Stephen Benavides, an organizer with the United Steelworkers, was one of eight arrested Saturday at the Occupy Dallas protest at the downtown Bank of America tower during Bank Transfer Day, aimed at encouraging the use of not-for-profit credit unions over for-profit banks.But while the other protesters were jailed on the misdemeanor charge of "improper use of a sidewalk" (Schutze: WTF?), Benavides was charged with assaulting a public servant and resisting arrest. We first wrote about him back in 2009 when he served as the chair at UNT's ACLU student chapter, pushing to allow same-sex couples to run for homecoming court. He bonded out Wednesday on the felony charge, and he spoke Thursday afternoon with Unfair Park about what he says was supposed to be a peaceful protest gone very, very wrong.
"When we left that day, the intention was not to have a confrontation with the police," he says. "When everything happened, it was just a complete shock."
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