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What the Police Won't Apologize For (continued…)
By Don Fitz
St. Louis police were not stand-alone players. As Daniel (digger) Romano wrote
in the August 31 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "…Allied Intelligence [is]
the private security agency hired by the WAF and its principle player,
Monsanto, the biotech giant. Allied Intelligence told police ‘50,000
anarchists’ were coming to St. Louis to riot and wreak havoc on the
city." [2]
Under the FBI Eye
Preparations for the Biodevastation 7 Gathering started in 2002 when Jim
Scheff, an organizer for the Missouri Forest Alliance, called to tell me that
the WAF would be meeting in St. Louis the upcoming year. He suggested that
Biodevastation, which had been held in five cities after beginning in St.
Louis in 1998, return to Monsanto’s home town so that people coming to
WAF could hear a different view of biotechnology.
Documents obtained by the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
show that the FBI was deeply involved in scrutinizing many documents that I
wrote for the event, including emails from my computer. The ACLU judged the
FBI reports to be some "of the most troubling documents we received." [3]
A November 2005 cover letter from the FBI refers to "Subject: GATEWAY GREEN
ALLIANCE/01012000 TO PRESENT," indicating that we had been in FBI sights for
years. [4] Its first memo on "Counterterrorism" asserted that "The WAF was
created to provide a continuing, neutral arena for the discussion of world
agriculture…" Counterposed to the "neutral" WAF, the memo warned of
"issue-specific terrorist groups…which oppose…the
bio-engineering of plants and animals." [5]
What particularly worried authors of the memo was that "organizers from the
Gateway Green Alliance, a local affiliate of the Green Party USA, have joined
with member of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis and are
attempting to label the WAF as a ‘forum on environmental racism’
in an attempt to lure African-American groups." [6] (The authors probably
meant to say "Biodevastation" rather than "WAF.")
Other FBI counterterrorism documents listed frightening people who hoped to
speak at St. Louis, including Vandana Shiva, Percy Schmeiser, Mae-Wan Ho,
Brian Tokar, Ignacio Chapela and Michael Hansen. [6] Any defender of the
Public Order must have been horrified to read in the captured documents of the
threat to national security posed by the Caravan Across the Continent held in
conjunction with Biodevastation: "The Caravan will be a month-long bicycle
spectacle covering over 1000 puppet shows, presentations, speak-outs,
freak-outs, clown acts, and music…" It invited "citizens, clowns,
puppeteers, bike riders, messengers, farmers" and urged everyone "to bring a
bicycle and join the ride!" [7]
A Public Dialogue Cut Short
During weeks prior to Biodevastation 7, there were a few stories about the
dangers of GMOs, but St. Louis media focused on police preparation for 50,000
anarchists to invade downtown. They warned business owners to protect their
property.
Then, on the opening day of Biodevastation 7, the Mother of All Horrors
occurred: There was an actual public debate on genetic engineering! The only
St. Louis daily paper, the Post-Dispatch, carried a front page story, "Focus
on the future of agriculture." It had an article describing the corporate view
of the WAF on one side and another article reporting on Biodevastation on the
other.
Not to worry. St. Louis police, with backup from the FBI and Monsanto, had
worked overtime to ensure that reporting would take a sharp turn. Shortly
after I got to the Gathering site and prepared to coordinate presentations,
phone calls began pouring in that demonstrators were being arrested all over
town.
Two hours later Police raided the Community Arts and Media Project (CAMP)
building, which housed the St. Louis Independent Media Center, Green Party of
St. Louis and several other groups, taking more to jail. Sarah Bantz,
organizer for Missouri Resistance Against Genetic Engineering (MoRAGE), which
was coordinating the demonstration planned at the WAF, was pulled over while
driving to give a talk at the Gathering. Her vitamin A was seized as a
possible illegal drug and she was taken to jail for not wearing a seatbelt.
Police Chief Mokwa egged on the frenzy. He held a press conference to display
the "weapons" seized during the raids: rocks, roofing nails, torches and
Molotov cocktails.
By the next day, it became apparent that the rocks were paperweights; the
roofing nails were to repair a leaky roof; and the torches were flaming batons
of the Bicycle Circus. When the St. Louis Independent Media Center website
posted an eyewitness report of a cop putting toilet paper or a rag in a beer
bottle, all press reports of "Molotov cocktails" disappeared — as if
they had never been mentioned. The "weapons" charges were the first charges
dropped against those arrested.
Of course, throughout the events, the only potential violence discussed was
that of demonstrators. When reporters asked me about potential violence, I
never hesitated to point out that "There is a real threat of lawlessness when
the WAF is controlled by Monsanto, a company that lawlessly trespasses on the
land of farmers like Percy Schmeiser, criminally steals samples of crops and
violently drops pesticide bombs on their fields to test if their crops are
Roundup-resistant."
Reporters would tell me that that was not what was meant. They wanted to know
if there was a threat of violence during the demonstration set for May 18. I
always responded "Yes, there is a real threat of violence. When public safety
is put in the hands of a police chief who has condoned the police murder
of over a dozen black youth in recent years, the city should be concerned."
