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Published on Thursday, October 5, 2006 by The Progressive
Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault?
by Matthew Rothschild

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.

"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.'"
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."