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After threatening to arrest people for watching a protest at the Wisconsin capitol, a severe public backlash has forced Gov. Scott Walker to back down.

Video:

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In the video, a Wisconsin state trooper can be seen and heard walking around while the solidarity sing along takes place telling spectators that they could be arrested for watching the protest. A group of tourists from Pennsylvania were warned that they faced arrest if they continued to watch the protest. Several people responded to the troopers warning with shock and ask the question, “For watching?”

After word of Scott Walker’s latest attempt to bully his opponents got around, a backlash was triggered that caused Wisconsin officials to announce that they will not be arresting people for watching the protest.

What this crackdown is really about is bad publicity. Gov. Walker wants to run for the Republican nomination in 2016. He and his fellow Republicans thought that they could bully both the protesters and spectators into making this protest go way. After all, the last thing Walker needs when the national media come to town to profile his candidacy is a bunch of singing protesters calling attention to how terrible his agenda has been for the state.

Walker doesn’t care that arresting observers would be a gross violation of the First Amendment. He cares even less that those arrests would have resulted in a massive lawsuit, which he would have lost. The only thing Scott Walker and his Republican cronies care about is getting their college dropout governor ready for his 2016 presidential campaign.

In Scott Walker’s America, the First Amendment doesn’t apply to dissent. Gov. Walker would arrest every protester and observer and throw them in prison if he could because that’s how corporate funded Koch backed dictators like him rule. In the governor’s mind, the people only have the rights that he chooses to grant.

The most frightening thing of all is that Scott Walker is one of the biggest threats to democracy and liberty in this country, and he wants to be your next president.