The Wisconsin Uprising is Coming Back

http://www.nationofchange.org/wisconsin-uprising-coming-back-1377177680

Wisconsin State Capitol Police Chief David Erwin’s policing is working just about as well as Governor Scott Walker’s job creation policies. Essentially, they’re having the opposite of the intended effect.

In the children’s game of “Duck, Duck, Goose,” players sit in a circle. One child designated as “It” walks around the circle, tapping each player on the head and calling out “Duck,” until finally choosing one of the players to be Goose. The Goose jumps up and runs around the circle trying to tag “It” before he can sit in the Goose’s spot.

Several participants in the Solidarity Singalong replicated the “Duck, Duck, Goose” idea to turn daily arrests into a fun game. Several pink signs were made with "DUCK" on one side and "GOOSE" on the other. As the capitol police circled the singalong on Monday, August 19, everyone held up their "DUCK" signs. When the capitol police stopped to arrest me, I flipped the sign over to "GOOSE" before I was cuffed and taken away. Instead of arrests angering protesters and prompting them to shout "Shame, shame," each arrest was a comical moment reminiscent of a child's game.

In recent days, the total number of arrests of participants in the daily Solidarity Singalong has passed the 250 mark. The singing is an hour-long event that has occurred every weekday in the capitol rotunda since the original 2011 uprising and has gone largely undisturbed with the exception of arrests in the Fall of 2012and since July 24 of this year. The number of participants has gone from several dozen before July 24 to nearly 500 on August 19. The most recent crackdown has attracted the attention of the national media, fromEd Schultz to Democracy Now.