Houston Democrats

PDiddie just called on his way home from the forum. There was plenty of media coverage. Watch your local news (KTRK and KPRC and others) and stay tuned for a report....

Looking forward to PDiddie's report. I'm glad to hear several stations were there. This is something that should get a lot of attention.

Tonight's 3 1/2 hour meeting was unbelievable. Simply flabbergasting.

I'm not sure I can give a decent report of it tonight, so let me just summarize by saying that there is a yawning disconnect between the perceptions of the protestors' actions by HPD and the equivalent perceptions of HPD's actions by the protestors that this public forum, moderated by conflict resolution specialists and liasons from City Hall, didn't come close to resolving.

I'm just going to have to process what I observed for awhile before I can post about it. More tomorrow.

The public forum was assembled to discuss the events of May 18, 2005, outside the Four Seasons Hotel downtown and the actions of HPD stemming from the protest of the Halliburton shareholders' meeting.

There were about 60 people in attendance, including Houston ACLU representative Randall Kallinen, Stephanie Cooper of Comptroller Annise Parker's office, and numerous local media representatives. All members of City Council were invited, but none were in attendance.

Ruth Hoffman moderated (she has extensive credentials in conflict resolution) and the panelists included Madeleine Crozat-Williams of Code Pink, Katie Heim of Houston Global Awareness, Bill Crosier of the Progressive Action Alliance, Lane Lewis, coordinator of the Citizens Review Committee, which has consulted and advised HPD in several capacities for over a decade, and Austin documentary videographer Baku, who took much of the video seen on Houston Indy Media and who was one of the sixteen people arrested by HPD.

The Houston Police Department was represented by Assistant Executive Chief of Police Maria Montalvo (representing Mayor Bill White), Capt. Mary Lentschke, and Lts. Payton and Marino.

After some opening remarks by the panelists, Baku's documentary of the protest was shown, and the floor was opened for questions.

It's important to note that everyone in attendance was given a copy not only of the agenda for the forum but also the goals and ground rules. Stressed prominently was the primary goal to find ways to avoid future violence at protests, and attendant to that goal included establishing communication (this actually needs to begin weeks before the event) between officers and a point person with the protest in order to advance de-escalation tactics when events begin to get heated. Included within this communication needs to be a clear understanding of police protocols; what sorts of protestor activities, for example, are HPD officers taught is cause for action/response? There was much more along these lines distributed as talking points, including emphasis on speaking in turn and with courtesy, stressing the avoidance of name-calling, venting, shouting, etc.

As the Q&A session was about to begin and the first person approached the microphone, Chief Montalvo abruptly left the hall and was out for approximately 15 minutes. She eventually returned and joined the other officers in addressing the concerns of those who spoke.

Space doesn't permit me to list all the discussion of this nearly four-hour forum, but here are a few things that drew my interest:

-- Katie Heim noted that at 6:45 a.m on the morning of May 18 (the protest was scheduled to begin at 8:30) there were two riot buses ('paddy wagons') in place. About 25-30 mounted officers, or cavalry, were lined in the street in front of the hotel facing the protest zone, with another 40-50 HPD, some in riot gear, some with helmets and all with batons and plastic handcuffs, but not one bullhorn. Lt. Marino acknowledged that the lack of a bullhorn, which could have been used to address protestors, was regrettable.

-- the incident which precipitated the first charge by mounted HPD into a group of protestors on the sidewalk was motivated by "complaints from the property owner" that the parking garage entrance/exit was being blocked by protestors, and that "each person was given instructions to move" before that action was taken, according to Lt. Marino. There were several people who spoke during the Q&A who were in this group of protestors who indicated they had not heard any warning from police to move or clear the garage entrance prior to the horses being driven into them.

-- as one of the last speakers of the evening, I asked a question which had been asked a few times before; what was the protest action that prompted the HPD cavalry charge through the barricades into the protest zone where the 'Halliburton Cow' was knocked over (watch one of the video links here -- scroll down to 'Halliburton protest' for this). Candidly, I heard no answer that made sense; Lt. Marino stated that the "cow was being used as a weapon".

I was grateful that the representatives of HPD participated in this forum, but the attitudes displayed were defensiveness bordering on defiance, and boredom that occasionally became exasperation.

In short, I'm not sure much of value was accomplished.

Renee Phelps of KPFT posted her 7 1/2 minute MP3 audio account of the forum at Houston Indy Media (clicking on the link will start the audio in your default media player).

... And the Harris County grand jury has no-billed three of the protestors charged with assault.