Today marks the end of the 12-day period of peaceful 24-hour occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol. The police and protesters have reached an agreement whereby the capitol would be vacated at 4:00 today, and would go back to regular business hours tomorrow.
I went to stand inside the capitol while the "village" remained intact. As I stood in an orderly line, the police were letting one person in for each who left - keeping the population inside constant. Not far behind me was a man with a megaphone who seemed out of place, and out of sync with the whole vibe of the event. He was angrier, more confrontational. As the 4:00 deadline approached, he and a couple of others urged the crowd to move forward - "If we stand in a line, we'll never get in! Push forward!" The line did, though people did, I think, find it odd. Something about this guy was rubbing me the wrong way from the beginning.
They began to lead other chants: "Let us in! let us in!" As the volunteer marshals began to calm the assembled people, this small group continued to escalate their rhetoric, challenging the marshals and the police. As the marshals asked us to respect the police, the man who appeared to be leading the small group of agitators would shout over him using his megaphone. It is hard to express how our of keeping this is with the vibe that has been maintained over the past two weeks.
Other groups fought back, in keeping with the spirit of the place, by singing peace songs. At some point I left my place in line and went and stood by the cops, facing the crowd, holding up my hand in a peace sign. I learned that holding a peace sign for an hour is hard on both your arms and back. The agitator group tried to lead some chants, but I was struck that they didn't seem to know the words.
In the end, the crowd was dispersed without incident, at least from the entrance where I was. But I strongly suspect that there were people trying to use the closing of the capitol as a way to incite some unrest - whether they were part of an organized group or freelancers I don't know.
Another story was circulating about a woman who stood talking to a protester, suddenly fell down, and began yelling that a "union thug" had pushed her. Can't confirm or deny this report.
I've got a picture of these folks, but while I can't find anything in the TOS that would prohibit me posting it I'd like to get the ok from a moderator before I do so. Regardless, i would like to identify the person I saw. I'll be posting it to my Flickr stream which should not be hard to find for those who are interested, and if I get the all-clear I'll post it here.
If there are, in fact, people trying to gin up unrest at these protests, it's vitally important that we be out ahead of the story. I don't want to accuse anyone undeserving, but we've got much to lose.
Update: I've decided to go ahead and publish the photo. If I need to remove it, let me know and I will. But I'm quite certain these guys were not what they claimed, and I spoke to several others who had come to the same conclusion.
The guy in the middle of the photo is the one I'm most sure of; the guy to his left (in the striped hat) may have been involved or may have just been swept up in the moment.
I took this pic, so feel free to disseminate it as you wish. Even if he's truly one of us he needs to get a talking to about how to be part of a movement. Updated by mandoliniment at Sun Feb 27, 2011, 06:52:22 PM
The "Fox lies" guy from this clip does NOT appear in this picture, but he was unquestionably present and part of the same group, he was yelling and swearing at the Marshals.