Shades of Selma: Shocking Video of Mexican Protesters Hosed Down by Water Truck

[Update] As many folks pointed out in comments, just about everything I posted about this story is wrong.  The protesters were not supporting immigration but labor rights, and it's possible they were striking on private property, which changes the dynamic slightly.  I deeply apologize for the inaccuracy of my reporting.  However, I DO stand by the comparison of this event with Selma -- although, as I stated in the original story, the spray from the water truck was not nearly as strong as that from the Selma fire hoses. -- Nonpartisan

From the excellent Tucson, AZ blog Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion comes this horrific footage of pro-immigration protesters in Southern Arizona being repeatedly hosed down by a water truck operated by Pulte Homes:

[Cross-posted at ProgressiveHistorians and My Left Wing.]

While this draconian tactic flies in the face of all the basic precepts of human decency, it raises a particularly disturbing specter from a historical perspective: an identical technique was used in the March 7, 1965 "Bloody Sunday" attack on Martin Luther King and his marchers in Selma Alabama, as this video shows.  (Below, an image from a similar event in Birmingham.)  The hoses there were a little stronger; they left three marchers dead.

If you're unnerved by the historical parallel, want to protest the action, or simply feel that Pulte Homes should explain why their employees felt compelled to assault peaceable strikers with high-powered water sprayers, contact Pulte using the following information taken from their website:

Pulte Homes, Inc.

100 Bloomfield Hills Parkway,

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48304

1-866-PULTE-25 (785-8325)

Email: use the contact form

Go to it.

•  Tips and recommendes

  gladly accepted.

  by Nonpartisan on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 11:45:18 AM PDT

•  The context is not clear to me, why were the

  Protesters there in the first place?. Are they construction workers or were they trepassing? Why werent the po-lice called instead of Pulte workers giving them a high pressure shower?

  But this isnt Selma for goodness sakes.

  by wuod kwatch on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 11:53:38 AM PDT

  •  I'm not cerrtain of the context

    But as they were on streets and sidewalks, which are owned by the State and not by residents, they could not have been trespassing.

    I think the parallels with Selma are pretty strong, to be honest.

    by Nonpartisan on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 11:55:46 AM PDT

    •  Why is this labelled 'immigration'?

      The chant is "The workers, united, will never be defeated!"  The signs are about working conditions.  Nothing seems to indicate this is an immigration rally except it being so labelled on the site with the embedded video (and the comments indicate this is not an immigration rally, but a labor rally).

      Anything other than the presence of Hispanic people indicate this was a "pro-immigration" rally?

      by JR on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:08:29 PM PDT

  •  SHADES of Selma

    It's a comparison.

    See the hoses? See the protestors?

    It's pretty damned apt.

    by Adam Crocker on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 11:56:01 AM PDT

    •  So if there's water involved...

      and protesters involved...

      Even though the protesters (including children) in Selma were BLASTED PAINFULLY by full force water from a fireman's hose, which was supplied by the local government for demanding equal rights as citizens...

      and some of these guys (all adults) leapt over a pretty strong spray, and no one looked like they got hurt at all in the spray supplied by a privately owned homebuilder - for protesting... something - we aren't really sure what...

      So if there's water, and if there are protesters, that links to Selma.

      If I bring a squirt gun the next time I do a war protest, is that shades of Selma?  Or only if someone on the other side squirts it at us?

      by sheddhead on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:07:43 PM PDT

      •  Well

        I suspect what the comparison is intended to convey is that the use of the water truck was not only unlawful, but also a fundamental violation of human dignity. I find it hard not to see an element of racism here - whether intended or not. In every other respect I agree that the comparison with Selma is overblown.

        by brainwave on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:47:30 PM PDT

        •  I don't assume racism.

          Unless you're seeing something I'm not, this is not a racial issue.  It's not good to assume racial undertones, and even worse to state that is what's there, when there's no support of that.

          It is a worker's rights issue, and it is important.

          It's no Selma.  It's no where near Selma.  It's disengenuous to make the comparison.  It weakens any positive effect that may have occurred.  

          And then, to reword the statements of the people pointing this out - to lie about what was said - proves even more how disingenuous.

          We wanted a One Two Three what are we fighting for? diary, and all the commenters chanting along and instead, we got Reality.  We got History.  Boo hoo.

          by sheddhead on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:27:29 PM PDT

      •  The comparison does seem a tad overwrought...

        An interesting situation..

        Reading through articles on the protest its seems that the objections are with Pulte sub-contractors and these might have been paid protesters.

        Pulte has said they are going to investigate the incident..At this point I'm a little cynical about both sides stances.

        by Morgan Sandlin on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:52:25 PM PDT

      •  If you can't tell the difference

        between a squirt gun and the spray from a high-powered water truck, then I'm betting you haven't felt the latter.

        Do you NOT think what was done to these workers was bad?  The AFL-CIO disagrees with you.

        by Nonpartisan on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:59:56 PM PDT

        •  There's a difference between "bad" and Selma.

          And if you don't understand that, your history teachers did a shitty, shitty job.

          by sheddhead on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:05:06 PM PDT

        •  By the way...

          This was written about this comment, as much as any.

          http://www.dailykos.com/...

          by sheddhead on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:06:08 PM PDT

      •  I despise Pulte (and own a Pulte home) - and

        applaud anyone trying to get them to do the right thing.

        I don't think it's accurate that the city owns the sidewalks or streets, yet (in our subdivision, we have to pave our own streets, build our own sidewalks.)  So I think that's hooey.

        Nonetheless, I am in complete support of the workers standing up for their rights.

        I think trying to use Selma to make the claim does many things - first, it attempts to make Selma less than what it actually was.  That's crap.  Second, it changes the issue from "Pulte's in the wrong" to "the people showing this video don't have a clue in the world about US History or the importance of the civil rights movement."  And that's sad - because then someone's not focusing on the real issue - Pulte breaking the law by spraying water on protesters (not endangering their lives, and possibly not limiting their freedom of expression on Public Property) - but into a debate about Selma.

        That's dumb.  Selma has diddly-squat to do with it - leave it out, and make a strong diary about worker's rights.

        by sheddhead on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:04:22 PM PDT

        •  This is JUST as important as the civil rights

          movement.  It's about the right to free speech, which is our most important right as Americans.  In a sense, that's what Selma was about too.

          by Nonpartisan on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 03:47:41 PM PDT

          •  Yes. It is just as important as civil rights

            that workers be allowed to picket and organize.

            Nonetheless, this action, while stupid on the part of the group that did it (which isn't proven to be Pulte, in your video), and definitely something that should be fought through the courts -

            it is not in any way, shape or form similar to what Selma was about, or what occurred - except that there were protesters plus water.

            Blasting families and children with full force of a fire hose, and continuing to blast it into them, injuring people, doing it using government (local) equipment, in the name of that government - because they did not want people who had dark skin to be able to voice their protest -

            is not the same as driving by with a strong, but not overly-so hose, wetting people pretty thoroughly, going so quickly that some can leap over the water, doing this only to healthy young men, doing it using privately owned equipment - because they did not want people who had a labor dispute to keep voicing their protest.

            You can pretend it is, but pretending it is, is stupid, and it's disrespectful to anyone who was at Selma, and it's making a farce of what the workers actually did go through.

            You could have done a really good, reality based diary, and instead, you went way too far - and that's fine - people do.  And then you kept digging deeper.  So keep going, you'll hit China, some day.  But you're not helping the people you'd hoped to help one iota, while you're on your journey through fantasyland.

            by sheddhead on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 06:01:46 PM PDT

            •  I wrote one effed up diary

              in just about every way.  And I'm pretty embarrassed about the whole thing.  I jost don't agree with you that it was effed up in THIS way.

              by Nonpartisan on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 06:23:54 PM PDT

              •  Then we will never agree on it.

                Which is fine.  And which is why I voiced my opinion on it.  Out of respect for people who went through way more than those workers, all because of the color of their skin, and given to them by their government - which, again, I see drastically differently than these workers.

                Nonetheless, I hope that the workers who were abused as they were win a mega-suit against whatever company provided that truck, and use it to strengthen their union organizing.

                by sheddhead on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 06:33:29 PM PDT

•  Non-papered aliens, striking workers

  I don't give a shit what the circumstances were; this is inexcusable. Oh, and a least one of the water trucks had the word Pulte on the side.

  by alasmoses on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 11:59:16 AM PDT

  •  There IS only one water truck

    and you're right -- it's got "Pulte" plastered all over it.

    At the very least, if Pulte didn't order this, the worker should be fired.

    by Nonpartisan on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:00:46 PM PDT

    •  No, there was more than one truck in the video...

      Channel 12 News:

      A closer look at the videotape and you see a quick, shaky shot of a truck with a Pulte logo on the door. The truck in the next shot which sprays the protesters has a number five on the tank, the Pulte logo truck does not. And the truck shown in the next clip does not have a Pulte logo at all, and the tank has some red paint on it. The Pulte logo truck's tank was all white. According to Pulte, the truck could be a sub- contractor’s truck and Petroulakis says it appears the men were trying to get wet, while they performed mandated dust control. "We take the incident very seriously and we will investigate it nonetheless", says Petroulakis.

      The union’s explanation for the video- they say it contains several different scenes of workers being sprayed, and they, too, believe the unmarked truck may be a subcontractor’s vehicle. But they say Pulte is responsible and their attorneys have sent letters to the home builder.

      by Morgan Sandlin on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:01:06 PM PDT

•  According to the link in the diary

  The reason for the protest is the workers were fired from companies that Pulte subcontracts with. The reason they were fired was for speaking up about unfair working conditions. The workers do not recieve enough water to properly hydrate thoughout the day. The workers are required to give up their lunch and breaks in order to complete a job. The companies do not follow all safety regulations and the list goes on and on. You know many people will try and turn this into an immigration fight- the fight is against unfair working conditions and treating WORKERS with dignity and respect. THese workers were want to be treated humainly- hosing down workers with water trucks is not my idea of humain treatment. These workers are standing up to demand justice and I hope you will stand with them and tell Pulte, "Shame on YOU!"

