(My mood after this whole mess can be summed up by this photo)

Last night, after hearing about the highly unusual, extremely dubiously legal trickery being used to attack Wisconsin workers and the universal human right to form a union, I went down to the Capitol for some first hand reporting.

What I saw there was both heartening and tragic. The support on the street was amazing, with cards honking and protesters having ‘stormed’ the Capitol. For the record, I got in through an open second floor door. Not much in the way of storming. I walked in.

I eventually joined the group of protesters who seized and held the entrance to the Assembly for the evening. Honestly, I fully expected to be arrested at some point. In fact, if our police had been more professional, I would have been. More on that in a moment.

Eventually, as they often have in recent weeks, the Capitol police backed down rather than force a confrontation, and I spent a long and very uncomfortable night on the floor there in front of the Assembly. Around 7 am I went downstairs; the building, by judge’s order, was supposed to open at 8am, and the vote was scheduled for 11 am. I was going to leave when the building opened, go home to take some medicine and get a shower, then come back.

Instead the Capitol Police decided to once again urinate all over a legal court order and refused to open the building. I waited for over 90 minutes, then made my way back upstairs, only to be refused entry to the area I had slept over in, in front of the Assembly, by armed and very unhappy looking cops, mostly Capitol police.

(This is what fascism looks like)

Yes, Chief Tubbs was there. Yes, he presided over violating the law repeatedly and grievously all morning. He is *not* to be trusted. He is a liar and a criminal. I’ll write more about that in a subsequent post.

Then I unfortunately bore witness to a truly awful scene as the Capitol Police and officers from a few counties around the state, plus one inept DNR officer, decided to remove, by force, by *violence* in fact, the protesters I spent the night with in front of the Assembly.

(injuries and chaos abounded as the police ineptly removed rather than arrested protesters. Video to follow)

See, they had both the means and the equipment (soft cuffs) to arrest them/us. They didn’t want that, however. Perhaps because it would come out in court that they had been illegally holding the building hostage for almost two hours at that point, who can say. Instead of an orderly arrest process, which the protesters were prepared for, with ACLU numbers at the ready, they used violence to simply remove their enemies, the citizens of Wisconsin.

It was a debacle and an utter disgrace, and a complete insult to all the actual law enforcement professionals here in Wisconsin as well. To see violence and mayhem inflicted on students, on injured vets and old people, was shocking and repulsive. Every single officer who participated in this offense to reason and honor should bear this shame for the rest of their lives. Today I saw an injured vet hauled out on his bad leg, clearly in pain. I saw another older veteran dragged out by a chaotic scrum of abusive cops who broke his glasses and busted his nose. I saw an old man tossed like a sack of potatoes, and I saw nonviolent protesters, assaulted, bruised and crying in their own Capitol building. I also saw defenders of the police arguing that it wasn’t their fault, that they were just following orders.

As if that has flown since Nuremburg.

(A protester in apparent medical distress was denied access to a doctor or medic by the police, who were annoyed that he had passively resisted)

If anyone out there is embarking upon any legal proceedings against the Capitol police, the other cops, the DOA or Chief Tubbs specifically, I make all our video and pictures, as well as my own personal testimony, readily available. Prison time would be a useful corrective for this tyranny.

After they abused my fellow citizens and stole their rights, I left the building. Outside, as one would expect, a massive crowd was being kept from entering the building in force, although once the coup upstairs was complete they did allow a trickle of protesters inside. As opposed to the hours from 8 to about 10 am when they did not do so at all.

(outside tens of thousands wait for their chance to eventually enter their Capitol, when and if it’s convenient for Chief Tubbs)

(the only response for Walker; for his cronies, I suggest indictments.)

Tags: Madison Protests, Social Justice

This entry was posted by John Sears on Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 8:25 pm and is filed under ZRC News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.