St. Louis, MO: Communiques from anti-police march and later attack on police stations

St. Louis to Oakland Fuck the Police march
from anews:

On Tuesday January 31st around 40-50 people marched down south Grand Boulevard–a bar district hotspot–to protest recent actions by the police in Oakland and St. Louis.

As we assembled, unmarked cop cars hovered on the periphery. Others, marked and un-marked quickly arrived as we left Tower Grove Park behind banners that read “COPS OUT OF OUR NEIGHBORHOODS-OUT OF OUR LIVES” and “(A)WAR ON PRISON SOCIETY(A)”. The march slowly proceeded down s. grand while the mobile sound system thumped amid cries to “turn it up!” A string of cars began to form behind us and hundreds of flyers were distributed to on lookers and motorists. As we went, the same flyer was wheat pasted along the route. Strangers joined the fray by stepping out of the bars and off the sidewalks. Happily bewildered faces greeted the march along with shouts, pumped fists, jumping up and down and excited honks.

The social facade slipped for a moment: no one likes the police. How wonderful it is to scream it!

Our rage over people murdered by the police in the streets of St. Louis, and our horror at the videos of friends and comrades shot with “less lethal” weaponry was still fresh. And we marched carrying those histories. There have been a string of demos these past months. When California prisoners rise up in unison, when Scott Perry was left to die while in custody at the downtown jail, when Anthony Smith and so many others were gunned down by trigger happy STLPD, or just when we felt the moment was right. Our confidence to hold the space we want on our own terms has been growing. These moments have helped us learn how to better move amongst one another, and how to keep each other safe. This progression has us move more slowly, but ever forward, working within the confines of the city around us.

Eventually, spurred by our refusal to acknowledge them or their orders the police aggression escalated. The march turned itself around with raucous cries of “fuck you!” and snaked its way past and through the line of police cars. Helicopters circled overhead, their whirring blades adding to the drama of the night. Time was found to hurl paint at the police substation along the route while “fuck the police” was tagged along the side of a city bus.

At the end a brief scuffle with the police ensued ending with one comrade pinned against the wall and arrested. A chant of “COPS, PIGS, and MURDERERS” grew louder as attempts to prevent the arrest failed.

We know how to start a rowdy demo, but how do we end one? Without the university or autonomous neighborhood to retreat into how do we creates spaces of asylum? Spaces where the police do not enter. Occupied Kiener Plaza partially filled that role for a time, but with what concessions? Our exits must be as graceful as our grand entrances if we are to have the energy to keep returning.

After our comrade was led away dozens of police lingered attempting to keep us from re-taking the streets. Which they proudly boasted as a victory on local media outlets. What they do not understand is that they cannot win these skirmishes if we continue to decide the battlegrounds and on what terms we fight. It was already over when they decided to attack; the street was theirs simply because we had no use for it anymore.

Exit strategies and march coordination can be our downfalls. So we constantly ask; what is our capacity? How do we recognize the things that expand it? And the things that diminish it? As long as we keep these questions on our lips and our collective rage boiling there is hope.

Love to comrades and people fighting back in Oakland, Riager 94 and the world over…
Fuck the OPD, STLPD and police everywhere!
Avenge Anthony Smith and all those murdered by the State!

Claim of responsibility for attacks on two police stations
from anews:

It is hard to express the emotions that have flooded over us the past week. Every update from Oakland brings a new wave. Ranging from pure shock and euphoric joy that this is finally happening, that the State and Capitalism are being met with such beautiful resistance, to a gut wrenching rage and fear when we hear of the brutal violence and imprisonment inflicted on our comrades by the OPD. We want you to know that these affronts will not be forgotten, but rather answered with as much fury as we can muster.

On the night of January 31, we put this rage into practice in the best way we know possible. Two police substations were attacked with paint and stones, bringing the total to three attacked that night including the one hit earlier at the demonstration.

This is still just a gesture, and in no way can convey our love for our comrades. Nothing short of standing with them on the ruins of this world could. However this is an attempt to break the alienation we feel from their struggle due to distance, and to make this struggle real in our own lives as well. We want so desperatly to be there with you. To fight in the streets and to mend your wounds, but more than that we want our city to explode, for the resistance to spread. We want to feel that when we are in the streets you are with us, to share the fear and excitement of this chaos so that we may overcome the alienation we feel in society.

We cannot find words that express how proud we are when we see so many comrades in the street, and how you continue to inspire us. But mostly, there is no way to say how much we care for you.

Eye for an eye pigs gotta die, or maybe this time it is more appropriate to say ear for an ear.

Forever your comrades in the struggle,

Some Midwest hooligans

SOLIDARITY WITH EVERYONE WHO REBELS AGAINST THIS WORLD

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