Report from the Bolozone.

• Author: Meister, Kelley
• Position: Bio-Repression

[This article is based on the author's presentation at the forum on "Police Repression in a Police State," held by the Green Party of St. Louis on June 4, 2003.]

My name is Kelley Meister, and I would first like to share these words, spoken by Assata Shakur, revolutionary and freedom fighter, with you:

I hate war in all its forms: physical, psychological, spiritual, emotional, environmental. I hate war, and I hate having to struggle because I wish I had been born into a world where it was unnecessary. This context of struggle, and being a warrior, and being a struggler has been forced on me by oppression. Otherwise I would be a sculptor, or a gardener, a carpenter. You know, I would be free to be so much more. I have been thinking about what she said a lot lately. What she did, what she fought for. And I've been putting her words into the context of my life, as a white, privileged, college-educated woman in 2003's amerika. I believe that our current society oppresses all of us--to varying degrees and for various reasons, but I do believe we are all oppressed. I have chosen to live my life according to this belief, according to how I want to help us break free from the State's repression, police repression, the class oppression, the racial oppression, the oppression of our sexual activities and enforcement of our gender boundaries, the oppression that is inflicted because of what age we may or may not be. These are the things I struggle against.

I initially became involved with the Bolozone because of my struggle. The Bolozone was established four and a half years ago as a collective urban living experiment. Over those years, many people have been a part of shaping what the space is today and will become in the future through their artistic endeavors, musical studios/projects, urban gardening, rehabilitation of the house, creative experiments, and love for the Bolozone. I have been familiar with the Bolozone since Winter of 2000, and I moved into the house in November of 2002 because I wanted to be a part of this amazing project.

On Friday, May 16, I woke up and let out a sigh of relief. The night before, police had been circling our house relentlessly, following my friends home, and harassing them on the street, and I had feared waking up to the police knocking down my door. I ate some breakfast and went downstairs to find "Jane," a member of the fabulous Flying Rutabaga Cycle Circus. We were going to be painting the butterfly bicycle flags...