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| Wisconsin Capitol Police Officer Michael J. Syphard |
"The right to do what the law does not prohibit, without fear of harassment or punishment, is one of the hallmarks of a free society." —Judge Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (foreword) Sidney Powell's Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice (Brown Books Publishing Group, 2014)
Chances are the anti-intellectual, mental midget, Wisconsin capitol police Chief David Erwin and Scott Walker's personal appointee, is not a big Kozinski reader. Scott Walker has shown himself to be a lousy judge of character. Erwin is just the latest mistake.
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It took an injunction by a federal judge and 100s of unlawful arrests made by the Wisconsin capitol police, working under orders from the Scott Walker administration, to allow citizens to exercise their constitutional rights to the chagrin of Republicans and new hires of the capitol police.
United States District Court Judge William M. Conley issued an injunction stopping the capitol police in Kissick v. Huebsch (July 8, 2013), citing numerous Wisconsin state documentary sources and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The Wisconsin state capitol grounds are a "public forum that has been at the center of public discourse," notes Judge Conley. "As explained in its official nomination for designation as a National Historic Landmark, which was granted on January 3, 2001: The soaring rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol is designed to induce its citizenry to be, as individuals, among the resources of Wisconsin.' Whereas some statehouses are maintained apart from the urban fabric, the Wisconsin Capitol Rotunda functions, both literally and symbolically, as a city center and is fully utilized as a public space to which all have claim."
Later an agreement was reached between Wisconsin citizens and the Wisconsin Department of Administration (overseeing the capitol) recognizing the facts of the capitol as a public forum space and the Constitutional rights retained by American citizens.
It looks like the capitol police administration has short memories, and remains hostile to the Constitution.
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| Activist Ann Fleischli says her hand was cut to the tendon June 14 when she was handcuffed and manhandled by a Wisconsin Capitol Police officer. |
See also S. Elbow, The Capital Times, and original piece published at Ann Fleischi's site.
From "A first-person account: 71-year-old Madison woman circulates petition on square, gets brutal arrest by Capitol Police Officer Syphard," (Blue Cheddar).
An excerpt:
I ask that the handcuffs be removed because they hurt. [Michael J. Syphard] says he doesn’t care and pushes me down into a chair, at which point I scream with pain and straighten my body. He shoves me back down and I scream and then comment that I think there will be bleeding from that.This is Wisconsin under Scott Walker and it is none too pretty.
He says I am lying and he leaves, shutting the door. Another officer opens the door and stands in the hallway, watching me. I get up to relieve the pressure from the handcuffs and notice that there is blood on my chair. I walk toward the officer and he tells me to sit down and I point out the blood that is now on the floor and the chair.
He looks at my wrists behind me and asks his microphone radio coiled around his neck for Band-aids. A uniformed woman named Ann Johnson arrives with gauze and Band-aids. She asks the hallway officer to remove my left cuff and, looking at the wound, I see my skin has been peeled back from my fingers near my knuckles. I ask Ann what is that white material I can see in the wound, tendons? She asks if I want an ambulance, this is standard procedure for an injury, she says.
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| Michael J. Syphard thows videographer, Arthur Kohl-Riggs to ground for filming unlawful arrest last year |
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