I had to go see for myself. The Solidarity Singalong has been the talk of Madison for weeks now, with protesters steadfastly refusing to acquire a permit for their noontime sing and the Walker administration refusing to back down even a little from its hardline (and completely unnecessary) policy encouraging Capitol Police to arrest the singalong’s participants.
The whole mess seems grotesque enough from a distance, but up close the Capitol gendarmes’ tactics seem downright creepy. I know, because I stopped by the Capitol on Wednesday to drink in the noontime atmosphere (and got to see Wisconsin State Employees Union Director Marty Beil arrested in the bargain). It was at turns eerie and electric, and it leads me to wonder whether the protesters have already — unwittingly — accomplished far more than they set out to.
This is no scanty gathering of milquetoast malcontents. The singers are boisterous, consistently defiant, and loud. The energy in the rotunda is palpable, and the protesters’ resolve runs as deep as the Koch brothers’ pockets. The only fair assessment an outside observer can make is that this movement — in the absence of tear gas grenades and Bull Connor-style bullying — ain’t going away anytime soon.
What may have begun as tough-guy posturing by a governor who needed to further solidify his base for a presumed presidential run has rekindled a brush fire that had been all but extinguished. And I can only conclude that Scott Walker has already sunk whatever hopes he may have had of making anything more than a feeble run at the White House.
Hyperbole? Don’t think so.
Whether you agree with the protesters or not, it’s hard to argue with the damning video evidence they’ve collected over the past few weeks. These days, presidential hopefuls succeed by winning the hearts and minds (particularly the hearts) of swing voters. This is done almost exclusively over the airwaves. Visuals of Walker’s police cuffing grannies, journalists, bystanders, and assorted warblers — and wrestling some of them to the ground — will fit neatly into a 30-second TV spot, and the 30-second “But They Didn’t Get a Permit!” response ad is unlikely to lessen voters’ revulsion.
The latest — and most troubling — overreaction involved an activist named Damon Terrell, who appeared to be doing nothing more than taking photographs of the protest. After police approached Terrell in the rotunda on Aug. 26, he attempted to wave them off, saying, “This is not illegal,” whereupon police tackled him to the ground, pinned him to the floor, and arrested him:
Two weeks ago, after several bystanders were threatened with arrest, Department of Administration spokeswoman Stephanie Marquis told the media that observers would not receive citations. Well, in the video, Terrell certainly appears to be observing.
This latest incident follows the arrest of Progressive magazine editor Matt Rothschild, who was nabbed on Aug. 15 for committing acts of journalism.
Here’s Rothschild’s account of his arrest:
I saw some state police officers move in to arrest a couple of the Raging Grannies, including my friend Bonnie Block.
So, as I’ve done every time I’m covering the capitol, I started to take pictures of the officers making the arrest. And then I followed the officers as they took Block, handcuffed and still defiantly singing, toward the elevator.
I was hoping to get a picture of Block as she entered the elevator, the kind of picture that has been taken many times in the last couple of weeks.
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.”
Of course, one can only assume that Rothschild’s politics had something to do with his arrest — as did Beil’s. Would the police have reacted the same way if Vicki McKenna or one of Sean Hannity’s flunkies had tried this hard to get the story?
Then there’s the case of Nora Cusack. On Aug. 22, Cusack appeared in the rotunda holding a sign that said, “I am observing only” on one side and “Observers will not receive citations — DOA, August 7, 2013” on the other. She claimed she didn’t participate in the protest in any way, but only watched from the floor above the singalong.
Cusack has the rest of the story:
I was very careful to only observe. I did not participate in the Sing Along in any way. I did not sing, nor clap, nor tap my foot, nor hum. I did not sway in time to the music. I simply observed.
At around 12:15 p.m., Capitol Police declared the Sing Along “an unlawful event” via a loudspeaker. I observed no arrests between 12 and 12:30 p.m.
Then, at 12:30 p.m., a group of Capitol Police entered the first floor balcony. They spoke to one person who was standing at the railing. Then, ignoring many other people who had been singing and clapping, they made a beeline for me.
An officer told me I had been “identified as a participant in an unlawful assembly.”
“I am not participating,” I said. “I am just observing.”
The police said that by holding the sign, I was participating. We each reiterated our positions, calmly, a few more times. Then the officer said, “You are under arrest.” …
Several officers took me to the cafeteria in the basement.
In the cafeteria, the police filled out my paperwork and told me I would be charged with something other than “unlawful assembly,” which was listed on my citation. They decided they would write, “Unlawful Assembly. Brings signs supported by standards or sticks” to describe my violation. They said this was a violation of a separate section of the administrative code.
I said my sign was not on a standard or stick. They essentially told me I was the standard.
After escorting me to the cafeteria door, I asked if I could observe the Sing Along without holding a sign. They said I would be arrested again if I “participated in the unlawful event.”
“I won’t participate,” I said. “I just want to observe.”
“I think you know what participating is,” they said, and opened the door and let me go.
On Wednesday, numerous protesters held signs saying, “I Am the Standard.” If Walker still thinks these bullying tactics are going to quell the protests, he’s more obtuse than I thought.
(Continued)
This, of course, raises a difficult question: Who is a participant? On Wednesday, I observed about 100 singers on the main floor and roughly the same number of observers on the balcony above. In the 35 minutes I was there, it looked to me like just a handful of protesters were arrested. One of them stood about 4 feet from me on the balcony. He was holding a sign and singing — like dozens and dozens of folks on the main floor. After the police brought out their handwritten sign saying that the protest had been declared an unlawful event, a couple of cops held up a loudspeaker. I couldn’t hear the recorded announcement very well over the din, but I presume it urged those assembled to take the protest outside. Shortly after that, the man was hauled away.
I didn’t think I had much chance of being arrested. I mostly stood there with a blank look on my face and thumbed notes into my iPhone. On the other hand, given what’s occurred in the past few weeks, I wasn’t 100% certain I was out of harm’s way. And I did catch myself tapping my foot along to “Union Maid” at one point, despite myself. Come on. It’s a catchy tune!
So again, I have to ask: What constitutes participation? Wearing a shirt or carrying a sign the police don’t like? Whistling along? Tapping your foot a little too enthusiastically? Getting “If I Had a Hammer” stuck in your head on the drive home?
Of course, probably a third of those in attendance had cameras, and they’ve been capturing incriminating video for weeks. Are they participating?
It’s hard to blame the police for the Walker administration’s FUBAR reaction to all this. They’re in an impossible spot — stuck between a rockhead and a hard place. It’s an untenable situation that Scott Walker has created, and it’s going to be tough for him to disentangle himself without looking foolish. To paraphrase Vizzini from The Princess Bride, “You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is ‘never get involved in a land war in Asia,’ but only slightly less well known is this: ‘Never go in against a singing granny when the White House is on the line!’”
Should the singers get a permit? You could argue that one either way, but it’s pretty much irrelevant at this point. And this goes way beyond the collective bargaining rights of public workers now. By turning up the heat in the Capitol, the Solidarity Singers have almost surely cooked Walker’s political goose. For that, at least, we can thank them.
Click here to sign up for the free IB ezine – your twice-weekly resource for local business news, analysis, voices, and the names you need to know. If you are not already a subscriber to In Business magazine, be sure to sign up for our monthly print edition here.
