A further update from the reporter -
One should try to have all the facts before drawing conclusions but someone once said something like ... "what am I going to believe my lying eyes". The words exchanged or the sequence of events leading up to this "video" may not be totally clear but it does speak for itself. I understand that one of the individuals detained(?) was interviewed Monday evening (last night) on WORT. In the interest of full disclosure I have briefly met that person. I am going to find that WORT interview ... hope the rest of the "press establishment" will try to shine some bright light on these seemingly new Capitol police tactics.
A link and a quote from Emily Mills (Isthmus) has been added below and the WORT interview moved as well!
Emily's Post: An open letter to the #wiunion movement (Isthmus) on Tuesday 06/07/2011
From that source -
So when several dozen protesters made it into the building Monday via a door that has otherwise been locked, it was hard to fault them for it. The police response to the breech, however, was wildly inappropriate. Jesse Russell and others took video of what happened, and Nick Nice wrote about it:
I walked in the King St. doors and just as I entered I saw a wall of about 10 or so officers running towards the entrance. They were all primarily State troopers & Capitol police, I recognized a few of them as people who had been working security the past few times I'd visited the Capitol. I sort of scooted over to the right-hand side and stopped to watch what they were going to do. As I was watching, I saw them grab a girl and violently throw her against the marble wall and arrest her... They were being so rough with her that myself and others started yelling at the cops to leave her alone. While I was trying to get some shots I asked an officer what she was being arrested for and she told me that 'she was trying to run away from them.' I couldn't believe what I was seeing just a few feet away from me. The whole scene was quite chaotic but there weren't that many people observing it. I'd say maybe a dozen to 20 people at most. One guy was so upset by it that he went right up by the officers arresting her demanding to know what was up. At this moment a female officer came up to me and told me that I had to leave the building. I told her that I had a right to be there and she had no right to remove me. She left me alone as a few seconds later a burly bald-headed cop violently grabbed the man by the neck. The officer who was talking to me joined her other officers in violently assaulting this man for no reason whatsoever. They slammed this guy so hard into the hard marble walls that I thought they were going to kill him.
WORT interview link (starts short bit in)
For those interested earlier photos of the rally!
