It’s sad that this has to be pointed out, but, as someone interested in the long-term health of various social justice movements, both those directly stemming from the ZRC’s core mission and those conducted in solidarity, I have to do so:

When the police use force to remove someone against their will, that is violence. When they do so outside of the context of a legal arrest, it is indefensible and *lawless* violence. This is not an activity that is worthy of praise in a democratic society. If a crime has been committed, the public deserves to have that crime prosecuted and the evidence heard in a fair and open legal proceeding, even putting aside the rights of the accused. If no crime has been committed then a police officer has no authority or business laying a hand on a citizen. This is a binary situation; either an arrest, an orderly and legally prescribed procedure, is warranted, or no action is warranted at all. It is not mercy, or kindness, or being ‘Wisconsin Nice’ to drag innocent people out by their arms, legs, clothes, against their will, rather than place them into the legal system in an orderly and controlled manner.

I know for a fact that some of the protesters who chose to be removed yesterday did so precisely to protest this illegal police behavior. I also know that many of those of us who slept over in the Capitol did so in the full knowledge that we would face arrest, and were prepared to enter the legal system to make our case. This was of course denied in favor of violence against non-violent demonstrators.

And yet, still, you see, and hear, and can argue with those who defend police officers as they commit crimes and violence to avoid, for whatever ill-advised reason, the oversight of the criminal justice system. Is it to keep the number of arrests reported in the media artificially low? Is it to avoid attracting attention to a populist uprising? Is it out of some misguided sense that having a criminal record automatically makes you a bad person, some Puritanical notion that any offense against the state is a black mark on one’s soul, regardless of context?

I can’t say, and won’t speak for the officers who did the terrible things I witnessed yesterday. I will simply say that it was wrong, and they were wrong, and the people who defended them for following orders were wrong, and remain so. I have embedded, immediately below, two videos of the Capitol Police mistreating and even injuring non-violent protesters in the course of their ‘duties’. In the first, after dropping a man they were dragging out by force due to another officer blocking their path, the police severely manhandle and injure him, breaking his glasses and injuring his face. In the second, they actively refuse to provide medical attention to a protester they had just removed and who was apparently unresponsive. Later the individual, whose name I did not know, recovered to some extent and was communicative. At the time, I had to worry I might be watching a man die after police brutality.

It is also worth noting that the Capitol Police in particular have been disrespectful of the law and justice in other ways. I have documented with video that they held the Capitol closed well into business hours so they could conduct their little forced removal of protesters. They denied entry to the Capitol to members of the press, who reported having to climb in windows or sneak in through various means, and I witnessed personally the police denying members of the press with current credentials access to the Assembly during the removal procedure. What were they afraid of being documented by a third party? One has to wonder, though not too hard, considering what I did manage to get on video myself. I even witnessed Democratic Assembly reps stating that they had been denied entry as well, and had to sneak into the building via the windows of their Democratic colleagues on the first floor.

Below is the first of several videos documenting the Capitol Police holding the Capitol closed, despite having fully staffed and operational metal detector checkpoints ready for operation for hours. I started wanting to leave about 7 am. At that time, the checkpoints were fully operational. I confirmed they were not open last at about 9:20 by speaking with officers at both locations. I also witnessed Chief Tubbs arrive at the still closed building around 8:50 am. Not to open it; that did not happen. Instead, apparently, he came to oversee the violent removal of peaceful demonstrators. He, and the men under his command, had a legal obligation to open the Capitol, a duty to perform, one they chose, actively, not to perform in favor of violence in favor of the Governor and his policies, despite providing assurances the night before that they would follow the law and open the building in the morning, in an attempt to trick those of us who wanted to stay the night into leaving. Remember that when someone praises Tubbs or his men. Remember that treachery when anyone calls those who occupy their Capitol ‘criminals’ or questions the need to occupy the building in the first place.

In conclusion, the events of March 10th at the Madison Capitol should be remembered not just as the day that our Republican-dominated legislature abdicated its responsibility to provide some measure of justice and stability to Wisconsin’s citizens, going so far as to use illegal parliamentary tricks and outright lies to pass legislation. It should also be remembered as the day a distinct minority faction of Wisconsin’s law enforcement community decided that violence to further a political objective was acceptable, that the police acting to create policy outside of the law and outside of the courts was acceptable.

They were wrong. History should record that they were wrong, record their names and deceits and the violence they committed yesterday. Sadly, I expect few will remember the events of March 10th, though they may well be the first indicators of a very dark period of history of violent political repression in the state of Wisconsin.

Tags: Madison Protests, Social Justice

This entry was posted by John Sears on Friday, March 11th, 2011 at 7:46 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.