We're not sure it's civil disobedience, though. Under Wisconsin law, citizens are allowed to videotape the proceedings of the State Assembly. The video (thanks to Pixiq) shows law enforcement officers dragging citizens out of the visitors gallery for videotaping a boring policy debate -- which isn't disobeying the law.
Pixiq reports that Speaker Pro Tempore Bill Kramer, a Republican, insisted that citizens shut down their recording devices because they were disruptive. Rep. Mark Radcliffe, a Democrat, saw things differently and called for a vote to suspend the Assembly rules. Reports Pixiq, Radcliffe said,
If they want to sit there silently and videotape us, maybe we would all behave a little bit better.
I represent a municipal village in Jackson County, Wisconsin and I preach as a village attorney the importance of open government and getting people to participate in the process.
And by having those people removed from this body, it precludes them from participating in this process. We may be their elected representatives, but they should have the right to sit in this body and tape what we do.
I would ask the members of this body to suspend the rules and allow people to videotape these proceedings.
