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COLUMN: Protests reveal true motives of police

by Matt Bruenig | March 2, 2011 | 8 comments

I arrived in Madison, Wisconsin Friday afternoon looking to spend the weekend occupying the capitol as part of the now two week battle to prevent the union-busting efforts of the Wisconsin state government.

I have seen the negative effects of union busting on workers within my own family, and how the staff who are legally forbidden from unionizing at the University of Oklahoma are treated by the administration. Given those experiences, an opportunity to help workers elsewhere could not be passed up.

Luckily for me, I arrived just in time for the implementation of a plan to push protesters out of the capitol. The largely successful strategy was a predictable combination of police harassment, intimidation and deception.

On Friday afternoon, the police initially announced a crackdown on bringing in large amounts of food, but said protesters could bring in sleeping bags, pillows and backpacks. Come Friday night however, right before the doors would be closed for the night, the policy changed. Protesters could no longer bring in sleeping bags and pillows.

Although my group was able to sneak by with sleeping supplies in hand, many others were successfully turned away. The plan from there was obvious: make occupation as uncomfortable as possible.

That same night, police forced those sleeping on the top two floors (of the four story building) to move to the bottom two floors. This move condensed the protesters, justified letting less people inside, and forced those remaining to sleep in filthier areas of the capitol (the lower floors had more foot traffic and thus were dirtied with muddy snow).

On Saturday, more harassment followed. Various rumors were floated that everyone would be kicked out in the middle of the night. Police attempted to condense the protesters once more, telling everyone on the second floor they must move to the ground floor.

I asked the police officer who told me to move downstairs what would happen if there was not enough room on the ground floor for all of us. He answered that perhaps some of us would have to go. This order was ultimately disobeyed by those in the capitol, but it was clear this seemingly arbitrary requirement was an effort to push more people out.

Sunday afternoon was the real showdown. It was on this day we had been told everyone would have to be out at 4 p.m. In the middle of the day, the police suddenly shifted their entrance policy, only letting in one person for every two people who left. When inside protesters began chanting “let them in,” they cried that we were making the cops jittery. The self-appointed organizers of the occupation tried somewhat successfully to get everyone to stop the pressure.

As 4 p.m. came, spineless Democratic politicians came in and urged everyone to leave as instructed, a call that was echoed by some of those who had access to the microphone. Chants of “hell no, we won’t go” were met with more pleas to leave and disparagement of those who intended to remain. Those advocating removal kept banking on the promise made by the police that we could come back the next day in the morning and resume the protest inside the capitol.

This promise was a lie. Come Monday morning, only those with “official business” were let in the capitol, and the few hundred protesters brave enough to risk arrest by refusing to leave were surrounded by dozens of police officers.

The takeaway from this is fairly simple: do not trust the police or those asking you to do so. The police will lie when convenient, and do not necessarily have your interests in mind.

— Matt Bruenig, philosophy senior

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