Not only have they arrested protesters inside the Capitol, as Giles Goat Boy has diaried, they have been delivering citations to peoples homes and the supervisors on their jobs.

People arrested for holding up a quotation of our Constitutional right to free speech is breathtaking in it's audacity.

I was stunned by the Capitol Police just blowing off State Represetative Chris Taylor when she went to their office to find out why her constituents were being arrested. It's one thing to disrespect an ordinary citizen, but an elected state official is something else.

She never got the call back from the Capitol Police that she requested when they refused to talk to her in person. A State Assembly Representative who can't get information from the Capitol Police? Unreal. State Rep. Chris Taylor has scheduled a meeting with Chief Erwin later this week. I can't wait to hear a follow up.

Scott Walker, like other Republicans, just loves talking about freedom. He just doesn't want anyone to have it who doesn't support him.

We're circling the drain here.

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I wrote this in the wee hours of the morning and left it sit. Today, I come across this:



Lawmakers have panic buttons and taxpayers have the bill - $103,172 to be exact. As part of measures to better secure the Capitol and crack down on serial protesters, Gov. Scott Walker's administration has been installing panic buttons beneath the desks of legislators, aides and other officials in the statehouse, even the media. The wireless devices, which allow police to be summoned quickly to an office, are being installed liberally, with even relatively minor lawmakers within a Legislature of 132 members sometimes receiving several buttons in one office.

(bolding is mine)

So now, at taxpayer expense, chickenshit Republican elected officials can rapidly summon the new Walker goon squad that our Capitol Police have become. Someone wearing a T Shirt you don't like? Press the panic button and help will be on the way. Pesky constituent asking you too may questions or questioning your votes? Summon the palace guard with a press of a button. An elderly person holding up a sign? No need to call on the phone. Press the button and they'll be gone in handcuffs as quickly as possible.



The panic buttons are just one change that has come to the statehouse along with new Capitol Police Chief David Erwin, who has also stepped up citations and arrests of the Walker protesters who have been gathering here daily for more than a year. Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison) questioned Tuesday whether the Walker administration was overreacting and whether offices like hers needed three panic buttons.

Taylor said she's already seen one false alarm - an accidental tripping of a button during a committee meeting Thursday that brought a pack of police to a dull hearing on tax policy.

And there's already been a false alarm:How cowardly do you have to be to do this? We demonstrated in 2011 how up to 160,000 protesters could peacefully demonstrate day after day, be polite, clean up after ourselves, and be so cooperative that the police repeatedly thanked us. Of course, Republicans love to project strength, but in truth are snivelling chickens.

Life in FitzWalkerStan sucks.

Solidarity.

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