A Provocation against Democratic Rights:
Texas Republicans order State Police
to Seize Democratic Legislators.
By Patrick Martin
May 15, 2003

Governor Rick Perry, a Republican who served as lieutenant governor under George W. Bush, dispatched Department of Public Safety officers to the homes of the legislators, to arrest them and produce a quorum by force.

This week's political events in Texas, Democratic legislators boycotting the state House of Representatives to block reactionary legislation, the Republican governor ordering state police to arrest them, the Democrats fleeing the state capital and taking refuge in neighboring Oklahoma, under the protection of that state's Democratic administration are an indication of the extraordinary buildup of political tensions within the United States..

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