Protesters sue over ag forum arrests

ST. LOUIS -- Two dozen activists arrested or detained before planned protests at a global agricultural forum in 2003 are suing the city, mayor and police chief, accusing them of plotting to stifle their constitutional rights to demonstrate.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in by the American Civil Liberties Union, seeks $2,000 in damages for each plaintiff, as well as a court order barring police from using future "pretextual" arrests.

Spokesmen for Mayor Francis Slay and the police department declined comment Tuesday, saying they had not seen the lawsuit.

On May 16, 2003, police arrested 15 people for allegedly occupying a condemned building -- charges that the lawsuit says kept them jailed for 20 hours. Police also detained nine bicyclists who said they planned to attend the protests days later at the World Agriculture Forum's World Congress.

The lawsuit claims that one of the plaintiffs was picked up by police while walking along a street, then held for as long as five hours in the back of a patrol car on charges that later were dropped.

Police said then that the bicyclists each were issued a summons for impeding the flow of traffic, though they may have been arrested on a law that's no longer on the books -- failure to have a license to ride a bicycle.

In making the arrests, authorities also said they found roofing nails, a slingshot, combustibles, a bag of rocks and other items similar to those used when protests elsewhere turned violent.

"The charges against the plaintiffs were either based on repealed law, were legally impossible or were not supported by the facts or law," according to the lawsuit, which also names as defendants various police officers and members of the city's Building and Zoning Commission. "At all relevant times, defendants had the willful, malicious and deliberate intention to deprive plaintiffs of their liberty and constitutionally safeguarded civil rights."

Even with the arrests, the protests went on peacefully outside the site where scientists, agriculture experts, educators and farmers from more than 20 countries gathered. The protesters have argued that genetically modified seeds and foods are harmful to consumers and the environment.

In advance of the forum, St. Louis police consulted with Seattle counterparts about the 1999 protests that disrupted the World Trade Organization's meeting, when an estimated 50,000 demonstrators overwhelmed 400 officers, smashing windows and vandalizing cars. Police fought back with rubber bullets and tear gas.

The ag forum's World Congress has been staging its yearly gathering here since Monday, with no reports of arrests. The event is taking place this week.

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On the Net:

ACLU of Eastern Missouri, http://www.aclu-em.org

City of St. Louis, http://stlouis.missouri.org/government