After attacking Dr. Jill Stein, St. Louis police charged her with assaulting
them. Stein is the presumptive Presidential candidate of the Green Party.
On April 27 she spoke at a program of the Green Party of St. Louis and then
went to support student protesters at Washington University. There, she
was arrested along with Green Party campaign managers Jason Call and
Kelly Merrill with about 100 others.
As soon as Stein arrived at the campus, students asked her to help
defuse an already tense situation. When she identified herself to onlooking
university administrators as a Green Party Presidential candidate, police
moved to block the conversation.
Merrill and Stein looked for a restroom and found all doors locked;
but a student was able to unlock one door. Hearing yelling that the police
were about to attack, they quickly went outside. They walked into the space
between students and police, pleading for calm. But the police moved in,
using their bicycles as weapons to push people down. Targeting Stein first,
they threw her on her head, threw Merrill to the ground, jumped on Call, and
dozens became their victims.
Green Party Candidate Jill Stein
Students who were arrested have been prohibited from re-entering campus
even if they will miss final examinations and not graduate. The
administration-police reaction followed a pattern at universities across the
US as if it had been scripted by Joe Biden’s office.
The similarities between practices in Palestine and on US campuses is
unmistakable. This is true not only for intolerance of dissent and brutality.
It is also the case with the way Israelis destroy sanitary facilities in Gaza,
leaving them with nowhere to relieve themselves except on sidewalks. This
serves both to humiliate Palestinians and create a health crisis.
Jewish herself, Stein claims that “The students are not the villains in this
struggle against Israeli violence. They are in fact the heroes, defending the
right of free speech and to peacefully protest.” Many already see the villains
being the Washington University administration, those who conspired with
them to destroy free speech, and the Biden gang whose fingerprints are all
over efforts to shut down peace initiatives. Out of one side of his mouth Biden
claims he is working to end the killing and maiming of Palestinians. From
the other side of his mouth comes the push for billions of war dollars that
are causing the genocide.
Caption: Kelly Merrill, Jill Stein, Jason Call with arrest charges.
April 28, 2024 photo by Barbara Chicherio.
Dr. Stein joined tens of thousands of students in campuses across the US
who are demanding university divestment from Boeing and other companies
that manufacture weapons used by Israel. Students presented Washington
University with five demands:
• cut ties with Boeing;
• boycott Israel educational institutions;
• drop charges and suspensions against protestors and defund
university police;
• stop buying land and to return all land to indigenous communities;
• and release a statement condemning Palestinian genocide and
calling for a ceasefire.
The mounting opposition to Joe Biden’s war is reflected by the wide
variety of speakers at the St. Louis event: Andrew de las Alas (Asians
Demanding Justice), Saish Satyal (College Democrats), Lila Steinbach
(Jewish Students for Palestine), Bahar Bastani MD (Dar al-Zahra Mosque
and Education Center), Shahab Mushtaq (Green Party of St. Louis), Bob
Suberi (Veterans For Peace), Chibu Asonye (Green Party of Illinois), Zaki
Baruti (Universal African Peoples Organization) and Omali Yeshitela (African
People’s Socialist Party).
Dr. Stein will speak in Kansas City MO at 6 pm Monday, April 29 at
HJ’s Youth & Community Center, 6425 Wornall Rd, 64113. It is part of a
tour which took her to St. Louis on April 27, Columbia on April 28 and
later to Kansas and Nebraska.
This article is by Don Fitz, Outreach Coordinator, Green Party of St. Louis
Please take a look at the Green Social Thought website: http://www.greensocialthought.org/
Its focus is: “Produce less. Distribute it fairly. Create a greener world for all
www.gateway-greens.org For more info, call 314-727-8554
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