A Tea Partier punched a union supporter today, breaking a tooth, during the daily noon singalong in the Rotunda. Another Tea Partier in a wheelchair -- former state Sen. Dave Zien -- ran over people's feet, saying "Walker should be president."
Here's what happened, according to an eyewitness who posted on a Solidarity Singers' Facebook page:
There were 3 Tea Party protestors there during most of the hour of the sing along. I was on the second floor balcony of the rotunda hanging one of those long vertical banners down...
The singing went on peacefully as it always does right up until the last few minutes, right before 1pm when the sing along is over. The teabaggers with the flag came onto the second floor and and hung their flag over the balcony and then they began walking around the circle holding their flag over the balcony. As they would encounter a participant in the sing along, they would just continue walking, and would drape their flag right over people's faces and/or banners if they were holding one. (Charming.) When these two men continued around the circle to where I was standing, holding my banner, I took a few steps away from the balcony edge still holding my banner as a way to prevent these men from putting their flag over me, but they continued to do it anyway.
Just as they were draping their flag across my face, a member of the sing along came over, told the men to stop it, and pulled their flag down. instantly, the shorter tea partier grabbed this guy in a headlock and punched him in the mouth which resulted in a broken tooth. The guy who got punched did not initiate any physical force against either of the tea partiers holding the flag, he just was grabbing and trying to pull down their flag, never touching either of the men until he was trying to get himself free from the headlock. Some more sing along people came over and tried to break up the fight. moments later the police came upstairs to assess the situation.And here's a disturbing detail:
...several singers saw a fox news affiliate- fox 6 out of Milwaukee, and claimed that their cameras were rolling before the fight took place and that they may have it on video. There was some speculation that these people were hired or encouraged to come and cause trouble and disrupt our sing along, and they had the fox cameras there to record it as a way to put negative spin on the events at the capitol...Above is a youtube video of a Solidarity Singalong last week.
