Houston Police get violent with SEIU protestors

[PDittie]

Run time: 03:56 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIoyMgw1CTY   Posted on YouTube: April 17, 2015 By YouTube Member: YouTube Help Views on YouTube: 18417300   Posted on DU: November 17, 2006 By DU Member: PDittie Views on DU: 1535

 
Photos here.

We've seen this hyper-aggressive police action previously (at last year's Halliburton protest).

[ixion]

1. keep documenting this terrible behavior

it really helps open people's eyes to the thuggish behavior of so-called 'peace' officers. :grr:

[sam sarrha]

4. watch out when they start wearing their armbands on the outside of their shirts

[sam sarrha]

2. what were they doing... what ever, it didnt look very well thought out

of course this isnt in the news.. what happened or what they were doing, or why.. arent they supposed to be on the sidewalk being careful not to block trafic.. i cant see how that helped their cause, the Fascist media hasnt covered the issue of course.. to busy blowing the president

[PDittie]

5. They were blocking the street

They have previously blocked traffic at a busy intersection near the Galleria:

http://brainsandeggs.blogspot.com/2006/11/power-to-people.html

http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/53754.php

The Houston janitors strike is in its third week; their demands are $8.50 an hour and healthcare benefits. Currently Houston janitors are paid an average of slightly over $5.00 an hour with no benefits whatsoever.

[kikiek]

6. It looked to me like they were blocking traffic too. It doesn't help the cause

to do that in my opinion. You can expect the police are going to come out then and have to clear the area. The people were resisting arrest also. In this case I feel differently than I have in the past. I don't see that behavior as helpful to unions negotiating contracts. There are better ways to get the publics sympathy than blocking them while they're trying to get to work or home. Also the police aren't the enemy. In fact they are probably union workers trying to do their job without getting hurt. How would that play out if one of the horses threw its rider and they were badly hurt? Think there will be beneficial contract negotiations then? I think the police in the past have responded criminally. The Florida economic meeting is one I'll never forget the violent police response. In contracts you need public support and that kind of striking doesn't usually garner it. It makes unions look like thugs. The tape was very poor and I personally didn't see anything alarming. It started to repeat also so I quit watching the same thing for the 2nd time. I am very supportive of the janitors and hope they get a damn good contract, but have to wonder about the methods being used. Makes me worry about the direction of SEIU if they are behind it all. Our contract is up on June. I hope we dont' strike, but will walk the picket line as told to. I will not do anything that will get me arrested and a criminal record though.

[PDittie]

7. Corporate media reports

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/4341820.html

To respond:

Civil disobedience has become necessary in a country where it is acceptable that Chevron -- the target of yesterday's protest -- can report profits of $14 billion yet refuse to pay those who mop their floors, clean their bathrooms and empty their trash a livable wage.

This is bound to escalate, particulary in light of HPD's choice to respond with force and intimidation.

[kikiek]

8. Sounds to me like the lines are being blurred and the people who think

they're fighting to raise their wages are actually being used to fight a much bigger battle. Who is using whom and to what end?

[elehhhhna]

10. Local news here covered it from a helicopter and it wasn't pretty--

glad to see they ran it. (IIRC it was KPRC/2)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. absolutely! THE TRAFFIC MUST GO ON! AT ALL COSTS!

civil disobedience is a moral imperative. Unless we happen to slow traffic down, and then it is all off. Of course.

We have tasers going off inside the sanctity of university libraries. We have 20 US troops cut down in their prime of life every week in IraqNam. We have Carlyle and Haliburton making billions each year in fraud. We have constitutional rights bent, spindled, mutilated, folded, cut, perforated, erased, discombobulated, raped, sintered, smashed, eradicated, punched, poisoned, tasered, arrested, indicted, convicted, braised, broiled, sered and fried.

But the traffic must go on.

[Dhalgren]

11. I'm with you! To hell with the traffic and all good Americans' daily

routine! We should fucking all of us be out in the god-damned streets everyday. We should stop more than their fucking traffic. I remember a time when we were called upon to throw our bodies onto the gears of the machine; I think that time has come again...

[Virginia Dare]

14. You have to do what you feel comfortable doing...

but all I can say is that I'm glad that there were those in the past who were willing to strike and use other measures, yes, even violence sometimes, to fight for the rights that the vast majority of us enjoy today. They are gradually slipping away from us, and if we don't start fighting for them again, they'll be completely lost. Say hello to six day work weeks and sweatshops once again.

The video was taken down before I could see it, but if the police were beating the crap out of unarmed people, I fail to see where those people would be considered thugs.

[PDittie]

15. The new video link is posted

at reply #13.

[kikiek]

17. I believe firmly in union. I don't believe in using people who are striking

for larger statements. They are there to increase their work value not give others a reason to create anarchy. There wasn't any police beating of people on the video that was posted originally. You turn the public on the strikers and their cause is lost.

[Virginia Dare]

18. Okay, I watched the video and read the article...

I saw no thugs in the video, I saw people peacefully protesting, and I saw police forcefully removing them.

I also don't understand what you mean that they are being used by others to creat anarchy, from the way I understood it, people had flown in from around the world in support of their cause, because they view this as a symbolic struggle against big oil companies :shrug:

I admit, I haven't been following this issue, perhaps you could enlighten me?

[kikiek]

20. I agree with you too. I really don't agree with blocking traffic and forcing

the police to drag them to jail though. Especially when I read some of the responses to it. Could be a fire truck or ambulance being re routed because of it. Uses police resources up costing the city. The goal is to get money and benefits for people who deserve it. The big picture of corporate greed isn't going to change any. There is a time for civil disobedience I just don't agree with it in this case. I don't see how it benefits the cause.

[MuseRider]

3. We seriously

need to take back our country.

Edit for spelling

[Another Bill C.]

12. The film is no longer available.

YouTube states that it was removed by the user. Is there another story in that?

[PDittie]

13. Available at a new link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpOn_77yixY

[PDittie]

16. Washington Post story:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601765.html

[Bucky]

19. Am I reading this wrong? It says 'Posted on YouTube: December 31, 1969'

If I'm not mistaken, in 1969 "You Tube" was simply an insult.

[guruoo]

21. Sorry, but all I see is protesters being removed from the middle

of a street they were blocking. I've witnessed real
violence against protesters before, and this is pretty tame by comparison.
Is there another, better video available? One shot from
a different angle perhaps?