Among the protesters arrested in Wisconsin by
Since March 11, 2011, Wisconsin citizens came to the Capitol every weekday at lunch to sing civil rights and pro-union songs to demonstrate their disgust with Walker's union-busting, job-destroying, dissent stifling tactics.
Politicususa
Scott Walker has tried to squash these protests by arresting the singers, but their numbers keep growing. Walker then tried to arrest people for watching the singers sing, but he had to back off after a public outcry brought him unwanted national attention. Now, his strategy seems to be that he will arrest the protesters and the journalists who cover the protesters. The Walker administration likely assumes that these protests will die out if journalists are too intimidated to cover them.
Apparently, Gov. Walker has never heard of the Internet.
One of the most overlooked stories in the country right now is what is happening to the Solidarity Singers in Wisconsin. The arrests now total over 200, but the number of protesters continues to steadily grow every day. Scott Walker is another Republican who harbors presidential delusions, so he wants the protesters out of the capitol before the national media arrives to cover his 2016 campaign.
When Walker busted the unions, the national media paid attention. When he survived the recall, they went away. However, the battle for Wisconsin did not stop when the national media left. The struggle is continuing on, and Scott Walker is willing to do anything, including stomping all over the constitution to silence these protesters.
Journalist Matthew Rothschild, writing for The Progressive, described how he got arrested inthe dragnet:
But the police officers said to stand back. I said I was a journalist, the editor of The Progressive magazine.
“You can’t be here,” they said.
“I’m with the press,” I said. “I have a right to be here.”
Whereupon, without a warning that I’d be arrested, Officer S. B. Mael grabbed my hands and put them behind my back, cuffed them, and said, “Obstruction.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Block said, as she was put in the elevator.
“This is getting absurd, guys,” I said to the officers, who refused to engage with me.
They took me to the basement of the capitol, frisked me, and put me in a chair.
…
The police kept me in the basement of the capitol until all the protesters had left. They took down my name and Social Security number and address and phone number and employer (I reminded them I worked at The Progressive).
And then they hauled me off in a squad car to the Dane County jail just three blocks away, where I was frisked again, booked, fingerprinted, had my mug shot taken, and kept in a holding cell with three other inmates for an hour and twenty minutes before being released.Stay tuned.
