Houston Democrats

Here is a local issue for you. On May 18 I participated in the Haliburton protest at the Four Seasons Hotel. I had done so last year as well and it was one of the finest examples of the free exercise of our first amendment rights I've every experienced. No so on May 18 '05. I saw first-hand
the police state in full exposure. Mayor Bill White (he was once a Democrat, am I remembering correctly?) turned loose on the people, peacefully demonstrating, 30 mounted Houston police, trampling us into the asphalt in front of the Four Seasons Hotel. In contrast to last year when the police, under Chief Bradford,allowed us to mass in the street in front of the Hotel, without a permit, and even stage a peaceful sit-in at the Hotel drive-around, this year they had us relegated to a caged area reminiscent of Boston '04 and the Democratic convention. Last year, maybe one arrest. This year, a dozen. And people hurt being cuffed and arrested. I sensed a different mood on the part of the Mayor and his Chief when I saw the police Bus parked in the back of the Four Seasons, later used to transport the offending protestors, dragged there by abusive men in blue.
But, worst of all, the HPD mounted forces were not content to use these beautiful animals to block us from no-go areas. They used those horses as weapons against us with numerous persons trampled. They charged us on the sidewalks in the caged area in the adjacent park with those horses and maliciously destroyed the large Iraq cow puppet which Dick Cheney was seen milking for Halibucks.
Bill White, you and your new HPD Chief will be made to account for your new mood of belligerence against the people of Houston, protecting your corporate buddies from the "unwashed" as they counted their cash at their annual meeting (lasting all of 30 minutes, closed off from even the press). I find your police state uninhabitable.

I have been to the Houston Indymedia website and perused the photos of the protesters being arrested by Houston police. I am appalled by what I read and saw in some of the photos. The idea that the Houston police would use horses as weapons against protesters is abhorrent. Mayor Bill White, the police chief, the Houston police department and the City of Houston should be sued by the ACLU for violations of civil rights.

I will try and call someone to find out if anyone is still in jail and needing bail money or money for a legal defense. Please visit the Houston Indymedia site at http://houston.indymedia.org/ to make a donation to the Pay Pal account set up for the bail/legal defense fund for protesters.