political : HOUSTON POLICE VIOLENTLY ATTACK PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION [+] serious ballot by cranky ACTIVE Mon Nov 20, 06 - Sat Aug 15, 09 Houston police respond with violence to striking janitors' non-violent protest Workers report their lives endangered as mounted police use horses to break up act of conscience; 83-year old female janitor hospitalized HOUSTON -- At least one person has been hospitalized after Houston police responded with violence to a non-violent protest by striking janitors from Houston and around the country. It is the fourth week of a strike by Houston janitors. The janitors are paid $20 a day with no health insurance, among the lowest wages of any workers in America. Tonight, fifty demonstrators, including janitors from Houston, janitors from other cities and supporters, were engaged in a non-violent act of civil disobedience at the intersection of Capitol and Travis Streets in downtown Houston, a major intersection flanked by three buildings owned by national landlord JP Morgan Chase. The janitors were challenging Houston’s real estate industry to settle the strike and provide 5,300 janitors in Houston with higher wages and affordable health insurance. As the janitors began to sit down peacefully in the intersection, Houston Police Department mounted police charged violently into the intersection to break up the demonstration, endangering workers’ lives and using their horses to physically intimidate the peaceful protestors. Workers report they were stepped on by horses leaving an unknown number of protestors with bruises and other injuries. The number of workers who sustained injuries is currently unknown. Immediately after the act of violence, the police arrested the protestors and put them on a bus took them in for booking. So far it has been confirmed that Hazel Ingram, an 83 year-old janitor from New York City, was rushed to Ben Taub Hospital for an injury sustained on her arm. Ms. Ingram is a 52-year member of SEIU Local 32BJ. There is an unconfirmed report that a second protestor also was taken to the hospital. Houston janitor Mateo Portillo, 33, a Houston janitor, said, “The horses came all of a sudden. They started jumping on top of people. I heard the women screaming. A horse stomped on top of me. I fell to the ground and hurt my arm. The horses just kept coming at us. I was terrified. I never thought the police would do something so aggressive, so violent.” SEIU organizers contacted the Houston Police Department prior to today’s demonstration to explain their plan and reasons for demonstrating in order to ensure that exactly this type of incident would be avoided. People in the crowd reported that police officers seized one of the janitors’ signs reading “Stand Up for the American Dream,” threw it to the ground and stepped on it. The police officers were seen giving each other high fives after the incident. (Infoshop News) * * * * * * * * Is trampling defenseless women with horses an appropriate way for the Houston, Texas police to manage a peaceful demonstration? Yes, but the demostrators should have been tortured, too No, that's outrageous police brutality I'm a neocon, and police brutality turns me on! Ballot #105621 : SEE RESULTS Comment: show your vote with comment?

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