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News :: Protest Activity |
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St. Louis Arrestees All Released, Cops Back-Pedalling From Heavy-Handed Pre-Emptive Tacitcs |
Current rating: 8 |
by Mitchel Cohen, St. Louis Greens, via Paul R. UCIMC
(No verified email address) |
17 May 2003
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Saturday, May 17, 2003, 1 pm -
A great big thank you to the activist universe! Police and media were swamped with calls yesterday leading to the release of all arrestees. We just did an interview with NBC demanding a full investigation into police harassment and violation of people's civil rights. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran the story on the front page, and police are back-pedalling as fast as they can. |
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Saturday, May 17, 2003, 1 pm –
A great big thank you to the activist universe! Police and media were swamped with calls yesterday leading to the release of all arrestees. We just did an interview with NBC demanding a full investigation into police harassment and violation of people’s civil rights. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran the story on the front page, and police are back-pedalling as fast as they can.
Yesterday’s “weapons” that police claim they found among the gear in various households have become a keystone cops routine. The roofing nails were for the new roof that the Greens and IndyMedia were using on their new roof (imagine!); the “metal torches” were jugglers’ props; the Molotov cocktail that police made a big media splash with has suddenly dropped out of the picture as we produced independent witnesses who saw police planting it in the building after everyone was already handcuffed in the police wagons.
We are calling for fingerprint experts to determine whose fingerprints are on the alleged Molotov cocktail, that seems to have disappeared.
The City Attorney now says that the law under which the bicyclists had been arrested while en route to the biodevastation gathering against genetic engineering – operating a bicycle without a “bicycle license” – no longer exists and says in today’s papers that “It’s just a misunderstanding.”
Meanwhile the puppets for Sunday’s parade are still being detained. All of the bicycle troupe’s food, wallets, personal supplies are still being held.
Other good news: 72-year-old Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, who had lost two rounds in court (and over $200,000) to Monsanto, announced to the gathering that he had just won the right to appeal to the Canadian Supreme Court, which will hear his case shortly. Percy – a non-biotech canola grower and seed developer – found that his crop had been contaminated by drift from Monsanto’s genetically engineered plantations, but the judge held that it did not matter HOW his crop got contaminated, Monsanto’s patent rights take legal precedence. Now, finally, the Supreme Court in Canada will rule on the private patenting of living organisms, and we expect a big breakthrough.
The conference itself has been a tremendous success.
More later. Thank you all for your calls, and support!
Mitchel Cohen
www.greenparty.org
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See also:
http://www.stlimc.org
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The "Misunderstanding" |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 3
17 May 2003
Modified: 04:59:57 PM |
The only "misunderstanding" I can see is that the police involved were misunderstood to be _qualified_ for the jobs they hold in any free and democratic society.
Given that it was large number of police, operating in coordinated attacks on the civil rights of those illegaly arrested, at the very least there should be an investigation into the apparent police conspriacy to deprive the public of their rights. At a minimum, those responsible for giving the orders that set these bums loose on the public should lose their jobs. Better yet, to set a proper example for other officers and to deter those who consider such methods to be anything tolerable in our society in the future, these criminals in blue should be put behind bars for sentences sufficient to make it clear that such behavior under color of law is absolutely intolerable. |
