AKWESASNE — A protest that turned boisterous popped up outside the home of an Akwesasne man who is at the center of an investigation into the sexual exploitation of a child.
St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Police in a Tuesday Facebook post said they and Homeland Security Investigations agents carried out a search warrant at 1504 State Route 37 and took Justin L. General into custody.
It does not say if General was charged with the offenses, nor does it say whether he was arraigned. The post concludes with, “This is an ongoing investigation.”
“The search warrant was conducted in furtherance of an ongoing joint investigation by the St. Regis Mohawk Police and Homeland Security Investigations into allegations of the sexual exploitation of a child,” the post says.
It says investigators were looking for evidence of four federal crimes: sexual exploitation of a child, aggravated sexual abuse of a minor under age 12 in Indian country, sexual abuse of a minor in Indian country, and sexual contact with a minor under age 12 in Indian country.
Their post says that General, age not given, “was taken into custody without incident, zero injuries resulted from the event.”
Tribal police officials declined to answer a reporter’s questions about the case, citing a gag order from their chief of police.
THE PROTEST
After the news broke, Akwesasne resident Chrissy Jacobs said “very spur of the moment, last minute,” she decided to make a banner that says “PEDOPHILE” in red spraypaint and wanted to put it up in front of General’s house. She texted the picture to a friend, who she says was already there waiting for her when she arrived.
“I had like 10 minutes and I had this big tarp, and I have spraypaint … I just wrote ‘pedophile’ on it as big as I could make the letters,” Jacobs said. “By the time I got up (Route) 37, she was already waiting for me and we figured out how to finagle this sign.”
“Justin and the girlfriend … were (in the house) watching and laughing and taking pictures with their cellphones,” she said.
“We started … yelling across the road,” Jacobs said. “We didn’t want to put it right in their yard so we’re not trespassing.”
Their presence started to draw other people who wanted to protest General staying in the community. By nightfall, dozens of people had shown up. The word “PEDOPHILE” was also spraypainted in red twice on the highway, one facing east and the other west, each with arrows pointing to General’s residence.
From there, she said, “people start to mill in. The neighbors of where we were set up, they brought us chairs. They helped us secure the sign. They brought paint. They let us use the bathroom. It got so big so fast,” according to Jacobs.
A video recorded live on Facebook shows two hours and 38 minutes of the demonstration from some point after it started at 5 p.m. until well after dark. It isn’t a continuous video and there are points where the recording is shut off and resumes a short time later.
It shows people lined along Route 37 across from General’s house yelling in protest. They’re shouting things like “every child matters,” “eviction notice,” and “General you must go.” They’re holding signs that say “No pedos” and other messages demanding General leave the community. Jacobs holds a sign that simply says “LEAVE.” Two people are holding an orange “every child matters” banner.
Drummers and singers join and can be heard playing in the background through much of the video. Throughout the video, passing drivers honk their horns in support. Some of them go back and forth laying on their horns the whole time. Around the 48:30 mark, a truck drives on to General’s lawn and tears up part of it while spinning donuts.
The video early on shows a tribal police officer approach the camera and talk to the person filming, Cheyenne Koeller. In the cordial interaction, the officer reminds them that protesters can’t go on their property and should turn on hazard flashers on their cars parked along the shoulders so approaching traffic knows to slow down. They end up erecting a floodlight opposite from General’s residence.
One of the breaks in the video is because a child who Koeller says is General’s victim arrives in a car with her father driving. There is a break in the video to avoid showing the child’s face.
“That was her … that was the girl,” Koeller says on the tape. “And the crazy thing is the victim that [General] assaulted just came by here with her father and thanked us for doing this. She was in the passenger seat.”
“He did this to her and her dad just said thank you,” Koeller says. “We’ve got to protect these kids.”
At another point, one of General’s neighbors who appears to be a minor speaks to the camera and says he wants General gone.
“I think what they did is very horrible and they should go, so the Generals must go,” the youth says.
As tensions escalate, toward the final one-third of a video, a man runs on the property and makes three attempts to break into the house, but tribal police thwart him each time.
Around the 2:08:00 mark, after dark, eight people from the protest, including Akwesasne activist Roger Jock, approach the house. Two of them go to the front door and try to kick it in while protesters along the roadway shout to encourage them. The other six, including Jock, went around the back.
“One dude that’s been drinking heavily, he made it in the house, allegedly,” Koeller says. “He searched the whole house and couldn’t find them.”
A half dozen tribal cops and the protesters can later be seen as a group in the driveway in front of the garage talking. Their conversation is inaudible. There are no arrests on video.
At one point, a protester off camera can be heard saying, “There’s one way to find out if he’s in there. Set it on fire.”
Jacobs then addressed the crowd and tells them they need to leave the house alone, and also says they need to stop with shooting fireworks and revving engines because neighbors have children trying to sleep.
“I don’t want nobody to burn this house down, because there’s a mother who has a lien on that house who built that house. I’m asking the community that you don’t do that to her because she’s suffered enough,” she says.
“[Tribal police] just searched the house. He’s not here,” she says. “If he returns they’re going to remove him.”
Two tribal police officers and Jock go through the house to verify General had left. When the protest started around 5 p.m., Jacobs said she saw him and his partner in the house, so he must have left through the back somewhere in between.
Jock then addresses the crowd, but he was nearly inaudible on the tape. The only audible thing he says is “every child matters.”
Jacobs addressed the crowd again after Jock, encouraging them to disperse.
“What we wanted was for him to get out of here and he’s not here,” she says. ”We came together as a community and showed how strong we are … he left.”
“There’s nothing more scary and powerful than people united,” she said.
LARGER COMMUNITY PROBLEM
Jacobs said the community outrage isn’t just because the allegations against General are heinous, but because there’s a problem with sex crimes in the community not being investigated or are what the protesters see as under-prosecuted.
“Our community saw the St. Regis Mohawk Police’s blotter and it said what the charges are … obviously it’s really bad and it’s really triggering for our community,” according to Jacobs. She was a big part of the recent community efforts to end the use of solitary confinement boxes as a behavior modification technique on children at Salmon River Central School.
“When that police blotter was released, he was already home in his yard doing yard work. People were like what the hell, why isn’t he gone?” Jacobs said. “We have an issue where people, predators, get these crimes against children, abuses and rapes happen, and they’re right back out.”
“We’re trying to heal,” she said. “Every time a community member sees [General or other suspected pedophiles], they’re going to get upset because of what they did, or they’re a victim of this person.”
She says they plan to hold further protests outside the homes of others in Akwesasne who have committed, or are believed to have committed, sex crimes.
Late on Wednesday afternoon, the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe released a community notice saying Tribal Council is considering adopting a tribal banishment law. It’s not clear if the timing is related to the community backlash against General. The tribe already has a law in place excluding non-members from Akwesasne.
“[T]he SRMT general counsel’s office has been directed to review and research the creation of a tribal member banishment law,” the notice reads. “As with any new tribal legislation that affects the rights of tribal members, this law will be required to be adopted by tribal referendum.”
“This process will require community consultation which includes a notice and comment period, as well as public meetings prior to the referendum,” it says. “We look forward to engaging with the community in this important process.”