St. Louis City Hall Locks Out Alderwomen, Activists

The press conference held by St. Louis: Not for Sale yesterday was pretty tame as far as these things go. No chanting, no marching. Just a half-dozen people concerned about the effort to privatize St. Louis Lambert International Airport, and a half-dozen or so journalists intent on quoting them.

But City Hall was apparently expecting something a bit more rambunctious. Just before the 3 p.m. press event began on the stairs facing Tucker Street, security guards closed the gates for that entrance and a few others. Questioned why, they said only that orders had come from their supervisors.

The action was particularly odd because roughly half the group assembled to criticize the privatization effort consisted of city alderwomen. Alderwoman Annie Rice says she actually left her office inside City Hall to participate in the press conference — only to see the gates soon locked behind her.

"It just seemed baffling," she says.

Koran Addo, a spokesman for the mayor's office, says the decision would have been made by the city marshals, a unit of the police department responsible for security at City Hall. The mayor was not involved, he said.

Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2018/09/14/city-hall-locks-out-alderwomen-activists