Police raid Ferguson church for third time. Platoon of cops claim people illegally sleeping there

[Bjorn Against]

Police raid Ferguson church for third time. Platoon of cops claim people illegally sleeping there
by Meteor Blades

For the third time since the police slaying of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, St. Louis County police raided the Greater St. Mark Church property Wednesday. Church leaders have allowed community activists to use the gymnasium of an abandoned private school on church property as a first aid station for treatment of people injured by tear gas in protests against the shooting of Brown. People could also get food and water there, and community activists used it to plan protest strategy.

But all that apparently made it a special target for the cops whom one would think have enough on their plates in Ferguson not to be harassing a humanitarian operation.

Police claimed that people had been sleeping in the gym, something not allowed under city zoning and a violation of occupancy rules. According to eyewitnesses, more than 20 officers showed up to search the building just before noon Wednesday. Probably the first time in the city's history a platoon of cops has been sent to check out an alleged occupancy code violation. This time they didn't come armed with assault weapons as witnesses said has been the case in previous raids. Nor did they take away any supplies, something that observers say happened in Tuesday's raid.

A church volunteer, Marcel Williams, spoke with a local television reporter about Wednesday's raid:

“They looked like they were looking for someone in particular, just because of the depth of the search they were doing. No guns were drawn at the time or anything of that nature, but it was an intensive search,” said Williams.

The church officials told News 4 nobody has been staying in the building overnight.

That wasn't the police version. In a statement issued Wednesday night, the St. Louis County Police Department said that when police searched the building: "It appeared that five to seven people [had been] sleeping in the facility but no one was present. The representative stated that he would advise the individuals to leave." The statement also said there was no animosity displayed between the cops and the church representative.

In a video made after the police raid on Tuesday, Philip Agnew of the advocacy group Dream Defenders said:

"But in no uncertain terms, this was a place where this community deemed, a place where we could come and feel—what? Safe. And what they did today was tell us what? There is no safety here."

It's unclear whether the protester in this video is correct in saying the police have "effectively" shut down the operation. A woman who answered the phone at the church Thursday morning told Daily Kos that she did not know whether the safe haven is still open and referred me to St. Mark's pastor, who had not returned the call by the time this was posted.

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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/21/1323489/-Police-raid-Ferguson-church-for-third-time-Platoon-of-cops-claim-people-illegally-sleeping-there

I wonder if the police are going to start raiding church youth group sleep-overs any time soon?

Where are all the "small government" advocates are to denounce this?

[BaggersRDumb]

1. Racist cops are punks, i guess

[billhicks76]

32. Targeting Specific Activists

They are probably being directed by Homeland Security which explains the hubris of the cops, their captains and the mayor. I heard they had been going house to house looking to confiscate cell phone footage of the murder too. Ron Johnson is the unfortunate Black Captain they paraded out to deflect accurate accusations.

[liberal N proud]

2. It's illegal to sleep in a church?

Damn, I must belong in jail, I have slept very well in many churches.

[Bjorn Against]

5. It sounds like you are a hardened criminal

[Chisox08]

6. Same here, I know as a kid I slept a lot in chirch.

I hated waking up early in the morning on one of the days I could sleep in late.

[jberryhill]

33. But if you had to wake up in the morning...

...then it wasn't a day you could sleep in late.

[notadmblnd]

29. especially on Sunday morning

[YarnAddict]

3. What a load of crap!

churches have always been refuges. Who are they to say someone is there "illegally?"

[Nuclear Unicorn]

35. We gave away our rights a long time ago. Now we must politely sit and wait for permission to act

like free people.

[HooptieWagon]

4. I hope the church made the pigs get a search warrant.

A) Theres a slim possibility the judge would have ROFL.
B) The pigs have to state on the warrant what they are searching for, and give reasonable suspicion.
C) The search warrant could be published, to show how ridiculous the pigs are.
D) Evidence for a lawsuit.

[Historic NY]

7. Let me ask the church should, say they are offering them sanctuary..

and refuge the police are violating that premise. of course that concept doesn't seem to be recognized any more but.

[Rex]

8. Wow...this is just going to get worse for the cops - ultimately

nt

[Uncle Joe]

9. Are these cops so blind as to not see far they have sunken?

Thanks for the thread, Bjorn Against.

[Rex]

10. Raiding a church...I guess next they hit an orphanage.

One or two of those snot nosed kids, is getting an extra bowl of soup. Really what is worse...tripping elderly people as they cross the street? Kidnapping puppies from 1st graders?

It sounds like the cops are so accustomed to acting like gods, they don't even notice when they are defiling God's house.

[jwirr]

11. I have always felt a little uneasy about anyone who compares another with the fascists and nazis.

Not anymore. This is ridiculous. Poor little wee piggies. The got their toes stepped on and now they are all bent out of shape. This is all about control and ego. Grow up little piggies.

[littlemissmartypants]

12. Jesus wept.

And gawd is going to kick their asses for that.

[blackspade]

13. More intimidation.

These assholes won't stop until everyone goes home and peacefully pays their extortion...er... fines.

[onecaliberal]

14. I guess my kids are criminals as well

They've participated in sleepovers at church over the years.

