A Wisconsin Republican Senator approaches the capitol building, is recognized, a lot of people call "shame" at him, dozens of people with mobile recording devices follow him, you hear loads of cries about "don't touch him," he tries to get inside the building via an entrance that seems locked, there is a crowd crush (caused maybe as much by protesters as people with recording devices), a Democratic Assemblyman tells the crowd to back off, protesters up front tell the crowd to back off ("firefighters need a lane"), the Wisconsin Republican State Senator is escorted out of a tense situation by protesters to cries of "back off" and "give him room" and "he is a human being."
The usual assholes are calling this wickedness perpetrated by "union thugs," but what you really see is that this is a damned disciplined protest. There are people out there in the crowd who know when to start chanting "peaceful protest!" and how to get people to back off -- this situation could have gotten pretty bad, because, let's face it, crowds are crowds, but it was defused by protesters who knew when and how to invoke nonviolent discipline.
(That being a legislator and having a lot of people yell "shame" at you is something up with which you need to put, if you want to be a legislator; this is pretty fundamental democracy in action, and hardly incivility, I say as an aside.)
Never mind the wingnuts. What does this video show?
First, it shows that Madison WI law enforcement are about the most professional bunch of cops I've ever seen. They're actually doing their jobs -- preserving the peace -- and putting to shame, say, the NYPD of 2004. You want to talk about saving government money? Lawsuits are expensive. Cops in Madison of various stripes are not going to get sued. There have been no arrests, and maybe bar some loon or provacateur, there won't be. You have maximal citizen speech where law enforcement personnel are respected as necessary public servants. The Madison protests and the law enforcement response deserve to be studied and modeled.
Second, the protesters are in the end going to win. They are nonviolent, disciplined, and determined, and hip to their local media. That combination wins, except in a completely authoritarian state, which we're not in, yet.
Until I saw this video, I was unsure of what will come out of Wisconsin. That sort of discipline, though? Victory. In the end, anyhow.
MORE. Red State's tagline for its report on this Shocking Video will make me laugh maybe for years.
This is 15 unforgettable minutes.
They is that, indeed, them is hard to arguable for against, garblebloo.
MAS. This person is annoying but is basically right about the non-violence thing.
MUCHO MAS. Sniveling about "oversampling" is the first resort of the innumerate dickweed. Why do I bother, oh who fucking knows. Here's the Donalde quoting someone even more thick than himself.
... 25% of respondents are either public employees or share a household with a public employee. Federal employees comprise less than 2% of the workforce at around 2 million. Overall, the US has 22.22 million government employees out of an employed workforce of 130.27 million, according to the Current Employment Statistics survey at the BLS. Government employment accounts for 17% of all workers, so a sample consisting of 25% public-sector households for a survey of adults (not registered voters) seems a little off.
The 2% thing is childish; "public" involves "federal, state, and local." And then OK you have 17%... but then you have a sampling of households which is not the same thing and you're in the fucking ballpark. It does not seem "off" at all, unless you believe that teachers never marry plumbers or some related species of bullshit. Anyway, there is no math reason to dispute the poll results, unless you're as hopeless an imbecile as the Donalde.