Sat Aug 25, 2007 Plog (The Pitch)
On the same day that a presidential visit snarled traffic around Bartle Hall (really, was building the convention center to straddle the highway such a great idea?), U.S. marshals paid a visit to our local anarchist bookstore – and it wasn’t to pick up some Kafka.
Volunteer Chuck Munson was manning the Crossroads Infoshop and Radical Bookstore at 3109 Troost around 3 in the afternoon last Wednesday when he found a “posse” of U.S. marshals outside the store. Munson writes on his blog that a “woman agent, who was wearing a vest and had weapons, (was) asking questions of two people inside our store.” “I challenged her to show a warrant and she responded that she didn’t need to show a warrant.”
Munson writes that he felt threatened by the female marshal after she told him that he “didn’t want to go there” with her.
Apparently the marshal was being played by Queen Latifah.
Munson’s reaction to the marshal might seem too hostile too soon, but bear in mind, this is the same Infoshop whose employees were tailed by FBI agents and questioned about organized violent protests preceding the 2004 election.
Munson, who refers to the marshals as “terrorists” on his blog, tells the Pitch that he doesn’t think the marshals’ visit was related to Bush’s Kansas City address. “But it was ironic,” he says. “I had thought about going to the protests for the Bush thing, but I figured he’s going to be out of office soon. And I didn’t feel like dealing with the police.”
In the end, the marshals were looking for a suspect with a bench warrant, Munson says. After they left the Infoshop, they continued on to search the building next door to the Infoshop. There’s no word whether Latifah got her man. – Nadia Pflaum
http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2007/08/gmen_and_anarchist_bookstores.php