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| We held the building |
The brought in state troopers because many police are standing with the workers inside the building in the midst of the protests.
At 4:00 pm, protesters were told to leave. Some did, but many others -- clergy, students and union members -- said they would not leave and would engage in peaceful civil disobedience if they tried to remove them. Firefighters and police officers showed tremendous courage in their willingness to be arrested.
They were not removed. They will not be removed. The people of Wisconsin held their capital building against the Governor.
AP reports:
A few hundred pro-union protesters left the Wisconsin Capitol peacefully on Sunday, but police stood by as hundreds more remained in defiance of a deadline state officials set for clearing the building after a nearly two-week-long sit-in.
The state agency that oversees the Capitol asked the throngs of demonstrators who have camped out at the Capitol since Feb. 15 to leave by 4 p.m., saying the building was in dire need of a cleaning.
But in the hours before the deadline came and after it passed, it was clear most protesters did not intend to leave voluntarily and police had no immediate intention of forcing them to go...
At 4 p.m., organizers who commanded a microphone on the ground floor urged people to remain until police physically tapped them on the shoulder and asked them to leave. Some individuals left in groups of 10 or 20, while most remained behind. Hundreds of other protesters watched from one floor above, the informal gathering place for those who expected to be arrested.
As the deadline passed, hundreds of protesters on the Capitol's upper floors picked up their energy level, chanting "peaceful protest," and "Whose house is this? Our house." At one point, the crowd sang the national anthem. Many said they were prepared to be arrested.
