WTDY: A chaotic scene at the Capitol on Friday as police rushed to remove handcuffs from an unconscious protester. According to witnesses, the woman has a heart condition and passed out as police were arresting her. She was one of two protesters arrested shortly after the Solidarity Sing-Along.Trying to prevent "chaos all the time," Capitol Police Chief David Erwin thought he could make a case for ignoring the First Amendment and state constitution on WKOW's Capitol City Sunday with Greg Neumann. With comments like "I don't know if they were protesting anything, I think they were just trying to be disruptive," who can blame the Chief for tossing freedom in the trash bin. Neumann asked all the right questions:
Victor Forberger with the National Lawyers Guild says he received multiple calls about the incident. He says the two protesters were reportedly prevented from leaving the building by Capitol Police. "They were walking through the Capitol, speaking with each other rather loudly, and they had the song books that were used during the rally," he said. "The Police surrounded them and then arrested them."
Monday, September 17, 2012
Protester at Capitol Faints during arrest, and Chief Erwin explains he's not a big fan of Political Free Speech.
The apparent randomness of arrests being made at the Capitol may have resulted in an unintended medical emergency of a "protesters" arrest on Friday.
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Wait; so now he says it's okay to hold a sign so long as you are not ia a group of four?
ReplyDeleteThere's video of people being arrested for holding signs outside of "the permitted area."
Wish he'd been asked his views on the Constitution.
Okay, so now talking and carrying a song book are also illegal, in Chief Erwin's mind.
ReplyDeleteErwin has some explaining to do, I would say.
Thanks for your work as always, John.
Appalling incident. Appalling man.
Maybe he'd know whether we were protesting anything if he'd ever talk to any of us. Instead, all requests for meetings are routed to a DOA spokesperson, which never returns calls from anyone but rightwing sources and the occasional mainstream newssource. Then Erwin gets his talking points and that's that.
ReplyDeleteAnd WTDY report irritates me, because usually they're better than this. The police hardly "rushed" to remove the handcuffs. In fact, they left her cuffed for at least ten minutes as she went in and out of consciousness, while her friends who were familiar with her condition were pleading with them to uncuff her so she could lie flat, or at least help her into a more comfortable position, since she'd collapsed with her legs bent under her. They only took the cuffs off a couple of minutes before the EMTs arrived.
--sue
Thanks for the detailed description of what happened.
ReplyDelete