Among the most darkly grotesquely absurdities of contemporary political life is that class warfare is used to describe marginal tax increases for rich people and calls for mild redistribution to the working class. Here's what it actually means. These are janitors in Houston who make $20 a day with no health insurance. Their labor is physical, the chance for workplace injuries massive, and the desire for better conditions natural. So they struck. And the police came in with horses.
For those curious, horses are used for two reasons: The first is the enhanced visibility their height offers police. The second is because they're animals, not machines. Implicit in the use of the horse is that it is not fully in the officers control and could, at any time, take one errant step and crush you. They terrify in a way motorcycles or, say, stilts, don't. True to form, the horses trampled scores of the strikers, injuring a handful, including an 83-year-old man. The protest was broken and 44 janitors were arrested. Guess how that went:
