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May 19, 2005
The Halliburton shareholders protest yesterday
...turned violent.
Fifteen people were arrested; protestors, police, and horses were injured.
Houston Indymedia has video, photos, and accounts from the scene.
This is the Chronicle's story. This is KHOU's report (including videotape also).
Stan Merriman, chairman emeritus of the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party, was there and posted this in comments elsewhere on this blog:
..."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 ever 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. ..."
While there are dozens of questions I'd like answers to, I'll settle for these:
Why did police officers on horseback charge into a crowd of people on the sidewalk?
Why did they ride their horses around barricades they erected into the authorized protest zone they established?
Why did HPD feel it necessary to escort Halliburton shareholders across an elevated, climate-controlled walkway to their shareholders meeting, which was closed even to the establishment media such as Reuters?
What was the threat?
Posted by Guest Blogger PDiddie at May 19, 2005 12:09 PM | Permalink
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Comments
I was not happy to hear people getting arrested and I was not in support of them.
Then I saw the video. My gosh, what prompted them to charge the protesters?
This was a disgrace on the part of the city if the video I saw on indy media was representative of what happened.
Posted by: John Cobarruvias at May 19, 2005 08:34 PM
Mr. PDiddie:
Outstanding questions and thank you for being among the few in this Party standing for the free speech and assembly rights of Americans. The silence from other members of our Party is thunderous.
My supposition on this questions is this: what was different from the '04 protest, which had at least twice the number of people in the street?
l. We have a new Police Chief this year. Who hired him? Bill White.
2. Who sets the policy for such public events? The Chief. Thus, the protection of Haliburton shareholders and thief-executives, not the people.
Massive numbers of mounted Police this year, compared to a few only in '04. A beligerent attitude this year by all the police from the outset, before any street actions started, compared to a police force in '04 who were "partying" with us to the music, drums and smiling at our speeches and literally opening the street to us, without a permit, in front of the Four Seasons to allow us the space to demonstrate outside of a "cage" and literally facilitated a sit in on the driveway, last year, to emphasize our point and protected those doing this while they made their point.
3. Who bears the ultimate responsiblity for a NYPD and Boston PD style suppression of demonstrators, compared to our previous friendly and highly supportive Houston PD attitude toward public demonstrations? That would be Bill White, I regret to say.
4. How then would one characterize this new comportment on the part of HPD, according to classic textbook definition? A police state, pure and simple.
5. People can go to www.houstonindymedia.org and see the pictures and videos of abuse of our citizenry for themselves.
WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY, BILL WHITE?
Stan Merriman
Posted by: stan merriman at May 21, 2005 06:50 AM