Halliburton Shareholders Protest EyeWitness : Houston Indymedia

Chronological:

The weather was calm, sunny and in the 70s at the green space in front of the George R. Brown convention center. The puppetista's were gathered, whistle puppets that said "blow the whistle on Halliburton: the next enron, cronyism, war profiteers, and so on. Stop Halliburton stop signs. Halliburton outa Iraq puppets. A large yellow banner. 100 people had gathered in the green space. Anarchists in black mask, a dozen or more codepink, many allies from outa town, austin, dallas, san antonio, new orleans, denton. A very strong showing from out of town, a weak Houston showing, imho, we had many more at the 2004 protest, that being an election year. Maybe 300 total protesters.

The drums showed up.

Sissy Farenthold spoke into a bullhorn to start us off. She related the most current outrage she knew: the Pentegon struck out a Halliburton reference when it released documents. She said that was a new level of government open records abuse, the Pentigon now running interference for Halliburton. George Reiter, green party, spoke next, saying protesters held on to that loving child in all of us, that so many people in society abandon.

The drums struck up.

The walk to the Four Seasons, the hotel that housed the Shareholders meeting, was short and brisk. Drums, chants, whistles, red stop halliburton signs, black and grey with yellow letters stop halliburton whistles signs. An eight foot evil pasty white guy, halliburton is evil, puppet.

The march went past the ten foot tall, twenty foot long Iraq cow, the milk Iraq cow, milked by Dick Cheney and one of the dogs of war.

The police were set. They expected direct action. Barricades locked together lined the street in front of the Four Seasons, both sides and around the corner. Cops lined up in front of our barricade, every ten feet astride horses, Klan like in their postures: red faced, baton belt, gun straped waists and big bellied, lined along the grated blockade where the drummers rhythmed and the whisltes blew, and the chants threw activism in the air.

KPFT news reporter to me that only 5 news agents total were allowed inside the meeting. Not even the Hou Chronicle got in.

Soft word surfaced that arrests were made of people from the inside. At the back door, a loading area, Herb Rothchild, David Graeve, Elle, and others were being detained by the cops near a paddy wagon. Elle was face down in her dark coat and pant suit. David and others chanted something like "Halliburton is corrupt." Herb had a large grin on his face. They loaded the five in the wagon.

The police is said to have illegally obstructed the street behind the hotel. They had strung yellow tape so we couldn't walk on the sidewalk next to Four Seasons.

I saw a Reuter's reporter, who I met last year at the 2004 H. Protest. I asked him did you get in to the meeting? He said no, but that there was a funny article in the Hou Chronicle this morning complaining about reporters being blocked from attending the Shareholders meeting, only 5 got in. I said, to the Reuters reporter, when you guys gonna do something about this media lockout crap? He said, it weren't much news happening today anyway. I said, people were arrested. He said, people are arrested all the time. I asked him, why don't you go do your fucking news job!

Generally speaking, the protest is not done for the "people" it is not visible for people. It is a media event, because there is not large commuter walking traffic in houston. There is no high traffic, visibility area downtown, especially not the Four Seasons. It's not trafficked, and so the protesters are either jerking off, or the media needs to cover it, to cover the voice of people who care enough to organize a hugely organized event like this.

Back to the protest:

The protest took a loud turn. I was standing in the park near the Iraq Cow across from the Four Season. The Tazmaniac sound system had shown up. Things were jamming. A breakaway, anarchist bloc I think, was walking in front of the Four Season parking garage across from the park. Most of the protest was still happening in front of the hotel, the breakaway was just around the corner from the main area.

The breakaway bloc walked slowly in front of the garage driveway, and the police on horses told them to clear out. The bloc march stopped at that order and the heat turned up. The police first vocally assaulted the marchers, who where on the sidewalk, and then began riding up on large horses at the marchers, first one, then many of the horses, pushing their way through the group of thirty marchers, trampling many. I saw one media reporter get grabbed by the color and thrown down, his camera hitting the pavement with full force. Groundling officers arrived, mayhem ensued. Horses riding up on people. A ruckus, people screaming, police swinging and pushing and grabbing, using their horses as offensive weapons as well as shields. Pandemonium--a woman being carried by two people, her foot bare, had been trampled and broken, policemen pushing their way through the protesters on their high horses. Beautiful beasts misused.

Then one of the puppetistas said, help with the cow, and ten protests picked up the large cow and started across the street with it, and the cops did not like this, and they rode up full force with their horses, maybe half a dozen of them or more, and pushed against the large cow with blue eyes, trying to keep the cow from crossing the street. The police began to grab and claw at the cow carriers, and the cow, painted with the Iraqi Map, looked terribly sad, with its very large blue eyes, and one of the cops cut the cow with a push and a swing, and pushed the cow with the large blue eyes over on its side on the street, and the bold policemen emboldened, started chasing the cow carriers by horse, saying "Stop that man" and other intense things. Some of the cow carriers were arrested. The cow had a three foot cut on its belly near its flank, but stood upright under the tipped bucket of Hallobucks, the $100 bills with Dick Cheney on it.

Then the mainstream media showed up, and eventually a television chopper.

A group of thirty protesters made their way to the paddy wagon to encourage on the 16 arrested protesters, who were on their way to the copshop. The protesters cheered on their comrades as the bus pulled away.

One of the protesters told me that Officer Forester had admitted that he had gotten a little out of control, and I am sure there is plenty of footage of him, and of the other police created mayhem, who think force works and do not measure their actions against the consequences of that action. Communication problem. Conflict resolution problem.

And they are not at all clear about who they really work for.

After the event, many people shared their experiences at a microphone in the park, both inside and out, those who went into the Halliburton Shareholders Meeting, and those who did their action on the outside. Things disbanded circa 11:30 a.