'Just Start Shooting' Police Use Horses, Threats of Violence to Box in Houston Protests

Local media anchors on TV marveled at the crowd size: an estimated 60,000 had turned up at 3 PM on a Tuesday for a march predicted to only attract 20,000. Black horseback riders raising their fist and a line of motorcyclists paraded down Walker St. Spectacles made to go viral did; Houston’s police chief knelt with protesters, members of George Floyd’s family marched, and video footage panning over an ocean of signs calling for the arrest of murderous cops flooded Houston’s airwaves.

All the while, lines of policemen watched silently from the sidewalks. Some in the march posed in photos with them; others held their signs toward the lines.

As U.S. major cities wretched in horror of the video depicting Floyd’s last nine minutes gasping for air under the knee of a police officer, Houston’s rally was organized as an orderly attempt to harness that indignation for a quick two-hour march, complete with speeches from local leaders. 

But once it officially ended and thousands of protesters lingered, wondering what came next, the Houston Police Department (HPD) made it clear the protest was officially over, and that those who remained on the streets were now subject to arrest. 

HPD police, backed up by State Police donning military-esque green fatigues, began blocking in protesters firing mace into the crowd, and breaking through protest lines with horses and batons. 

Protesters who braved police advances were systematically boxed in and hit with shields and batons, mirroring the treatment demonstrators across the country have faced. The violence in Houston however is dwarfed by what occurred in other cities: thousands were trapped on New York’s Manhattan Bridge at the same time, while police in Seattle fired tear gas indiscriminately into crowds.

It nonetheless furthers a national attempt by police to match the growing protests with aggressive force. 

“They’re boxing us in!”

The day before, President Trump urged state governors to “dominate” protesters with militant force and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807, a law designed to prevent insurrections, which allows the federal government to deploy U.S. military forces domestically.

Much of the violence occurred between 6:30 and 7:30 PM at the intersection of Rusk and Avenida de las Americas, where protesters attempted to block the path of five Houston public buses carrying police officers. 

Several hundred protesters filled the street and stood in front of the first bus in the line. Inside, an HPD officer hunched over the driver and instructed him to “just drive; go through them.” The driver looked at him silently, then slowly scanned the crowd in front of him blocking the way.

Several protesters yelled “Whose side are you on?” to the driver. 

Several protesters yelled “Whose side are you on?” to the driver. 

Protesters then began climbing on top of an empty bus and a bus stop, raising their fists and wielding signs calling to prosecute illegal police actions. Some threw water bottles against the glass panes of the buses carrying police officers.

After fifteen minutes, local and state police moved from the upper blocks of Rusk St. into the area to clear the way for the buses, and while many protesters moved to the sidewalk and a nearby parking lot, about one hundred refused to move from the intersection.

By this time, a police officer on a loudspeaker announced: “this protest is no longer peaceful,” and demanded the demonstrators immediately leave the area or face increasing force.

Three police lines converged on the protesters at the intersection, who were being slowly squeezed. One man was pressed against a stationary bus, causing outcries from onlookers on the sidewalk. Amidst the advance, officers fired mace into the crowd, causing several dozen to run away into the parking lot.

“Just start shooting off rounds.”

“They’re boxing us in!” One panicked man yelled, as palpable fear permeated the protesters in the intersection. “They’re macing us, they’re macing us” another shouted as a chorus of protesters gagged and coughed on each other.

Coordinated chants were replaced by discordant screams and yelps; “Hey they’re going to kill him!” one demonstrated screamed from the parking lot. Inside the now cramped intersection, one protester held a sign with a question written in bold letters: "Am I Next?" 

Protesters in the parking lot yelled for police to “keep the peace,” as they watched new lines of police forming to block them from the street.

Police on horseback marched into the intersection, causing yet more to flee. A few days before, an HPD officer was caught on tape trampling a woman protester face down.

Over two million Texas have filed unemployment claims due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One immediate consequence is many have lost their health insurance, since it is provided primarily through employers. One of the main ways to slow the spread of the virus, social distancing, became impossible at Rusk and Avenida de las Americas, as police herded protesters into a dense pack.

A secondary danger of attending protests, besides the threat of police violence, is thus the possibility of being boxed into a dense crowd, exposing all to a rampant virus of which there is no cure. It is likely such police actions are creating the conditions to fuel the community spread of COVID-19.

State police on the scene were ordered not to provide civilians with identifying information as the police loudspeaker repeated to the protesters that they were subject to arrest, and that police surveillance was taking pictures of them all.

Contrary to official statements from police departments across the country, much of the violence in the demonstrations appears to have been instigated first by aggressive police officers seeking to break up marches.

One of the main ways to slow the spread of the virus, social distancing, became impossible at Rusk and Avenida de las Americas, as police herded protesters into a dense pack.

While the largely peaceful protesters struggled to coordinate a response, a police officer’s radio was overheard. “Just start shooting off rounds.”

The officer standing on Rusk St. who received the order quickly covered up his radio with his hand to stifle the chatter.

When reached over the phone, an HPD official refused to comment on the specific order to begin firing into the crowd, and added that he did not recall any announcement made by police that the protest was not peaceful, but that police were legally authorized to arrest anyone in the street.

“Whose side are you on?”

A journalist bleeds from the head after police in fire projectiles into a protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota (AFP/FILE)

Police pried open a small space in the intersection, which they used to get the buses through before it was closed by protesters again.

Near the front of the police line, protesters continued to hold up their hands and signs despite threats from the police. After nearly an hour, a protester used a megaphone to urge the crowd to leave the intersection. “Don’t get boxed in!” She pleaded repeatedly.

Most followed her lead, and the standoff at the intersection transformed into a march.

The scenes at Rusk and Avenida de las Americas represented a short-lived attempt to claim public space in the name of George Floyd and others who were killed by police.

The scenes at Rusk and Avenida de las Americas represented a short-lived attempt to claim public space in the name of George Floyd and others who were killed by police. Other attempts have been met with mass arrests using similar confining tactics. Over one hundred incidents of police misconduct have been recorded against members of the press covering the protests.

In many major cities including Minneapolis, Washington DC, and New York City, entire blocks have gone up in flames due to rioting. 

Local and federal governments now face mounting pressure to respond not only to the deepening economic catastrophe unfolding, but to the civil unrest spreading partially as a result of the dire economic straits many find themselves in, in addition to the outrage caused by police violence.

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Al Bawaba News.