[Vision2020] Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault? [With Article]

[Tom Hansen]

>From the Progressive at:

http://www.progressive.org/mag_mc100406?cheney

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Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?
By Matthew Rothschild
October 4, 2006

Steve Howards says he used to fantasize about what he'd say to President
Bush or Vice President Cheney if he ever got the chance.

That opportunity arrived on June 16, the same day he says he read about U.S.
fatalities in Iraq reaching 2,500.

Howards says he was taking two of his kids to their Suzuki piano camp in
Beaver Creek, Colorado. They were walking across the outdoor public mall
area when all of a sudden he saw Cheney there.

"I didn't even know he was in town," Howards says. "He was walking through
the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself,
'I can't in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.' So I approached
him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice,
'Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.' And then I walked away."

Howards says he knew the Administration has a "history of making problems"
for people who protest its policies, so he wanted to leave off at that.

But the Secret Service did not take kindly to his comment."About ten minutes
later, I came back through the mall with my eight-year-old son in tow,"
Howards recalls, "and this Secret Service man came out of the shadows, and
his exact words were, 'Did you assault the Vice President?' "

Here's how Howards says he responded: "No, but I did tell Mr. Cheney the way
I felt about the war in Iraq, and if Mr. Cheney wants to be shielded from
public criticism, he should avoid public places. If exercising my
constitutional rights to free speech is against the law, then you should
arrest me."

Which is just what the agent, Virgil D. "Gus" Reichle Jr, proceeded to do.

"He grabbed me and cuffed my hands behind my back in the presence of my
eight-year-old son and told me I was being charged with assault of the Vice
President,"Howards recalls.

He says he told the agent, "I can't abandon my eight-year-old son in a
public mall."

According to Howards, Reichle responded: "We'll call Social Services."
Before that could happen, however, "my son ran away and found my wife," who
was nearby, Howards says.

"First of all, I was scared," Howard recalls. "They wouldn't tell my wife
where they were taking me. Second of all, I was incredulous this could be
happening in the United States of America. This is what I read about
happening in Tiananmen Square. They hauled me away to Eagle County jail and
kept me with my hands cuffed behind my back for three hours."

At the jail, the charge against him was reduced to harassment, he says, and
he was released on $500 bond. The Eagle County DA's office eventually
dropped that charge.

On October 3, Howards sued Reichle for depriving him of his First Amendment
right of free speech and his Fourth Amendment right to be protected from
illegal seizure.

Howards and his attorney, David Lane, have not demanded a specific dollar
amount.

"We will go to trial and let a Colorado jury decide what type of damages are
appropriate," says Howards. "This isn't about anything I did. This about
what I said. There is a frontal assault occurring on our constitutional
right to free speech. We brought this suit because of our belief that this
Administration's attempt to suppress free speech is a greater threat to the
long-term integrity of this nation than ten Osama bin Ladens."

Reichle did not return my call for comment. Nor did he respond to The New
York Times in its article on this incident.

Lon Garner, special agent in charge at the Secret Service's Denver office,
says he has "no reaction" to the lawsuit. "It's in litigation," he says. "We
have no comment."

Before his encounter with Cheney, Howards says he had a clean record.

"I was never arrested before," he says. "I don't have so much as a speeding
ticket."

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Tom Hansen
Vandalville, Idaho

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, chocolate in one hand, a drink in the other, body thoroughly used
up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO. What a ride!'"