  It is a labor dispute

  by mariachi mama on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:03:02 PM PDT

  •  Important clarification - labor dispute, not

    pro-immigration protest. But the company or at least the eployee driving the water truck clearly broke the law when assaulting the strikers.

    by brainwave on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:07:02 PM PDT

    •  Yeah, fix the diary.

      This is important stuff no matter how you slice it. This is germane to the current labor bill before Congress, and a reminder of how far the GOP has managed to roll back labor laws to almost pre-New Deal darkness.

      Adding the immigration angle only confuses things.

      by Snakes on a White House on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:38:38 PM PDT

•  From AFL CIO blog

  Some 30 construction workers from Arizona and Nevada and their supporters rallied last week outside the Pulte Homes annual shareholders’ meeting in Birmingham, Mich., to demand that the company set standards for its contractors.

  The workers say while the company prospers, the people who help build the homes

  Receive little or no overtime pay;
  Sometimes work without being paid;
  Are denied affordable health care;
  Receive no sick days or vacation days.

  Between 3,000 and 5,000 workers in Arizona and Nevada are employed by Pulte, one of the nation’s largest home builders or by its subcontractors. Pulte, which has been dubbed the "Wal-Mart" of home developers, has operations in 50 markets and made more than $14 billion in sales in 2005.

  http://blog.aflcio.org/...

  by mariachi mama on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:11:14 PM PDT

•  The workers website

  They want to unionize

  http://www.buildingjustice.org/

  by mariachi mama on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:12:53 PM PDT

•  Gotta go back and read the blog to understand

  what is happening. The meat of the discussion is in the comments.

  http://www.rumromanismrebellion.net/...

  by skywriter on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:17:38 PM PDT

•  they used to use Pinkerton

  as the private army against strikers.

  I expect in the future it will be Blackwater.

  by mollyd on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:36:39 PM PDT

  •  It's ICE (our tax dollars) now.

    Ties between immigration raids and union busting

    by Halcyon on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:02:57 PM PDT

    •  yup, the trap in the immagration bill

      If one is arrested for "disturbing the peace" during a union activity... its a ticket back to whereever.

      by mollyd on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:06:53 PM PDT

•  Assualt and Battery

  Somebody knows who the driver is.

  by ROGNM on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:38:21 PM PDT

•  It is a employment dispute

  and I saw it on the local news station at 10 the night or the night after it happened, so it is hardly a secret.

  A Pulte spokeswoman claimed it was the subcontractor that sprayed the protestors, not any Pulte trucks. The footage on the news did not show any Pulte marked vehicles spraying protestors, only unmarked vehicles.

  Pulte also claimed that most of the protestors were not even workers that worked onsite, but paid shrills for the union.

  Only repeating what the local news station reported, they also had a union rep on too.

  With the drastic slowdown in housing there is a lot of excess housing labor in Arizona.

  by redcardphreek on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 12:52:50 PM PDT

•  why i protest

  i have inalienable and constitutional rights of free speech and free assembly. every time i protest, some state-sanctioned crime increases the probability some motherfucker will arrest, injure, maim, or kill me on TEEVEE, with or without my child sobbing over or bleeding atop my body. i assume this personal risk, because i expect that my public ruin, my sacrifice, might move someone else's fat ass off a couch to take my place or at least punish the persons who perpetrated my murder.

  that's the american way.

  further, let me simplify the "context" of documented crimes and situational factors compared with martial "law" enforcement against individual and organized civil rights demonstrators and preceding decades of union strikers.

  personal injury, violence, is a crime acknowledged by commonlaw and crimminal coda.

  if you take solace in priorititizing alleged crimes --trespass before personal injury, INS documentation before personal injury, property before person-- you have demonstrated all at once the many characteristics of civic pride that makes the USA exceptional. bravo.

  by MarketTrustee on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 01:06:55 PM PDT

•  I think that even those of us who were there

  misunderstood the importance of the civil/consumer rights movement of the sixties and the subsequent supportive judicial decisions.  We thought that only minorities benefited--achieved equality with right others already enjoyed.
  In fact, the rights "enjoyed" by others were significantly less than we realized and the increased rights of all citizens to critique the decisions of public officials of all kinds are what are being resisted.
  Equality is still a goal; not a realized condition.  That workers are being harassed with water hoses for voicing their disapproval of the attitudes of their supposed superiors (employers) is actually consistent with the civil rights struggles of the past.
  That "all men are created equal" is a challenge to those who perceive themselves as elite.  That they are prompted to resist that challenge to their authority is understandable.  Nevertheless, it must be resisted.  
  It isn't just governments that need to recognize and honor human rights; all social organizations have that obligation, including private corporations.

  by hannah on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 02:45:03 PM PDT

  •  A beautiful, important comment

    Thank you, truly.

    by Nonpartisan on Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 10:50:35 PM PDT