Protests and Demonstrations

Photos: Seven Arch Coal Protesters Lock Themselves to 500-Pound Plant Pot, Face Arrest

Here's one way to make a scene: Lock yourself to a 500-pound potted plant inside a corporate building as others dance and sing loudly in the lobby. That's exactly what a group of activists did yesterday inside the Arch Coal headquarters in Creve Coeur. And the demonstration -- aimed at drawing atten ... More >>

Metric

8 p.m. Tuesday, October 2. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $30 to $34. 314-726-6161.

Protestors Tag Downtown Banks, Get Cuffed

Around ten people were arrested downtown late last night after tagging some banks and scuffling with cops and civilians. (Daily RFT happened to be a couple blocks away when the melee erupted. At about 10:40 p.m., the Cardinals game had just ended when white city police cars from all directions start ... More >>

Senate Passes Bill Criminalizing Protests Outside Churches

​State Senator Robert N. Mayer (R-Dexter) successfully passed his bill (SB755) yesterday that makes it illegal to disrupt religious services at any church, mosque, temple or other place of worship. The bill was inspired by the actions of the Westboro Baptist Church at the funeral of Christina Gree ... More >>

14 Arrested in Occupy St. Louis March and Demonstration; Total Arrests Now at 51

Photos: Tony D'SouzaOccupy STL protesters march to the MLK Bridge yesterday afternoon.​If city officials thought that last weekend's forced eviction of Occupy St. Louis' tent encampment from Kiener Plaza would spell the end of the movement, they were mistaken. Yesterday nearly 1,000 Occupy support ... More >>

Hundreds Rally to Save St. Louis County Parks

Photos: Ashley AtkinsDemonstrators blanketed the sidewalk and then packed a County Council meeting last night. ​A crowd that swelled to well over 200 people arrived to downtown Clayton yesterday to protest the proposed closing of dozens of St. Louis County Parks.

27 Occupiers Arrested As Police Enforce Kiener Plaza Curfew

Photos: Tony D'SouzaOccupy St. Louis members stand their ground and prepare to be arrested.​For a moment last night, members of Occupy St. Louis had hope. Attorneys representing the protesters were meeting late into the evening with Federal District Court Judge Carol Jackson, arguing that the gro ... More >>

Occupants: Portraits from the protest

OccupySTL Protesters and Reps from Mayor's Office Hold Meeting; Civility Ensues

Albert SamahaHow long will Mayor Slay let the OccupySTL tents stay in Kiener Plaza?​Forty or so OccupySTL protesters and a handful of reporters stood outside the Broadway Central entrance of the Edward Jones Dome, in the rain, waiting for someone to open the doors. They could see security guards a ... More >>

St. Louis Mayor Plays Into Hands of Occupiers

Slay to Kiener Plaza protesters: Move along!​On Friday, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said the Occupy St. Louis protesters must vacate Kiener Plaza, the downtown park where they've camped out now for over a month. In so doing, Slay gave the occupiers something their movement desperately needs: a so ... More >>

Police Not a Problem for OccupySTL; The Homeless on the Other Hand...

Albert Samaha​There is madness in Oakland, Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta, New York. Flash-and-bang gas canisters... protesters flushed from public squares... mass arrests. But not here. At first, a cynic might think, "Of course! The last thing this city needs is a stone-throwing-police-wi ... More >>

Food Trucks Donate to Occupy St. Louis Protesters

Photo courtesy of Brian Villa​Recently Mother Jones writer Tom Philpott advised "foodies" to join the Occupy Wall Street movement, since the corporate food industry is a part of the Wall Street greed being protested. For two St. Louis small food businesses, they were already there. But when ... More >>

John Bosler: Pleads Guilty to Attacking Parents Who Nagged Him About Getting a Job

Bosler: Jobless frustrations prompted attack.​Count assault suspect John Bosler among the 99 percent. Perhaps if he'd had a constructive way to voice his frustration -- like today's Occupy Wall Street protesters -- we wouldn't have to report the following:Last week, the 33-year-old Bosler, of Jeff ... More >>

Ten Musicians Who Support Occupy Wall Street

Adbusters​"Occupy Wall Street" started out as a 1,000-person mid-September protest in a New York City park against, among other things, financial disparity and corporate influence. Since that time that protest has grown into a nationwide movement, spurring on the creation of "Occupy" spinoffs ... More >>

Right-Wing Blogger: OccupySTL is Homophobic; Not Racially Tolerant Like the Tea Party

​It's just not fair. As Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and other speakers-of-the-truth have noted, the lame-stream media isn't criticizing Occupy Wall Street like they did the Tea Party. They're not calling the "occupiers" what they really are: a bunch of Nazis and trust-fund parasites.Leave it, then, ... More >>

