On the merry old road to fascism...

I did a search on ATS and didn't find anything, so here it is.

Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?

Apparently so. Steve Howards made the following comment, in a calm voice, to Cheney at a public address at a local mall: "Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible."

Ten minutes later he was confronted by a secret service agent, demanding to know if he'd assaulted the Vice President. Howards 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.”

He was immediately arrested, handcuffed in front of his eight year old son, and dragged off to jail.

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

Here's a link to the full article.

www.progressive.org...

In a former communist Yugoslavia we had an offense called "Verbal Delict". It was used on citizens who talked openly against the Party or talk back to the police officer. When you commited this offence you were taken to police station on "informative chat". There they kick your butt a little and made you sign a statement that you were treated nicely.

Ah, the good old days.

[edit on 12-10-2006 by yanchek]

If this an actually true story which happened just like the individual involved says it did.....


then the Secret Service was wrong to arrest the man......

What I would like is either a recording of said statement or video of the episode.

Since the VP was giving a speech there should be some sort of recording out there.

Lets acutally hear for ourselves what this man said....then pass judgement on the Secret Service.

Personally, I'd take arrest over being shot in the face.

On a serious note though, the guy's first ammendment rights were violated and it's only going to get worse for all of us.

Peace

On a serious note though, the guy's first ammendment rights were violated and it's only going to get worse for all of us.

That's why he's suing those agents, with the help of ACLU i think... And the story happened as the paper says, i listenned to an interview he made. And I don't think there's a video or audio of this... Cheney was just shaking hands in a shoping mall.

CAUTION:

Remember that before you ever go to see Dick Cheney in public, or anywhere for that matter, be absolutely sure that Cheney does not have access to a shotgun!

And the story happened as the paper says, i listenned to an interview he made.

I'm not defending the Secret Service......but maybe what the guy said could of been construded as a 'threat'....since there is no recording or video, I'm going to side with the Secret Service on this one.

There have been too many examples of far-left individuals or people who don't agree with the current administration to make outlandish claims.

The Secret Service is extremely professional because it needs to be......

I'm willing to bet that the guy in question is not telling us everything he said.

There is this guy in jail in Poland. What was his crime? He was asked what he thought about the prime minister and he farted.

Personally thats just about the same opinion I have of cheney but I shouldn't be jailed for it.

Honestly, he wouldn't have been released so easily had it been a real threat. The man seems educated and well-spoken, so I doubt he's going to run up to the VP and threaten the man.

Regardless of what was said, the man's first and fourth ammendment rights were violated.

Blaze ---

The man seems educated and well-spoken,

So was Theodore Kazinki (sp?)

[edit on 13-10-2006 by ferretman2]