Marsha Bowen, in pink, a representative for the LaRouche Political Action Committee, talks to a resident Monday outside the League City post office where they set up several posters opposing the Obama administration.
LEAGUE CITY — Craig Holtzclaw makes no secret he doesn’t approve of President Barack Obama’s political agenda.
The LaRouche Political Action Committee organizer regularly protests outside of court houses and post offices. But it’s the activist’s depiction of Obama as Adolph Hitler, complete with the signature mustache drawn onto Obama’s upper lip, that had many customers at the League City post office shaking their heads.
Holtzclaw and a fellow protester showed a poster that calls for putting the president into a straitjacket.
He said the government was using health care reform as a ruse to pay for corporate bailouts. He said proposed federal legislation to reform health care would lead to the “forced euthanasia” of older Americans.
Holtzclaw, who said he is a Democrat who also protested presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, said protesters depicted Obama as Hitler on the issue of health care reform was because “we are facing fascism.”
“If the corporations use the government to say that people’s lives are expendable so we can do the bailouts, that’s what Hitler did,” Holtzclaw said.
Allen Matthews, of League City, an Obama supporter, said he doesn’t care where Holtzclaw stands on the issues but found the visual comparisons of the president to Hitler — especially on the sidewalk of a post office — offensive.
“I don’t mind people protesting — that’s their right to protest,” Matthews said. “The depiction of Obama as Hitler ... That depiction denigrates. I thought this was something we had gotten away from.”
Matthews complained to postal workers but was told the protest was allowed. He said he had considered tearing down some of the protesters’ signs that were in the driveway.
He worried people may get the impression the government endorsed the anti-Obama protests.
Still, Holtzclaw found plenty of support.
“I was kind of curious if it was something pro-Obama,” Lauren Spalding, of Santa Fe, a self-described conservative, said. Spalding called the health care reform plan “horrible.”
“I think it should have been stopped way before it got this far,” she said.
Still, comparing the president to Hitler made her uneasy.
“Even though I don’t like him, I didn’t vote for him and wish he wasn’t there, I don’t think they should have put Hitler’s (mustache) on him,” she said. “Even if I think that’s what he is ... like, you just don’t do that.”
Matthews and Spalding both expressed surprise that the protests were allowed on postal service property. A United States Postal Service spokeswoman said not only are such protests allowed, they are constitutionally guaranteed — but there are some rules.
While there were complaints from customers, spokeswoman Dionne Montague said as a federal agency the postal service could not deny protesters access. Protesters can picket in front with signs as long as they do not restrict access to the post office or block traffic. They are restricted from engaging discussions with customers on the property, Montague said.
They also are prohibited from posting signs or taking donations on the property.
It appeared that Holtzclaw’s protest ran afoul some of those provisions. He and a fellow protester set up shop on the walkway between the post office parking lot and the building. They also did not lead people to an area off the property, but rather to where they had posters and a table full of literature. There were signs planted on stakes at one of the driveways into the post office, and at least twice The Daily News observed Holtzclaw running people’s credit cards for donations.
Montague said postal inspectors were looking into possible violations of the guidelines.
