Police sued over bookstore raid
Members of the Solidarity Collective remember police officers flashing the “L” hand sign at them as they drove around the group’s bookstore this summer. But Indianapolis police may wind up losers as the Indiana Civil Liberties Union has sued a long list of officers who allegedly violated the anti-establishment collective’s constitutional rights.
On Dec. 18, the ICLU filed a pair of suits against the police stemming from two incidents that occurred while the National Governors’ Association was meeting in the city last August.
The first involved an “inspection” of the Solidarity Bookstore at 2123 Boulevard Place. Police contend that the 9 p.m. visit to the home — owned by community activist Keni Washington and rented by members of the collective — was to allow Health and Hospital and Fire Department workers to act on a tip that conditions were unsafe at the house, which also served as a residence for several members of the collective.
The second suit concerns the group’s subsequent corralling and penning by the police during attempts to protest at the Governors’ Association meetings two days later.
Calls to IPD this week for comment on the lawsuits were not returned.
In an unusual show of force, witnesses say local Health and Fire Department inspectors were accompanied by 30 to 40 heavily armed police officers to the home on Aug. 14. The officers — some from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and from the Seattle Police Department — didn’t have a warrant and were not given permission to inspect the house.
Still, a 30-minute top-to-bottom search ensued with members of the collective photographing and videotaping the activities of the police.
“This was a situation where someone could have gotten seriously hurt,” Washington said at the press conference.
One police source later told local television news that they were acting on a tip that there were weapons and chemicals at the house. Instead, inspectors found minor fire-code violations like buckets of paint stored in the basement.
Washington said he and other members of the Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center had met with police two days prior to the raid, explaining they had nothing to fear from the Solidarity Collective. He even invited police to visit the house.
“I said, ‘We have nothing to hide,’” Washington said. “I said, ‘These are not criminals, these are human beings. Just go up to the door and they’ll let you in.’ We had no reason to expect this kind of mass invasion.”
Police continued surveillance of the Solidarity Bookstore and its members through the remainder of the weekend, circling the house and stopping on occasion to walk around the property.
All of this police activity, according to ICLU legal director Ken Faulk, was designed to intimidate members of the collective into canceling plans to protest outside of the Governors’ Association meetings. “It was a calculated move to discourage Solidarity, its members and supporters, from engaging in legitimate First Amendment activities,” Faulk said at the press conference.
While supporters of the collective rallied around the group the night of the police raid, interest waned in participating in the protests, according to collective members. Still, a small group gathered two days later to protest outside the downtown hotel where the governors were meeting.
On Aug. 16, police forced the group to remain in a small pre-planned “staging area” surrounded by officers. Police also blocked the group’s attempt to march from the area to Monument Circle as members had planned.
“The Indianapolis Police Department had made all of downtown, with the exception of this small space, a no-protest zone,” Faulk said. “If America stands for anything, it stands for the freedom to speak your mind and say what you wish without feeling the heavy hand of government on your shoulder or knocking at your door. Democracy dies when free speech disappears.”
Members of the collective say they hadn’t felt police pressure prior to that weekend in August. They’ve experienced none since.
“This all stopped immediately after the governors were out of town,” said collective member Gwen Frisbee-Fulton. “That indicates to us that they weren’t afraid of us. They just wanted to intimidate us to keep us away.”
The collective and the ICLU have filed these suits in hopes of helping stem a tide of further government crackdowns on civil disagreement. “We want to bring the city to task and make sure they can’t continue this kind of treatment of other community groups,” Frisbee-Fulton said. “We feel that if the government is going to make laws and ask the police to enforce them, the police need to be held to those laws, too.”
Any damages the group might be rewarded in the case would go toward community projects, not to the individuals, according to group member Michael Reddy.
The collective started in a Fountain Square storefront two years ago. Comprised of 25 politically active young people and lacking a defined leader, the crux of the group’s mission, according to Frisbee-Fulton, is to “encourage people to take control of their own lives.”
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