Two men were arrested on Monday after developer Paul McKee demanded they remove protest signs they had placed on vacant property he owns.
The unusual scene began on Monday morning after workers began removing the signs, which included biblical verses, from the property near the old Pruitt Igoe housing complex. The vacant lot is the site of a former church and the entire area is in an effort to build a $1.6 billion , a federal spy agency.
The signs, which had been on the property for more than a month, were placed by protesters opposed to the use of eminent domain to take property in the area.
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The sign removal effort ±è°ù±ð³¦±ð»å±ð»åÌýa site tour Monday afternoon. U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, hosted the tour for U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, which has oversight responsibility for the NGA. Schiff is a Democrat from the Los Angeles area.
"The politicians don't want it to be known there is opposition," said Larry Chapman, who was one of the men arrested.
McKee himself arrived Monday morning in a silver GMC Denali SUV.
"Get out of here," McKee told Chapman without getting out of his vehicle. "You can do whatever you want, just not on my property."
McKee then pulled forward and told police officers he wanted the group arrested for trespassing. He then drove away.
The officers arrested two men after McKee left — Chapman and Gustavo Rendon, who lives next door to the vacant land.
"I call this sacred ground," Rendon said before the arrest.
Meanwhile a bus from St. Louis Priory School arrived. Students got out and surveyed the scene. ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were on a tour of the neighborhood studying white flight and urban decay.