SCOTT WALKER'S COPS BACK DOWN
Carl Gibson, Reader Supported News
isconsin governor Scott Walker has finally realized after over a month-long crackdown on people singing protest and labor songs in the state capitol, during which capitol police arrested more than 200 singers and issued roughly 350 citations between late July and early September (I was personally arrested 5 times), that it's far less costly financially and politically to just let the people sing.
In the aftermath of a settlement between the ACLU and the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA), the DOA is changing their permit policy, capitol police are no longer arresting people for singing, and attorneys representing the singers are confident that the remaining citations for "no permit/unlawful assembly" will eventually be dismissed. The citations are still being prosecuted, but an overwhelming number of them have already resulted in dismissals.
Originally, the Walker DOA issued restrictions on groups larger than four against assembling without first asking the capitol police for permission. A federal judge threw that out in a preliminary injunction in June, but has yet to make a final decision on restrictions of groups larger than 20. Now, all a group larger than 12 people has to do is give a "public notice" that they intend to assemble in the capitol rotunda on a given day and time. Some Solidarity Singalong participants rightly call this an abridgement of free speech and free assembly, but are still celebrating the fact that capitol police have backed down from making arrests. When the final ruling on the DOA's permitting rules comes down in January of 2014, it's likely that, considering an overwhelming number of citations issued to singers have been dismissed in court, Judge Conley will strike down the remaining restrictions on public assembly as unconstitutional.
During the first few weeks of the mass arrests of people participating in the daily Solidarity Singalong, a noontime, hour-long singing tradition since March of 2011, state capitol police arrested approximately 30 to 40 singers a day. Clearly, Capitol Police Chief David Erwin, who reports directly to DOA secretary and Walker appointee Mike Huebsch, was going for the maximum effect at chilling protest in the state capitol. Nobody was spared from arrest - not even grandmothers, mothers with small children, teachers, teenagers, veterans, journalists, firefighters, a sitting city alder, or a member of the school board. Police even arrested spectators and threatened tourists with arrest.
During one singalong, capitol police violently arrested two brothers, CJ and Damon Terrell, without provocation. Damon was tackled by four officers for taking pictures, while CJ sat down and asked to have his citation issued to him in the rotunda. Police used "pain compliance" on CJ (which, by using pain to get someone to comply with an order, shares a common definition with torture) and Damon was held for 3 days in Dane County Jail without a charge. Seeing video evidence of the arrest from multiple angles, district attorneys refused to charge Damon with any crime.
Rather than being punished for blatant violations of his oath to uphold Article 1, Section 4 of the Wisconsin state constitution or wasting taxpayer dollars on frivolous arrests and court appearances that end in dismissals, Chief Erwin and his top deputy, Dan Blackdeer, were given double-digit pay raises by the Walker DOA. Because state rules forbid individual public employees from receiving huge salary increases in a short period of time, the DOA played a bureaucratic shell game by shuffling Erwin and Blackdeer to phantom jobs within the DOA for one day, then hiring them back at their old jobs with hefty pay increases.
On the surface, it's hard to see that as anything but a reward to Chief Erwin from the Walker administration for doing his best to chill dissent at the capitol. The political goal was to put a stop to the daily sing-alongs before the Fall, when student groups tour the capitol on a near-daily basis. Walker, hungry for higher office, clearly wanted to stomp out the daily protests before the media came to Madison to cover his presumed run for the presidency. However, his strategy backfired, and the Solidarity Singalong grew from several dozen daily participants to several hundred after the crackdown began, attracting the attention of both local and national media.
Given the latest news of the Walker DOA crying uncle and letting protesters have their capitol back, Walker has proven that his best attempts to silence the voices of his opposition, even using his palace guard to arrest all violators, violently if necessary, was in vain. This should prove to everyone that when basic First Amendment rights like free speech and free assembly are threatened, the people can win those rights back if they fight hard enough. As long as the people never give up, the will of the many will always trump the tyranny of a few.
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Carl Gibson, 26, is co-founder of US Uncut, a nationwide creative direct-action movement that mobilized tens of thousands of activists against corporate tax avoidance and budget cuts in the months leading up to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Carl and other US Uncut activists are featured in the documentary "We're Not Broke," which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. You can contact him at carl@rsnorg.org, and follow him on twitter at @uncutCG.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.