The costs to individuals and to Wisconsin society incurred by denying Constitutional rights to disfavored blocs of the citizenry are incalculable.
The pay-out comes after the state of Wisconsin settled a federal civil rights lawsuit in June 2016 related to the Walker administration's actions against Wisconsin citizens who protested Scott Walker and advocated civil liberties and solidarity with other citizens.
The case is Philip Dominic Salvia v. Adam Fell and Chris Weiss.
Jeff Scott Olson is the civil rights attorney in Madison, Wisconsin representing Mr. Salvia.
"The lawyer who won the [Salvia] case promised to file another lawsuit representing about 100 protesters arrested in 2013 during a crackdown by the Capitol Police of a singing protest that has been going on in and around the Statehouse for more than five years. If successful, that would add to the more than $180,000 the state has already agreed to pay protesters," (Marley, Edmondson Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).
Walker's top Capitol cop had ordered the arrest of Wisconsin citizens for voicing anti-Walker political speech, a years-long enterprise that briefly in August 2103 expanded into Capitol cops monitoring, surveiling and circling citizens at the Capitol, followed by repeated voiced warnings by Capitol cops that citizens faced arrest for "spectating" the Solidarity Sing Along, (Mal Contends).
"This event has been declared unlawful by the secretary (of the GOP's former Wisconsin Department of Administration (DoA) Secretary, Mike Huebsch,) You could be subject to arrest," announced Capitol police in August 2103.
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Reports Molly Beck this week in the Wisconsin State Journal: "Taxpayers will pay a local radio show host $75,000 to settle a lawsuit he filed against Gov. Scott Walker’s administration after being arrested in 2013 while covering the arrests of protesters at the state Capitol."
Dominic Salvia, co-host of the liberal talk show Devil’s Advocates Radio Show on The Mic 92.1 FM, will receive the money as part of an out-of-court settlement in a federal civil rights lawsuit Salvia filed in 2014 against three Capitol Police officers who handcuffed and ticketed him during the July 2013 mass arrests of singing protesters,"
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Walker, the hyper-politicized Department of Administration, (ridiculed widely as the "Department of All"), and Walker's Capitol police chief, David Erwin all worked together to develop anti-protesting strategies, in open defiance of the Wisconsin and United States Constitution.
Wisconsin Rep Sandy Pope (D-Middleton) was threatened with arrest in August 2013 at the Capitol for observing the Solidarity Sing Along, reports Isthmus.
No capitol police officer went on record as opposing the effort to encroach on the civil liberties of Wisconsin citizens.
During August 2013 when Salvia was arrested, Recbecca Kimble reported in The Progressive: "Every noon hour in the Wisconsin State Capitol rotunda feels a little bit different. Today it felt like a prison. ... Two journalists, Nicole Schulte and Leslie Peterson, were actually chased by police officers who tried to grab their cameras. They continued to film the arrests and were not themselves arrested. But Greg Kinsley and Jeremy Ryan were arrested for filming."
U.S. District Court Judge William M. Conley issued a temporary injunction against the state of Wisconsin and effectually ordered the restoration of the First Amendment at the Wisconsin Capitol ending the Republican-imposed permitting regime in 2013. (Mal Contends)
In September 2013, Wisconsin Republicans backed down from their permitting scheme altogether, reaching an agreement with Wisconsin citizens, recognizing the facts of the Capitol as a public forum space and affirming the constitutional rights retained by American and Wisconsin citizens.
The DoA had issued 100s of civil citations that were all dismissed by state courts.
Walker, the Republican Wisconsin Dept. of Justice and the DoA suffered a series of legal defeats in state and federal court between 2013 and 2015.
Below is a video of Capitol cop and woman beater, Michael J. Syphard, walking up to citizens in August 2103 and warning them they will be arrested for watching the Wisconsin Solidarity Singers.
The public officers violated the 1st amendment rights or law, should be removed their jobs for violating the law.
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