OccupySTL Protesters Arrested

​St. Louis police reportedly arrested ten people last night associated with the OccupySTL protest that has been camped out in Kiener Plaza since Saturday. According to OccupySTL's facebook and blog, around 70 uniformed officers swept into the downtown St. Louis park just before midnight Wednesday, ... More >>

OccupySTL Protesters Vow To Continue Downtown Rally

Photos: Chad GarrisonOccupySTL protesters greet Cardinals fans last night near Kiener Plaza.​Daily RFT didn't stick around long enough last night to see the police issue citations to protesters occupying Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis. In hindsight, we're glad we didn't. It would've been a lon ... More >>

Obama "Stop the Pipeline" Protesters: Here's What They Want

The Keystone XL Pipeline is not the kind of "new energy" that President Obama's former fans at Wash. U. were looking for.​As the P-D's Jake Wagman reports this morning, a protester interrupted President Barack Obama's fundraiser in downtown St. Louis last night to interject "Stop the Pipeline!"Wri ... More >>

Bikers In Joplin Chase Off Religious Protester; But Was Man With Westboro Baptist Church?

A religious protester back pedals as hundred of counter-demonstrators give chase Sunday.​Have you seen the video yet of the bikers in Joplin chasing off the protester purported to be affiliated with the Westboro Baptist Church? The incident occurred Sunday when President Barack Obama was in Joplin ... More >>

News from Egypt: The Rocks Have Started Flying

image via​The Snowpocalypse here may have amounted to just a few inches, but the news from Egypt is really just as bad as you've heard. Daily RFT just got off the phone with Alix Dunn, an American who lives in Cairo and works for an NGO. Dunn wrote her masters thesis on social networking under ... More >>

Westboro Baptist Church Sues St. Charles City; Wins Injunction vs. St. Charles County

Plaintiff Megan Phelps-Roper protesting in St. Louis last summer.​It took the Westboro Baptist Church just one day to sue St. Charles after the city last week enacted an ordinance restricting when and where protesters can picket during funerals. Westboro Baptist Church has made a name for itself i ... More >>

Weston, MO Townsfolk Block Phelps Hate-Fest

Weston isn't having this trash in their town​Anti-gay hate mongers from Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church were repulsed from a funeral by about half the small town of Weston in Platte County on Saturday.The people in the town got wind of the Westboro hate group's plan to protest the funeral of ... More >>

Top Ten Signs From the Gateway Arch September Tea Party Rally

Click here for a full slideshow from the Gateway to November Tea Party Rally. On Sunday September 12, Tea Party members and their fellow travelers descended on the grounds of the Gateway Arch to protest the federal government. As with most political rallies, homemade signs were abundant and, as wit ... More >>

Westboro Baptist Church Wins Lawsuit vs. Missouri; Free to Protest Funerals Unrestricted

Rev. Phelps: Open for business in Missouri.​Two Missouri laws aimed specifically at controversial Rev. Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church were struck down yesterday in federal court in Jefferson City. State legislators passed the laws back in 2006. One prohibited protests near a church or ... More >>

Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Cardinals Game Saturday

Fred Phelps: Knows a thing or two about Cardinals sin. ​The Rev. Fred Phelp's Westboro Baptist Church is planning to picket outside Busch Stadium this Saturday when the Cardinals are in town to face the Dodgers. The church announced the protest on its website, calling St. Louis "that evil city wit ... More >>

"Homophobic Remarks" Prompt Protest Outside Ike Skelton's District Office Today

Ike Skelton: Defender of Family Values​A group of gay-rights activists plans to protest outside U.S. Congressman Ike Skelton's district office in Jefferson City this morning. Members of the LGBT organizations GetEqual and Show Me No Hate say they will drop off a petition with 3,000-plus signatures ... More >>

Group Plans Corporate and Government Protests in St. Louis This Week

Will this Internet-famous St. Louis protester be there?​I'm not sure if the People's Settlement would fall under the category of an extremist militia as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center. But this I know, the People's Settlement are not Tea Party activists. No, far from it. So who/what is ... More >>

Tea Party Goes Crazier: Burn Russ Carnahan in Effigy, Spit on Mo. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver

St. Louis Tea Party lights it up for Carnahan.​This weekend's health care vote in the U.S. House brought out the radical, right-wing fringe (again). At a St. Louis Tea Party rally outside of Russ Carnahan's St. Louis office on Saturday, an angry mob threw shoes at a photo of the congressman before ... More >>

New Video: Republican Saboteur James O'Keefe Disrupts Gay-Rights Rally in St. Louis

O'Keefe (left) and Basel photographed by authorities following their arrest in New Orleans last month.​Just got a heads up from Adam Shriver over at St. Louis Activist Hub about a new video showing Tea Party "heroes" James O'Keefe and Joseph Basel disrupting a gay-rights rally in St. Louis last No ... More >>

Video: Missourians Protest Red-Light "SCAMeras"

