DETROIT – Detroit teachers are fighting the “system,” literally.

Detroit Federation of Teachers members and others duked it out with police in the Hilton Garden Inn lobby as the union’s parent organization conducted a hearing over the ouster of former DFT President Steve Conn, The Detroit News reports.

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According to the news site:

A melee broke out inside the hotel, with punches being thrown by both sides as security officers tried to keep about 15 protesters out. Police were called to restore order.

During the scuffle, a potted plant was knocked over in the lobby as frightened hotel guests scurried out of the way.

At one point, about 20 squad cars, a Border Patrol car and a fire engine were on the scene.

Detroit Police Sgt. Michael Woody told MLive officers were called to the hotel “originally because protesters were in the street.”

“We came over, blocked the street for their safety, and as (the police) were spreading out, a call came across that the protesters forced their way into the hotel and were assaulting patrons,” he said, adding that someone also pulled the fire alarm.

Protesters allege one of the police pulled a gun, while another contends an officer hit her in the stomach with a baton, according to the news site.

The DFT executive board removed Conn from office in August over internal misconduct charges. Conn, a teacher and far-left rabble-rouser affiliated with the local By Any Means Necessary “civil rights” group – had long warred with DFT leadership before taking over the union in January by promising to buck the district, Gov. Rick Snyder, and his appointed emergency financial manager.

Yesterday, Conn led teachers on a massive walkout that forced the closure of 88 of the district’s 97 schools. Hundreds of teachers gathered the Cabo Center a few hours before President Obama flew in to visit the North American Auto Show in the building. The apparent goal was to link a public health crisis over drinking water in Flint to Detroit Public Schools, and to rile up union members as Conn and others prepare to call for a strike.

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The walkout, or “sickout” as teachers called it, is the latest in a string of similar stunts in recent weeks aimed at removing the current emergency financial manager Darnell Earley and restoring the locally elected school board that created DPS’ massive financial problems to begin with, according to the news site.

Teachers chanted “Snyder out, is a must” outside of auto show Wednesday – “Detroit won’t go to the back of the bus.”

“It’s clear that the state takeovers and the elimination of democratic control across Michigan cities has only created more destruction in black, Latino and poor communities,” BAMN organizer and Conn supporter David Douglass told The Detroit News. “In Flint, we had Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, who said himself that to save money, they’d switch water from the Detroit water system to the Flint River.”

The decision was the beginning of the current health crisis in Flint.

“Teachers, parents and students are just fed up with the injustices that are being done to our students,” Cass Technical High School teacher Joel Berger said. “It’s about (Darnell) Earley, who was the emergency manager in Flint when they switched their water over, and now he’s being charged with looking over Detroit Public Schools.”

Conn told the News a “Detroit Strike to Win Committee” is meeting today to consider “a strike demand that I’m sure will include the removal of Early and of all emergency managers.”

Ironically, DPS is about a half-billion dollars in the red and in desperate need of serious help from state’s Republican-controlled legislature. And Michigan House Speaker Kevin Cotter isn’t very impressed with the antics in Detroit.

 

“DPS strikers are putting their own wants above the needs of children,” Cotter spokesman Gideon D’Assandro posted to Twitter. “It’s despicable.”

In October, the Detroit News reported only 36 percent of DPS fourth-graders and only 27 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in math, while only 27 percent of fourth-graders and 44 percent of eighth-graders were proficient in reading.