You’d think Peatmoss committed a violent crime.
The Detroit climate activist was surveilled by police using GPS tracking devices, thrown in jail, and charged with a felony after allegedly spray-painting a polarizing monument to Civil War General George Armstrong Custer in Monroe in October 2022.
Peatmoss, a local organizer who identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they/them, was first arrested on the day that police say they saw them and others vandalizing the statue.
On July 28 – more than nine months after their arrest – Peatmoss and others were peacefully protesting in Lansing outside of AF Group to object to the company providing insurance for the $90 million Atlanta police and fire training facility known as “Cop City.” The movement against the facility gained national attention in January 2023 when police shot and killed activist Manuel Paez Terán, or “Tortuguita,” who was camping in a park near the project’s site.
Following the protest in Lansing, police followed Peatmoss to a church parking lot and arrested them on an outstanding warrant stemming from the alleged vandalism incident. Peatmoss had no idea there was an outstanding warrant for their arrest and was “extremely surprised” to learn about it, says Alex Jones, a member of Meridian Fridays for Future, a climate strike movement.
Peatmoss was jailed overnight, and after their release, spotted two GPS tracking devices attached with powerful magnets to the rear axle of their car. Police admitted to Peatmoss’s attorney that the GPS trackers were from law enforcement, but they did not say which agency planted the devices, activists say.
Peatmoss now faces up to two years in prison and a $2,000 fine for allegedly spray-painting, “We scalped,” on the Custer statue, and fleeing after police spotted them near the statue.
Peatmoss was arraigned on Aug. 22.
Jones says the heavy-handed treatment of Peatmoss is intended to chill activism and dissent.
“It feels like a coordinated effort to quell protests,” Jones tells Metro Times. “The protest they were at was an extremely legal sidewalk protest. People were very respectful of the law. It seems like they don’t want any activism.”
Although Custer is often portrayed in popular culture as a noble figure and Civil War hero, his treatment of Indigenous people was brutal. He was a 19th century eugenicist who waged violent campaigns against Indigenous people and disregarded their rights and sovereignty. Activists nationwide have called for his statues to be removed, saying they eulogize genocide and systemic racism.
In 2020, the movement to remove the statue in Monroe began to gain momentum, fueled by the actions of the Anishinaabek Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party and local activists from Good Trouble Monroe, a local grassroots organization.
Custer grew up in Monroe and maintained close bonds with the city.
Indigenous people have urged city leaders to remove the statue.
“Monroe, Michigan actually happens to be part of my tribe’s ancestral territory, and this monument is just as hurtful now as it was years ago when my relatives and ancestors protested it,” Julie Dye, an elder of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, said at a Monroe City Council meeting.
Peatmoss is not new to civil disobedience. They were arrested after activists shut down the controversial Line 5, an oil and natural gas liquid pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac.
Activists are calling on others to support Peatmoss by attending their next court hearing via Zoom at 9 a.m. on Sept. 5 with Judge Amanda Eicher.
Good Trouble Monroe is also raising funds for the campaign to remove the statue.
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