The Flying Rutabega (sic) Circus Review
ArchPundit
The Post-Dispatch mildly slaps the hand of the SLMPD and Joe Mokwa this morning. The editorial is far too mild. The SLMPD appears to be heavy-handed and incompetent. Not a reassuring combination for those who depend upon them.
In describing the Flying Rutebega Circus arrests, The Post-Dispatch states,
Its members describe themselves as a "rag-tag ensemble of circus acts, puppet shows, jugglers and musical numbers" who bicycle across the country to protest genetically modified food. Last Friday, the Rutabegas were riding down the center of Arsenal Street when police handcuffed them and took them to the police station for riding bikes without a license. The City Counselor’s office acknowledges that the ordinance isn’t enforced, and the city won’t press charges.
There is no question here whether that ordinance is on the books. It is not. The ordinance was repealed two years ago More troubling is the cyclists were hit with Impeding Traffic charges which is a charge cops pull out to harrass cyclists and is, in most cases, a violation of state law that treats bicycles as vehicles on roads. Indymedia and the Missouri Bike Federation are outperforming the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch in accuracy.
In fact, the Post-Dispatch misses its own reporting on the subject from June 10,2000
Aldermen also voted Friday to eliminate the city’s long-ignored bicycle license requirement and to ban motor vehicles from bike paths except for emergency purposes.
Continuing on in the editorial,
Mr. Mokwa isn’t apologizing for a questionable search of two houses – one on Cherokee Street and one on Illinois Avenue – where some of the protesters were staying. He said neighbors had complained and that some protesters had taunted police.
First, if only the City was the efficient at dealing with code complaints all of the time this might pass the smell test. Second, taunting the police is not against the law. Indeed, I’ve done my share of taunting though usually in relation to asking officers why they feel traffic laws don’t apply to them. For some reason they never want to arrest me.
The chief used a building code violation to send officers and housing inspectors into the homes. There they seized a box of roofing nails – a type not used in rehabbing old buildings, the chief said – a bucket of rocks, a slingshot and some torches.
Some nails, some rocks, a slingshot and some torches. The horrors. The horrors I tell you. Given I recently had a lead paint inspector in my apartment, I might have everything but the torches. I don’t know where my slingshot is.
Police also hauled off two eight-foot wooden dolls used in protests (one a caricature of a police officer and the other of an alderman). Police arrested more than a dozen people.
Now here, shouldn’t we consider impounding Tom Bauer for being a caricature of an Alderman? I mean really-what is the bigger threat to the city?
Under normal circumstances, housing inspectors and police officers need a warrant before searching a home. Arrests and searches for minor charges can help clean up cities Giuliani-style. But these tactics shouldn’t be used to target protesters.
I’m actually a big fan of targeting nuisance crime, but the protesters weren’t being nuisances–at least in the legal sense. In one case they were cycling and in the other case, they were, ummmm…in their homes. The point of targeting nuisance crime on the street is to clean up street crime and make it inhospitable to criminals, not people living in their homes.
But the real story appears to be picked up by Indymedia, a group I’m not fond of in terms of their coverage. Via Unsubscibe Indymedia reprints the St. Louis Coptalk threads pulled by the moderator. While one should never take CopTalk too seriously, the thread seems to indicate the police were a little too far on edge for the city’s own good.
Another issue that I am unable to confirm is that the condemnation order of the building searched was only issued the morning of the search.
This was a heavy-handed smackdown of dissent. Dissent by those I’m not particularly sympathetic to, but that is the point. They might be silly, they might be stupid, they migh smell real bad, but they have a right to peacefully assemble and to date the SLMPD has shown virtually no credible evidence that widespread violence was likely.
Being prepared is good. Being paranoid and letting that paranoia reduce the ability of individuals to practice freedom of speech is intolerable.