[smiley]

15. I would love to be a fly on the wall

in the room when the decision to raid a humanitarian operation. This whole fiasco is making me ill. There are days when I feel it's only a matter of time before this happens in my community.

[tea and oranges]

16. It's Lord of the Flies!

The version w/ weapons of war. The Ferguson force have shed all vestiges of civilization! Killing a young man & leaving his body out in full view of the community for 4 hours, gassing people in their front yards, desecrating churches, waving their guns around, ad nauseum.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

17. That town's police department is fucked up beyond repair

Rachel Maddow tonight was comparing the way the police in St. Louis responded immediately and with transparency to the Tuesday shooting and how the Ferguson police have done nothing but ignore requests for information and evidence. She gave several examples of how the St. Louis police responded again and again to questions about the shooting, their policies, and their equipment whereas the Ferguson PD have now refused to produce the police report of the Wilson shooting, Wilson's personnel file, the autopsy report or anything else. The only things they have given out is a video unrelated to the shooting about a convenience store incident that shows Brown in a bad light and today's production of a tape of a medal ceremony where Wilson received a medal, showing their cop in a good light.

However this turns out, I think that P.D. needs to be completely dismantled, with everyone in the hierarchy dumped, and be required to start again from scratch. They're behaving like an occupying force instead of a part of the community.

[pinboy3niner]

21. These were St. Louis County cops, not Ferguson PD

What the locals call the 'County Browns' (for their uniform color).

[99th_Monkey]

18. Horrors!!! A church actually DOING what Christ might have done????

THIS will NOT be tolerated.

[lobodons]

19. They got a tip that Jesus might be there

and it turned out to be just the gardener.

[VanGoghRocks]

41. They got a tip that Jesus might be there, but it turned

out to be just some anonymous carpenter.

[lumpy]

20. 20 cops were necessary to search the Church for people who might be sleeping there ?

This whole thing is getting beyond reason.

[truth2power]

23. I don't think they were looking for anyone at all...

I think the whole purpose was to make sure that everybody gets the message that there is NOWHERE that any citizen has a right to be without the express permission of the Stasi, er....the cops.

They want you to know that they own your ass! They can push you off the sidewalk and into the street and then shoot you dead because you're not standing on the sidewalk. Even a church isn't safe, because they own that too.

This is what comes from training with the military of a foreign country that sees terrorists under every bed.

[notadmblnd]

31. I wonder what would happen if all the people just packed up and abandoned the town?

No people to support local business, no rents, no cheap labor pool, no more property tax base to sustain police, fire and EMT services.

[truth2power]

36. You are obviously NOT a dumb blonde....

At least you're able to think outside the box which a positive start. Whether or not what you suggest is doable in the real world (and I guess we both agree that it's not) it points, conceptually, to an important point, which is that getting to government entities in the pocketbook is the only thing they understand.

Human life does not matter to the PTB. "Protesting" isn't the answer anymore. They'll just run over the protestors with a tank or shoot them down in the street. More creative strategies are needed.

[notadmblnd]

40. Yep economic hurt I think is the way to go

I heard people like Reverend Al say that the town is using the African American population economically in the form of excessive tickets and fines. In fact, if I recall correctly, harassing the population is a major source of income for the town.

Take the town's revenue source away and let the racists that remain eat shit to survive.

[BarackTheVote]

22. What the flying f*ck?!

How is this ordnance even legal? Aren't churches private property? If the pastor, priest, rector, or whoever happens to be the church's proprietor, wants to allow people to sleep on church property, how can that not be allowed?! Words cannot describe how f*cking PISSED this makes me--I'm religious, I go to church every Sunday, and I believe it is a sacred space, and for the Ferguson police to VIOLATE that sanctity... fuck them. All of their actions have been indefensible, regardless of what an enquiry may find out about the circumstances of the original shooting, the way that the police have abused the protesters, the reporters, and now this house of God--I cannot even--

[Thor_MN]

24. It was a gymnasium in an abandoned school on church property...

Don't get me wrong, had I been there, I would be asking t see a warrant. And taking my time reading it, if they actually produced one.

That said, it was an abandoned gym, not the church proper. Hardly a sacred place. But private property none the less and could I see warrant, sir, or do you believe that you are in pursuit?

[PumpkinAle]

25. Wow, good thing the police didn't go to this church.......

[ljm2002]

26. I thought a church was a sanctuary...

...and they could let anyone sleep there if they wanted to?

If people were there with the church's permission, then they weren't trespassing. So what law is being broken when the church allows someone to be there? Inquiring minds...

[PoutrageFatigue]

27. Dafuq?

Seriously out of control....

[oldandhappy]

28. FPD digs deeper and deeper hole for themselves.

How could they possible not know this would go public? They have been on the national news for two weeks. Anger, just anger. Anger destroys rationality.

[truth2power]

37. They. don't. care. n/t

[dougg]

30. conduct an all-night mass/service.

It does not have to be loud.

People have been known to sleep during services.

[truth2power]

38. Wry humor. I like it! ...

Helps me deal with the anger I feel over this horrific state of affairs.

[dougg]

43. It should work.

Just imagine police barging in on a religious service.

[Enthusiast]

34. More deeply disturbing authoritarianism.

[VanGoghRocks]

42. What happened to all the police apologists here? Where are they now with

their putrid "We need to wait for the evidence" line(s)?