Cheney Raises War Chest; Protester Arrested

by Delfina, member of Houston World Can’t
Wait

A war criminal came to Houston on Friday,
June 6^th. His name is Dick Cheney. He decided to give us
a visit so he could attend a fundraiser for Pete Olson, who is trying
to recapture Tom DeLay’s former chair from Democrat Nick Lampson. Cheney
arrived around 11 am to the luncheon held at a home in Houston’s wealthiest
neighborhood, River Oaks.

A group of us activists were right across
the street on park property loudly chanting and holding our signs. We
were chanting, “Occupation is a crime, In Iraq and Palestine!”,
as well as “What are they recruiting for? Murder, Rape, Torture, War!”,
and other chants. The people also “spoke out” against the
various crimes of the Bush regime.  

When the protest began breaking up, three
people left on their bikes, riding toward the end of the street. They
were accosted and yelled at by the anxious looking police officers.
The officers told them to ride the other direction, which would cause
them to make a huge circle. Yet, as people ran or rode their bikes past
the scene, they were not stopped.  

It seemed as though the police were itching
to use their weapons on us, even though we were doing nothing wrong.
In fact  they were protecting an arch war criminal,.And we were
protesting this war criminal, which is something that many more people
need to be doing. 

One of our young activists went to speak
with an officer about the situation and was confronted with force. The
officer yelled at him to back up onto park property and pushed him back.
The young man was merely standing on the edge of the park when he was
arrested. For some reason, 4 cops rushed out to tie his hands up when
one could’ve done the job. This was another example of unjustified police
aggression. The youth was put into the back of a patrol car as the remaining
cops stood there gloating at us, ready to attack another one of us for
no apparent reason. Many of them had also seen us when President Bush
came to Houston last year. They didn’t take their chance abusing us
there, so they decided they had to this time around. But we will not
be deterred from continuing our protests, and our efforts to contribute
to building massive repudiation of the Bush Regime’s program.