July 6, 2019

Peaceful Protesters Harassed and 3 Unlawful Arrested at Carrizo Springs, TX Dention Center

By John Wiesen via Daily Kos

On July 3 2019, I attended the Carrizo Springs Detention Center protest along with approximately 200 fellow activists and protesters. This event was organized by Children’s Defense Fund Texas, Texas Organizing Project and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. Its purpose was to protest the expanding detention of innocent refugees and immigrants and their cruel and inhumane treatment at the hands of the U.S Government.

From the beginning, there was a heavy and intimidating presence of police special forces. They cruised slowly in large black SUVs, persistently driving back and forth inches away from protesters. They were so close that at one protester was hit by a side view mirror as they drove by, and felt she had to leave early to remove her children from this frightening situation. The police periodically interrupted the speakers with sirens and admonishments to “clear the road” as well as operating a drone over the crowd, perhaps to identify participants. The protest action was calm and peaceful, even with the ominous presence of police and sheriff’s officers decked out in body armor. I heard many moving and heartfelt speeches against these cruel and inhuman detention centers by those closest to the battle. But only as the protest was concluding did the real intentions of this hostile, aggressive police presence become clear.

I had heard from action organizers that they had pre-arranged with the facility administrators to allow people who came in their personal vehicles to park along the roadway provided they stayed clear of the road surface, which they did. Activists saw and photographed deputies looking inside the parked cars during the protest. Just as people were leaving to return to their cars, the facility admin/police broke this agreement, perhaps they never planned to abide by it. Several tow trucks suddenly appeared and began to tow cars away, even though the cars were not obstructing the road in any way. Because the tow trucks were blocking the road, no one could get out, and many of us became upset at this provocation and gathered along the roadside. The timing of the towing was obviously orchestrated to cause chaos among the protesters and give the Sheriff deputies a pretext to arrest people, as they had a police van standing by for that purpose. According to witnesses, two activists engaged one of the tow drivers in a conversation, during which a police officer determined that the driver was “offended” by their comments, and arrested the activists illegally using brutal and abusive tactics, including the use of a taser.

At this point I arrived in the vicinity of the police van and heard lots of yelling and people chanting “Let them go!” at the police on the scene. I saw my friend Rosey Abuabara talking to a police officer, and after a short time, I saw them grab her violently without warning or justification, throw her to the ground, arrest her and put her into the police van. I believe they had already decided to arrest people no matter what, even though no crimes were committed. I rode to the Dimmitt County Sheriff’s office with another activist to await information on Rosey’s situation. There were at least a dozen activists already there. I was inspired to see multiple people there working feverishly making calls to lawyers, elected officials and press to get the word out about what had happened and try to get the three activists freed. The Dimmitt county authorities slow walked the processing in order to force the three to spend the night in jail. They were eventually freed after about 24 hours in detention.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/7/5/1869729/-Peaceful-Protesters-Harassed-and-Three-Unlawfully-Arrested-at-Carrizo-Springs-TX-Detention-Center?fbclid=IwAR2_KJRTPTgvj0oEPjRlzgtbF7wLQU0zPQSXvnN7FtRNGVLPKHvZDU5xi4M#comment_74336473