YouTubeA "scamera" protester in Kansas City.​A Missouri group called Liberty Restoration Project had planned eleven rallies nationwide this past Sunday to protest the use of red-light cameras. Kansas City was one of the towns that actually participated in the Valentine's Day protest. St. Louis was ... More >>

Ass Clown(s) of the Week: Rev. Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church

Phelps packs it up after a convincing victory.​The votes are in and the first Ass Clown of 2010 goes to a man and his followers who are well accustomed to derision and buffoonery. Forty-one percent of Daily RFT readers last week picked Rev. Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church as Ass Clowns ... More >>

Protesters Will Return to Cathedral Basilica Sunday, This Time Without The Police Hassle

The past four Sundays hundreds of people have gathered in front of the Cathedral Basilica in the Central West End to protest St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson's $10,000 contribution to a political campaign that helped repeal Maine's recently enacted gay marriage law.Last weekend the protesters, wh ... More >>

Spanish Lake Casino Opponents Set to Picket County Planning Commission Meeting Tonight

www.knitwareblog.com​Remember the late-July proposal from a North St. Louis County developer for a massive casino and resort next to the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area? The one that would turn 376 acres of wetlands into 8,000 parking spots, an 18-hole golf course, and another Casino in the St. ... More >>

Chad Garrison wages a lonely protest, while a newlywed takes a bummer of an acid trip in a Fenton park

St. Louis Police Apologize to "Anarchists"

Dan Green, owner of the home, called "Bolozone", where many of the protesters were rounded up by police.​The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has reached a settlement with four would-be protesters arrested prior to the 2003 World Agriculture Forum held in St. Louis. The demonstrators -- wh ... More >>

Protest Against Public Schools, Socialism Impacts Hearts and Minds of Dozen(s)

Behind the author's grin is a McCarthyist rage that cannot be contained. (Note the police presence in the background.)​Well that went well. As promised, this morning I arrived at Adams Elementary School in the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood to protest the nefarious ties between public educatio ... More >>

Public Education = Socialism. Let's Protest the First Day of School!

Protest like it's 1959!​I just wrote a 1,000 word essay on the bizarre political rhetoric of the last few weeks. But then I thought, why bother? You don't get attention these days via the printed word. You get attention by arriving en masse outside a business or government building (preferably one ... More >>

DNC Responds to Tea Party Protesters, "Birthers" and Other Malcontents

Have you seen the Democratic National Committee video making the rounds on the Internet? I'm not sure it's going to silence any members of the St. Louis Tea Party (especially now that Fox News has made the group so legit), but it does seem to fight fire with fire by using video clips of the proteste ... More >>

Getting to the Bottom of that Puzzling Claire McCaskill Tweet

Earlier today Daily RFT blogger Bill Streeter posted a quizzical "tweet" made yesterday on Senator Claire McCaskill's Twitter feed. Curious as to what McCaskill was discussing in this post, I just conducted a grueling two minutes of Internet research to arrive at the bottom of the matter.Not surpris ... More >>

Group Succeeds in Brief, Peaceful Shutdown of I-70

Last week we told you how the African-American Business and Contractors Association's planned to shutdown Interstate 70 as a way to protest what they say is a lack of black contractors hired for road construction jobs in Missouri and Illinois. In making its announcement, the group noted that its pla ... More >>

Tea and "Grumpets" Under the Arch

flickr.com/photos/cmbellmanA group of folks opposed to the federal stimulus package President Barack Obama signed into law earlier this month are meeting under the Gateway Arch tomorrow to protest the legislation.Similar rallies are being held across the country on Friday. Protesters are comparing t ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Friday, 12.19

In today's news: more countries need food aid, Mexico protests U.S. labeling laws, eating cats in china and brewing beer in space.

Over the Weekend: Old School Tattoos, Prop 8 Protest

Good morning, St. Louis. Here's what you may have missed over the weekend... Prop 8 Protest On Saturday afternoon, between 500 and 1,000 people, depending on who you ask, gathered around the Old Courthouse on Broadway to protest the recent passage ban on same-sex marriage (Read "Prop 8 Protest Se ... More >>

Prop 8 Protest Set for Saturday at Old Courthouse

Update: Coverage and photos of the protest: "Prop 8 Leaves Some Missourians in Marital Limbo" A protest against California's Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, is set for noon Saturday on the steps of the Old Courthouse. Show Me No Hate has been set up to inform people about the demonstrat ... More >>

Hate Cycling Shorts?

Don't wear 'em

Law and Anarchy

St. Louis Police Chief Joe Mokwa and his officers may stand trial for violating the civil rights of “anarchists” in 2003.

Draught-Dodger

Week of May 14, 2003

Hell No, They Won't Go

Protesters say pens are for sheep, not Bush critics

Howard's End

After nearly three decades on the run, a fugitive from the raucous anti-war era is outed

WAGE DELAY

Labor, ACORN and the city support a living-wage ordinance, but it's going nowhere fast