St. Louis Indymedia Center

Police misbehavior in gentried Washington Ave
by Another copwatcher 9:33am Tue Oct 26 '04 article#16605

The October 25 Cardinal block party in gentrified Washington Ave had the predicted ugly incidents of police abusing people who look homeless.

The mainstream media claims the Cardinal rally on October 25th went without incident. I was there and saw ugly incidents of police thugs discriminating against Blacks who the police assumed were homeless.

With the media spotlight on St. Louis October 25-27, this should be a good avenue for raising awareness of the poverty and police fascism in the area. Go where the reporters might be and carry signs exposing the ugly truth about the area.

That afternoon, KMOX's hourly local news admitted police are rounding up the homeless and removing them to "clean up" the city for the baseball playoffs. The arrogant cops say they have the precedent of removing homeless for the 2004 VP Fair. Typical of police to commit a terrible act, win in court, then use that case as a precedent to do the same thing again. They do this "precedent" crap when they search people illegally, a clear violation of the 4th Amendment, but they won in an "X vs. Y" court case.

The Cardinal rally was on Washington Ave between Tucker and 14th, a hideous gentrified area. The tax dollars of the working poor paid big bucks for fancy paving, lights, and other unnecessary improvements. Most if not all businesses and residences on Washington Ave are for metrosexuals. There's a Starbucks nearby (hint: if (when?) the riots occur, Starbucks is an excellent place to direct your rage. If you live nearer to the U City Loop than downtown, go after the Starbucks there).

Around 5:30 PM, a Black lady who appeared to be homeless because she was carrying pillows was forced out of the block party area.

Saw two other homeless people about 6:30 who at the time escaped the eye of the police.

Around 8 PM, a group of police thugs moved in on a Black gentleman who was sitting on the sidewalk. His behavior was fine (unlike the hundreds of "Brian Moran" Cardinal fans who behaved like drunken idiots). He carried a small plastic bag; perhaps the cops assumed this made him homeless, or they knew him from previous attacks by the cops on him. One cop, a 30-ish whiteboy with short brown hair an ugly scowl, motioned for him to get up and said, "Get out, you don't belong here!" The cowardly cop had 4 or 5 other cops with him. Multiple cops followed him east on Washington Ave. A clueless redneck woman asked one cop some stupid question, so temporarily only the scowler followed the gentleman. All this time, I walked about 40 feet to the right of them. The gentleman started to turn north on Tucker, then he turned back to tell the scowler the cops had no right to tell him where to go, that it's a public event everyone should be allowed to attend. The cop said for him to get out. As the gentleman left the area again, I asked him if the cops did anything and said perhaps the news cameras caught it on tape that could be subpoenaed by advocate lawyers. He said the cops didn't "do anything", which he probaby meant as no typical assault and battery by the police. I mentioned the act of police bullying during big events such as the VP Fair and Cardinal playoffs. He responded that police ALWAYS do this. This past weekend at Laclede's Landing, he saw cops mess up a homeless woman, causing her severe injury. I stood at the corner to make sure the cops didn't follow him, then after a few minutes I left this hideous whites-only celebration for the rich, resisting any urges to bash the heads of metrosexuals and the windows of their gentrified lofts and coffeeshops.