Police Attacks
Police attacks on protestors were illegal, traumatic and disruptive to planned
events. Kelley Meister wrote in detail of her ordeal. The night before her
home was invaded, "Police had been circling our house relentlessly, following
my friends home, and harassing them on the street, and I had feared waking up
to the police knocking down my door. After breakfast the next morning, a
police car pulled up. Two police officers pushed past me to enter the house,
and I asked if they had a warrant. When they said, 'No,' I stated that I did
not give them permission to enter my house, and I again asked for a warrant.
The officers told me that a warrant was not necessary because this was a
condemned building." [8]
After being arrested and put in a police van, Meister "…watched many
cops enter and exit our house, most notably, an officer carrying a piece of
art ripped down off the wall from my room. The cops also stole many other
people’s personal items such as journals, posters, props for the circus
and puppet shows, welding tools, roofing nails, and all of our bicycles that
were in the building. The bicycles were eventually returned with slashed
tires, but most of the other stuff that was stolen is either 'missing' or
being held as evidence." [8]
When allowed to return home several days later, she found "The house was
trashed. In my bedroom, shelves had been disassembled or knocked over, boxes
of oil paints and other art supplies dumped out, my large reading chair was on
its side and in the middle of the room, personal items were smashed, and a
pile of my clothes that had been dumped from a small cabinet…." [8]
Meister and a housemate found "their clothes were drenched in urine,"
compliments of St. Louis police. [9] When it apologizes for "well-intentioned
mistakes," the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners should explain how
urinating on clothes is both well-intentioned and a mistake.
What Corporate Media Didn’t Report
By the second day of Biodevastation 7, the mania had died down. The
Post-Dispatch was even mildly critical of what it called "pre-emptive"
arrests. But the press never returned to a discussion of how genetic
engineering threatens human health, pollutes the environment, and prepares for
agro-business domination of Africa. What remained was a debate of whether the
police had "overreacted."
Though the PATRIOT Act made crackdowns at events like Biodevastation 7 easier,
such actions existed long before 9-11. The hysteria generated by police
departments is reminiscent of "red scares" of the 1920s and phobic reaction to
black organizing that white Americans have felt through the centuries. When
Jamala Rogers of the Organization for Black Struggle introduced the
Environmental Racism panel at Biodevastation 7, the police raids were at the
top of the news. She commented that "You are seeing what black people in St.
Louis experience on a daily basis."
Marching Onward
The St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners claimed that the raids were a
"mistake" even though police acted "with well intentions."[9] The 2009 apology
spins the myth that the SLPD acted on its own volition. But the FBI documents
paint a very different picture. They suggest that the most likely course of
events was:
A. The Monsanto/WAF/Allied Intelligence troika contacted…
B. the FBI, which contacted…
C. the SLPD, which pumped fantasies to…
D. the St. Louis media, which eliminated a nascent dialogue on GMOs and focused exclusively on the illusory anarchist invasion.
Far from being the key culprit, the SLPD was targeted to take the rap. It was
a pawn in a far bigger game of using genetic engineering to destroy small
farmers across the globe.
Describing police activities during 2003 as "mistakes" continues the campaign
of misinformation. Anyone who seriously believes actions by the SLPD were
mistakes should let us know how often police departments invade offices such
as Monsanto World Headquarters, piss on tuxedos of corporate executives, steal
their electronic equipment, tell the press to print front page stories of
corporate terrorists, and arrest corporate officers for possession of vitamin
A.
If 100% of such police attacks are against those resisting corporate power and
0% of police violence is against corporations, then a reasonable person might
conclude that the function of police is to protect corporate power. This is
quite a bit different from accounts of the police being a neutral party that
occasionally makes the "mistake" of "preemptive" attacks
We should applaud each of the plaintiffs against the SLPD receiving $13,500.
But rather than clearing the air, the police apology serves to further mystify
the 2003 web of intrigues. For the corporations that move pawns around, the
2009 apology is merely a tiny step backward in their continuing march to
subjugate world agriculture.
Don Fitz is editor of Synthesis/Regeneration: A Magazine of Green Social
Thought, which is published for members of The Greens/Green Party USA.. If you
know where to find a horde of 50,000 anarchists, please contact him at
Notes
- American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. (August 24, 2009). ACLU applauds police apology to protestors. Press Release.
- Daniel (digger) Romano. (August 31, 2009). Letter to the Editor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, p. A11.
- American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. (Janaury 27, 2006). Letter to Barbara Chicherio and Don Fitz.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation. (November 15, 2005). Letter to Denise D. Lieberman, American Civil Liberties Union. FOIPA No. 1021258-000.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation. (April 9, 2003).Counterterrorism memo. Case ID No: 300A-SL-188478.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation. (May 8, 2003). Counterterrorism memo. Case ID No: 300A-SL-188478.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation. (April 15, 2003). Counterterrorism memo. Case ID No: 300A-SL-188478
- Kelley Meister. (Fall, 2003). Report from the Bolozone. Synthesis/Regeneration #32, pp. 5–7.
- Patrick O’Connell. (August 25, 2009). City police apologize for raids in 2003. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, pp. A1, A9
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