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August 6, 2013

Police Crack Down on Singing Protesters at Wisconsin Capitol 
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Police at the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, arrested a number of
people Monday during the latest Solidarity Sing-Along, a peaceful
singing protest against Republican Gov. Scott Walker held each week day
in the rotunda. The singing has been a fixture at the Capitol for more
than two years since the mass mobilization against Walker's anti-union
policies. But protester Steve Burns says police have arrested more than
100 people in a crackdown that began late last month.

Steve Burns: "This is the culmination of a two-and-a-half-year struggle
for free speech. We have been in a struggle with the Walker
administration that has attempted to put a Capitol access policy in
place that restricts people's use of the people's house as a forum for
free speech, and so this latest escalation includes arresting people and
then citing us for a violation of the permit policy of the Walker
administration. We see sing-alongs popping up in other places. We've
heard there is a Michigan sing-along; there's a Texas sing-along. People
need to reclaim their state capitols. There are states that have even
more restrictive laws then we have, and it's time that the people take
back their capitols as the people's house."

 

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