of egress are identified and so forth.”

Rossomanno’s company has used social media to criticize leaders of Black Lives Matter as “morally bankrupt” and having their “cross hairs on us.” When a woman gave the company a one-star review on Facebook, the company responded that a “one star review from a ‘protester’ like you is equal to a six star review from a normal person.”

The group has also said online that its staff members were involved with the police response to protests earlier this month. On Sept. 17, the police used a technique called kettling to box in and arrest more than 100 people at a busy downtown intersection. The police department denied on Friday that it had used a kettle and did not answer the question of who had planned it. It said officers from the city police, St. Louis County Police Department and the Missouri Highway Patrol were working downtown that night.

“The geographical layout of the area, and not a technique/tactic, dictated how tactics were deployed,” a statement from the department said.

The arrests in the kettle took place 40 minutes after police had issued an order several blocks away for the crowd to disperse. A Post-Dispatch reporter was among those arrested, and a lawyer for the newspaper condemned the “inappropriate and highly disturbing” arrest. The newspaper revealed days later that an Air Force lieutenant, an undercover St. Louis police officer, a medical student and two other journalists were among those arrested with what they described as brutal force.

That night, interim police chief Lawrence O’Toole said that his officers had “owned tonight.” The next morning, the Facebook page for 0311 Tactical shared a news story about O’Toole’s comments. “And our entire staff is on the ground helping to make it happen,” the post said.

The post has since been taken down. The police department said that although Rossomanno had been working the night of the kettle, his company had had no role in the arrests.

David Carson and J.B. Forbes of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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