In Custody

YOUR LINK HERE:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=t-VQsZIM6l8

This is a movie taken by a Wisconsin DNR warden in charge of monitoring women arrested for exercising free speech rights in the Capitol rotunda, which was designed for public oration to encourage citizens to participate in our government. (The men in custody were also present, on the other side of the room.) • The Solidarity Sing-Along is a tradition that started 3/11/2011 and has continued every weekday from 12:00-1:00 ever since. It is the longest-running singing protest in history. • MORE INFO: http://www.solidaritysingalong.org • The DOA has attempted at various times to quell the protest. Singers protest the Scott Walker administration and Tea Party legislature that came into power in 2010, which have been converting our traditionally progressive Wisconsin into a fascist state. Yeah, I know, harsh word. But... • Fascist because of the collusion of government and corporations: loosening regulations in favor of corporations and to the detriment of workers and the environment, enabling the governor to sell public property to private parties with no bid and minimal oversight, privatizing public institutions, and instituting a divide and conquer policy to assure billionaires that we will decimate labor and deliver Wisconsin as a red state. • Fascist because of the attack on voting rights, and the attack in general on the middle class: attacking health care (especially women's health care), public education, public transportation, our safety net (e.g., food stamps), encouraging bounty hunters and industries which prey on low income clients (e.g., rent-to-own), and instituting tax policy that moves dollars from lower income to upper income citizens and corporations. • Fascist because of taking power away from The People and moving it up the chain, consolidating unprecedented power in the hands of the Governor: corruption, election irregularities, misuse of funds by the Walker-privatized Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, illegal and unethical conflict of interest between a legal firm supreme court justice, shutting the public out of public meetings, ignoring legislative rules and abruptly changing them mid-session, gerrymandering districts in secret meeting with no oversight, threatening non-compliant Republicans with extremist primary challengers, changing civil servant positions into governor-appointments, and on and on. • Fascist because of the police state: putting the National Guard on alert before announcing the damaging state budget, exempting police from attacks on labor, giving the governor extreme power over administrative code changes, and instituting administrative rules that limit freedom of speech and of assembly. • The arrests represented in this video are part of HUNDREDS of arrests in a matter of weeks due to one of these arbitrary Administrative Code changes: a permit is now required for 20 people to assemble in the Capitol. This wrong on so many levels: • unconstitutional limit on free speech • unconstitutional limit on assembly • made even worse because it is applied to the Capitol rotunda, which even the DOA declared as the protest area in the Capitol in 2011 • made even worse because it is applied during the Capitol's non-business hours of 12-1 • This has been challenged in court; scheduled to be heard in January, 2014. • EVEN IF this were a reasonable rule (which it is NOT), there are additional reasons that the traditional sing along cannot reasonably be expected to take out a permit • This is not some defined group with a leader or organization behind it. Individuals choose to come to sing in the rotunda M-Th 12-1 because they are aware of this tradition. There is no person who could take out a permit for the group -- because no one has any idea who is and isn't going to show up on a given day, how many people will be there, or what activities the individuals who come will undertake. • The permit holder agrees to pay for any additional security required. This is the administration that claimed ridiculously that $2,000,000 of damages was done by thousands congregating at the Capitol in 2011 (even they now admit that the actual amount was only 5% of that, and was mostly due to accelerated wear to be expected, because normally it would take years for the same number of visitors to pass through). What permit holder would believe that this administration is capable of an accurate assessment of cost? Certainly not anyone taking out a permit for an event that the DOA has been targeting for years. • The permit holder also assumes liability for anything that might happen during the event. Ditto the reasons that no sane person would be willing to trust the DOA to assess liability fairly. • Support those (not me) who cannot afford the court costs (not lawyer's fees) to fight citations! http://www.solidaritysingalong.org

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