Deadline nears to clear Wisconsin Capitol

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-02-26-wisconsin-deadline_N.htm

Deadline nears to clear Wisconsin Capitol
By Steve Contorno, Ben Jones and Dan Benson

MADISON, Wis. — The hundreds of people who have called the Capitol home these past two weeks last week have formed a village, demonstrating a common determination to sleep on marble, fight for a common cause and make a heck of a lot of noise... Sunday, however, the village, created in protest over Gov. Scott Walker's plan to strip many collective bargaining rights from about 170,000 public employees, will disappear...

At 4 p.m. Sunday, the Capitol Police plan to close the building and return to normal business hours. Protesters say police have told them they will begin removing anyone who refuses to leave at 5 p.m., and officers started registering occupants of the building, the first time they've done so since the Capitol was first occupied 13 days ago. As the largest protest in Madison over the past two weeks — and the largest since the Vietnam War roiled Wisconsin's capital city — took place outside Saturday, the hundreds who are living in the Capitol sat on air mattresses and sleeping bags and considered their fate. "It is this looming cloud that we'll deal with inevitably," said Dan Fransee of Madison, who has been in the village 11 days.

Protesters have choices. When asked to leave, they can pack up their belongings and walk out. Or they can choose civil disobedience, which means refusing to leave when asked. Those who choose to disobey orders to leave have two more choices: walk out, possibly in handcuffs, with police escorts, or go limp and be carried out by officers. A flyer activists circulated in the Capitol entitled "prepared and peaceful" provided information about these scenarios. The tips included information about the likely fines protesters could face ($50 to $400 for charges such as disorderly conduct or trespassing); what actions would prompt more severe charges; and how to hold oneself when cuffed with zip ties (stay relaxed, use gentle shoulder rotations to keep the blood flow moving)...

Kate Jesse, a legal assistant from Milwaukee who was helping run the registration table for occupants, said a call put out by Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, for off-duty police officers to join protesters and spend the night in the Capitol caused a surge in the number of people planning to stay Saturday. "Law enforcement officers know the difference between right and wrong, and Gov. Walker's attempt to eliminate the collective voice of Wisconsin's devoted public employees is wrong. That is why we have stood with our fellow employees each day and why we will be sleeping among them tonight," Palmer said in a press release. That sets up the scenario of on-duty officers order their police brethren out of the building Sunday, or removing them if they won't go on their own...

The protesters are being given a few days notice to find other places to stay, and some of them do live in Madison. And civil disobedience is a choice some will make.

I think the next phase is going to involve a strike by some of the unions.

and the police refuse to carry out Walker's oppression, declaring Solidarity with the Unions.