Yet another case of law enforcement officials going overboard, in this case of an artist being accused of being a bioterrorist.
Steve Kurtz is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the State University of New York’s University at Buffalo, and a member of the internationally-acclaimed Critical Art Ensemble.
? Kurtz’s wife, Hope Kurtz, died in her sleep of cardiac arrest in the early morning hours of May 11. Police arrived, became suspicious of Kurtz’s art supplies and called the FBI.
Within hours, FBI agents had “detained” Kurtz as a suspected bioterrorist and cordoned off the entire block around his house. (Kurtz walked away the next day on the advice of a lawyer, his “detention” having proved to be illegal.) Over the next few days, dozens of agents in hazmat suits, from a number of law enforcement agencies, sifted through Kurtz’s work, analyzing it on-site and impounding computers, manuscripts, books, equipment, and even his wife’s body for further analysis. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Health Department condemned his house as a health risk.
Kurtz, a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, makes art which addresses the politics of biotechnology. “Free Range Grains,” CAE’s latest project, included a mobile DNA extraction laboratory for testing food products for possible transgenic contamination. It was this equipment which triggered the Kafkaesque chain of events.
FBI field and laboratory tests have shown that Kurtz’s equipment was not used for any illegal purpose. In fact, it is not even possible to use this equipment for the production or weaponization of dangerous germs. Furthermore, any person in the US may legally obtain and possess such equipment.
“Today, there is no legal way to stop huge corporations from putting genetically altered material in our food,” said Defense Fund spokeswoman Carla Mendes. “Yet owning the equipment required to test for the presence of ‘Frankenfood’ will get you accused of ‘terrorism.’ You can be illegally detained by shadowy government agents, lose access to your home, work, and belongings, and find that your recently deceased spouse’s body has been taken away for ‘analysis.’”
Though Kurtz has finally been able to return to his home and recover his wife’s body, the FBI has still not returned any of his equipment, computers or manuscripts, nor given any indication of when they will. The case remains open.
More details can be found in this article from the Washington Post.
Just ludicrous.
(via Boing Boing)
4 Responses
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Sooo… While I don’t like the semantics of calling the case bio-terrorism, I guess I don’t really expect a beat cop or aid car driver responding to a in-home death to know the difference between meth lab equipment and a grain DNA extractor on sight. I wouldn’t. Would you?
I mean, god knows I love my personal grain DNA extractor, and use it every day to ensure my metamucil and prunes diet is 100% natural…
It’s a shame, and the FBI should resolve this as quickly as possible, but to sound the alarm because this is an example of the Patriot Act gone wrong? No, I don’t think so. It’s just a complex situation in a complex world. Life sucks, get a helmet, as Dr. Dennis Leary would say.
However, my deepest sympathies on the loss of his wife. That can’t have helped the situation at all.
CPS - the issue isn’t that this is an overuse or abuse of the Patriot Act; but rather the authorities fucked over an innocent person for the wrong reasons and are taking weeks going on months to correct this mistake. That is WRONG, no matter what your persuasion. And, that it’s occurring while we’re in “anti-terror” mode puts all the onus on the authorities. What ever happened with the fundamentals freedom of this society - such as “innocent until proven guilty?” Or even the improper seizure of someone’s personal property. What’s wrong is the authorities are using Patriot Act and their “war” on terror as an excuse to be the same sloppy, liberty-abusing crowd they’ve been in the past and getting away with it for a longer period. You miss the point. This is WRONG.
Chas — Ok, I wasn’t clear there, not enough coffee.
Yes, it’s wrong for the cops to be overbearing and big-brother-ish. I just don’t think that’s the case here. I think this is an indication that the front-line officers have had all power to think taken away from them, and they’ve been handed a play book that says, “no matter what, if you don’t know what it is, and it looks like a chemistry set, call the FBI.”
Having done that, one month of legal hassles is a) in the grand scheme of a bureaucracy like a NY police department, no time at all, and b) far easier to attribute to incompetence and legal red tape than the intensional abuse of power. Or, C) of course, the professor, in his grief and frustration, pissed off the urban-but-still-red-necked cops when they came in and didn’t understand his art, and they “accidentally” lost his paperwork and evidence for a week or two.
I find C) to be an even more likely explanation of the events.
Still, I’d bet if you went to your local police department and asked what the average time to return evidence to the owner (whether innocent or not) when the FBI is involved, the answer would be well over 1 month.
Its not right, but then, our federal government is chosing to cut funding for everything to give you a US$300.00 tax break, and spends orders of magnitudes more money on Military funding before they spend a dime helping a local metro police force. Oh, and institutes an unfunded local mandate, like the Dept. of Homeland Security on the local PD to deal with.
We have to be alert to abuses of power, and we (you know, “We, the people”) have to help the local cops learn to get it right over the next 10-20 years. But to call this event ‘ludicrous’? I dunno. I’d say Sad, but not surprising.
Continuing the Discussion