Almost a year after Black organizers were doxxed by the former mayor, several Twitter users called out a white St. Louis attorney for attacks on Action St. Louis, a grassroots racial justice organization, and its staff.
In a series of tweets, Jane Dueker accused Action St. Louis, and executive director Kayla Reed, of engaging in nefarious and potentially unethical activity.
For those following along:@ActionSTL is a 501(c)(3) & isn’t directly political@actionstlpower is their 501(c)(4) arm, which can be politically active; the white police union lawyer likely is being obtuse here & intentionally trying to mislead@ActionNetworkHQ is unrelated
— Chelsea Mérta (@ChelseaKMerta) June 25, 2021
Dueker also posted the organization’s filing without redacting seemingly personal information. Reed confirmed that her personal information, along with that of some of her staff, had, in fact, been revealed online.
I just saw my home address on Twitter. The home addresses of my staff on Twitter.
We can have poltical disputes. I welcome them. You can fully disagree with our tactics but that’s too far. That’s too fucking far.
— Kayla Reed (@iKaylaReed) June 25, 2021
Identified in the media as both a lobbyist and legal representative for the St. Louis Police Officers Association, Dueker’s actions fall within a larger battle of a system fighting to protect itself in the face of forward-moving change.
being so spectacularly successful at swallowing up vastly oversized portions of our region’s public budgets. This makes @iKaylaReed and @ActionSTL a threat to those who have held power inside our police structures for so long. @JaneDueker is a paid lobbyist for those interests.
— PublicEthicStL (@PublicEthicSTL) June 26, 2021
Dueker’s actions came a day after Action St. Louis called for St. Louis residents to contact Lewis Reed, president of the Board of Alderman, demanding that he introduce legislation that would allocate federal funding to support community needs.
BOA President @LewisReedSTL is refusing to introduce the legislation. Our communities will suffer without this aid!
Here are 3 ways you can take action today, including signing our petition demanding the BOA pass the $80 million relief package: https://t.co/pJVqBqBLBQ pic.twitter.com/4b4dNdjoOH
— Action St. Louis (@ActionSTL) June 24, 2021
Deuker’s online attack was eerily familiar. In the middle of last summer’s racial justice uprising, former St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson read the names and addresses of demonstrators who supported defunding the police during a Facebook live. The move drew major blowback from the community at large.
Despite Dueker’s claim to be concerned about ethics, she continued to double down on her doxxing. Twitter considers the purpose of the sharing, whether it’s being done in an abusive manner, and what type of information is being shared. Even if it is publicly available, Twitter notes that it may take action if a home address is shared because of the potential for harm.
Twitter user PublicEthicSTL broke down the misinformation being spread by Dueker in a thread, explaining in part that merely the existence of these organizational formations alone is not evidence of unethical or illegal coordination.
A thread in case anyone is uncertain about what is going on regarding @JaneDueker‘s tweets about @ActionSTL, @iKaylaReed and @deaconessfound. For days Ms. Dueker has been attacking this organization making claims about missing tax filings, shady activities, and “dark money.”
— PublicEthicStL (@PublicEthicSTL) June 26, 2021
In various Tweets, Dueker insinuated that Reed’s canvassing during the recent mayoral election for Action St. Louis Power Project could not have actually been independent because Reed was later appointed to a position within Mayor Tishaura Jones’ transition team. She took issue with the use of non-profit organizations for organizing work and made other misleading claims about the organizations possibly not being IRS compliant.
Except that’s not how things work. An individual isn’t retroactively denied independent agency because of a position that is later created. Also, having two affiliated organizations, one a 501(c)(3) and the other a 501(c)(4), is a common practice of many civic engagement organizations that work to engage communities.
Civil rights attorney and government transparency advocate Elad Gross also corrected the misinformation shared about Action St. Louis. While Gross advises non-profit organizations to engage in what he believes are transparent practices around disclosing donors, he highlights the differences between reality and what Deuker and others parroting her get wrong.
Action St. Louis is organized as a charitable nonprofit organization. It has a related organization called Action St. Louis Power Project, which is organized as an advocacy and political organization.
There are difference between the two.
6/
— Elad Gross (@BigElad) June 27, 2021
I’ve taken a look at Action St. Louis and Action St. Louis Power Project and I cannot find that they are violating IRS rules, like some folks have pushed on here.
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— Elad Gross (@BigElad) June 27, 2021
Second, Action St. Louis Power Project appropriately reports its political expenditures. You can find all of their reports on the Missouri Ethics Commission website and see that they spent quite a bit in local St. Louis elections.
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— Elad Gross (@BigElad) June 27, 2021
A member organization within the Movement for Black Lives, Action St. Louis is one of three lead organizations within the “Close the Workhouse” campaign, working alongside Arch City Defense and the Bail Project St. An article from the Missouri Independent explored the growth of movement organizing and the shift in political power in the nearly seven years since Michael Brown was murdered.
St. Louis has been undergoing a political transformation over the past seven years. In the aftermath of Michael Brown’s killing, organizers moved from the streets to directly engage the political process flipping two prosecutors, several Board of Alderman seats, and winning a mayoral election.
Transformative change can be threatening for those who benefit from upholding the status quo, as evidenced by a lawyer/lobbyist for the police union attacking engaged Black citizens. But in one tweet, ArchCity Defenders Executive Director Blake Strode had one of the best responses to the allegation of dark money.
“I don’t know if my money is dark… but I am, so maybe that counts,” read part of Strode’s tweet encouraging people to donate to Action St. Louis.
SEE ALSO:
Boston Police Union Continues Practice Of Attacking Black Women City Officials
Chicago Police Union Is Ecstatic That The Osundairo Brothers Are Suing Jussie Smollett
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