America, land of the ...

the… the… I dunno. I give up. It’s certainly not the land of the free.

In an unprecedented transparent attempt to severely limit the right to peaceful protest and freedom of speech of low-wage Houston janitors and their supporters, a Harris County District Attorney has set an extraordinarily high bond of $888,888 cash for each of the 44 peaceful protestors arrested last night. Houston janitors and their supporters, many of them janitors from other cities, were participating in an act of non-violent civil disobedience, protesting in the intersection of Travis at Capitol when they were arrested in downtown Houston Thursday night. They were challenging Houston’s real estate industry to settle the janitors’ strike and agree on a contract that provides the 5,300 janitors in Houston with higher wages and affordable health insurance.

The combined $39.1 million bond for the workers and their supporters is far and above the normal amount of bail set for people accused of even violent crimes in Harris County. While each of the non-violent protestors is being held on $888,888 bail …

For a woman charged with beating her granddaughter to death with a
sledgehammer, bail was set at $100,000;

For a woman accused of disconnecting her quadriplegic mother’s breathing
machine, bail was set at $30,000;

For a man charged with murder for stabbing another man to death in a bar
brawl, bail was set at $30,000;

For janitors and protesters charged with Class B misdemeanors for past
non-violent protests, standard bail has been set at $500 each.

More than 5,300 Houston janitors are paid $20 a day with no health insurance, among the lowest wages and benefits of any workers in America.

America… where we love all the people all the time unless they carry signs and interfere with our consumerist days or the “free” market or organize collectively or…