"Activists To Cops: 'Stop Picking On Us'"

Jules Crittenden, Boston Herald

Peace activists say the FBI has been harassing and intimidating them with
visits across the country, including an incident in Boston Saturday where
federal agents, police and firefighters searched a "mobile kitchen'' and
seized five propane tanks.

"It's a problem because people are being targeted specifically because they
are against the Democrats and the Republicans,'' said Rachael Perrotta of
Chicago, who is in Boston with Democracy Uprising, a group behind the
DNC2RNC march from Boston to New York that begins Friday.Saturday, a bus owned by members of Seeds of Peace was searched after Boston
police said they received a call about suspicious activity on Amory Street
in Jamaica Plain, BPD spokeswoman Beverly Ford said. After a four-hour
search that included the FBI, Secret Service and the State Police bomb
squad, the Fire Department seized five propane tanks that Perrotta said were
for cooking to feed marchers. She said the bus was not going near the DNC.

Perrotta said she was separately approached by FBI agents who began asking
questions about involvement with anyone planning to disrupt the convention.

FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz declined to comment on FBI questioning
and investigations, but she said, "We don't harass. If an investigation is
conducted, it would be conducted in a professional manner.''

Urszula Masny-Latos of the National Lawyers Guild said her group is
gathering information to see whether a complaint should be filed.
Masny-Latos said Seeds of Peace was supposed to cook for an event Sunday
co-sponsored by the Bl(A)ck Tea Society, which authorities have monitored
citing concerns about disruptive protests.

Activists say FBI agents have made harassing visits to their homes in New
York, Kansas, Missouri and Denver.

"Their demeanor was very stern, very intimidating,'' said Jenkins, who said
he and his roommates are active with Food Not Bombs and the Derailler Bike
Collective, providing food and bikes to the needy, but have not been
involved in disruptive protests.

"That's what baffled me... We don't have money to go to the East Coast,''
Jenkins said.