Madison, Wisconsin Protest - Saturday Report From the Ground

On Saturday I went downtown to spend my second day at the Capitol protesting on behalf of workers' rights and health insurance for the young and the disadvantaged, and against a bill that Scott Walker intends to use to divide the middle class in order to make us easier to conquer. While the protests on Friday had been entirely peaceful, energetic, and inspiring (see my report), I was slightly more concerned about the tone the protests might take Saturday with the arrival of the heavily funded Tea Party counter-protestors. I therefore left the kids at home, and my partner and I arrived at the Capitol around 11:00 AM.

I should not have worried. The protestors against the bill remained entirely peaceful (as they have been all week) and mostly civil, and the counter-protestors who gathered in support of Scott Walker's union-busting bill were largely peaceful as well. More importantly, though, the counter-protestors were vastly, and I mean vastly, outnumbered. I estimate that the protestors outnumbered the counter-protestors by at least 23 to 1. (***For my method of calculation, see below). We left at 4:00 PM, and the crowd had thinned slightly from its peak at about 1:00 PM, but as of 5:00, the Madison police reported no arrests or other problems during Saturday's protests.

As far as violent rhetoric, I heard none from either side. During McKenna's pro-bill, anti-union speech, I heard plenty of snide comments about "union thugs", "communists", and "vegetarians" (like that's a problem). I also didn't know that being a "university student" could be construed as an insult, but apparently for some Tea Party members it is something worth slandering. Some union supporters did insult teabaggers, and there was a TP member sign that insulted "Teachbaggers", which I assumed to be an attempt at cleverness. The oddest sign I saw was carried by a TPer and read "Walker the Moses of the Midwest". I thought TPers didn't like Jews, but maybe I was wrong.

There were signs on both sides that contained references to odious historical figures. There were two union supporter signs that I saw that showed Walker's face styling a Hitler mustache. There was a TP sign that showed photos of Sadam Hussein, Hitler, and bin Laden and read "They ran and hid too". As far as violent rhetoric on signs, there was very little.

One thing that struck me was the relative lack of organization or obvious funding of these protests. While there were a few speakers in the morning against the bill, there were none for the rest of the day. There was no obvious organizer, no schedule of events, and most of the protest felt spontaneous, as it has for the entire week. In contrast, the Tea Party machine had clearly mobilized. They had speakers with prepared speeches, like McKenna's, audio equipment they had brought to the site this morning, and their counter-protestors were strategically gathered in one area in order to maximize their impact. Having participated for almost 40 years in demonstrations of all varieties, from million participant marches in DC and New York to small gatherings that ended in civil disobedience, and I know funding and professional organization when I see it.

Overall, I was awed by the positive attitude of the protestors, their commitment to changing this fiasco of a bill, and their civility. This is a true grassroots uprising, one that all Wisconsin citizens should view with pride.

***While estimates from the peak of the rally today put the crowd at about 70,000 total, with about 60,000 people outside the building and 8,000 inside, I have not seen many estimates of the number of protestors in relation to the counter-protestors. Accurate estimates of crowds are extremely difficult to make without aerial photos, but as an amateur I would have placed the total number outside the capitol between 50,000 and 75,000. However, to give an idea of the number of Tea Partiers, the Tea Party counter-protestors were primarily concentrated on a driveway between the Capitol building itself and the road that circles the Capitol square. According to a map, that driveway is about 150 feet long, and by my estimate is 30 feet wide, with two narrow lanes for traffic and two parking lanes. At the building end of it, the driveway was used as the stage for their speakers today, like the intellectual radio host Vicki McKenna, and the crowd was loosely packed into the area between the stage  and the road. I know it was loosely packed because I walked through it during McKenna's speech, listening to the TPers and admiring their clever signs. This would mean that at most the TPers occupied an area of 4500 square feet.

The protestors occupied the entire street surrounding the capitol. They were, on average, packed about as loosely as the counter-protestors, which I confirmed by traveling the entire street twice. The street stretches for 2550 feet, and with three full traffic lanes and a parking lane, is over 40 feet wide, which means that it comprises an area of 102,000 square feet. Conservatively, that means that the protestors occupied 23 times more space than the TPers.

Madison, Wisconsin Protest - Friday Report From the Ground

On Friday February 18,  2011, I took advantage of the second day of school closings in my district and gave my children a lesson in civics, politics, and the rights that are protected by the First Amendment to our Constitution - those which guarantee our freedom of speech and our right to assemble peacefully. I took them to the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin so that we could participate in the protests against Scott Walker's "budget repair bill".  While I had heard reports of "chaos" and the "powder keg" environment, I suspected those might be inaccurate, and they were. When we arrived around 1:00 PM, the Capitol was crowded and bustling. After finding a decent vantage point on the 4th floor overlooking the closed doors of the Senate chamber, I did some exploring around the building.

Any reports of violence or chaos were lies, plain and simple. The thousands of people in the building were energetic, polite, talkative, and boisterous. The crowd was a mix of all ages, with many families and also a good number of university students. Of all the people I spoke with, only one elderly gentleman in the Capitol on Friday was from out of state. He had lived in Wisconsin for over forty years, and after his retirement from the police force, moved to Minnesota to be closer to his daughter. Much of the time the protestors were chanting slogans such as "Kill the Bill" and "This is what democracy looks like". 

Although I had heard conservative reports that things were getting messy in the Capitol, I saw no trash in places other than in trash receptacles, and the bathrooms were far cleaner than the ones at Miller Stadium during a Brewers game. This is largely thanks to a group of UW students who have been spending their time cleaning the Capitol while the protests continue. 

A more important gauge of the crowd's behavior, however, comes from the law enforcement officials who have been on hand at the Capitol over the past few days. The Madison Police Department released a statement yesterday in which they commended "the behavior of those who have gathered peacefully to protest" and confirmed that "MPD officers have made no arrests this week." And as it turned out, my partner knew three of the state troopers who happened to be on duty while we were there yesterday. When they stopped by to talk, they told us that they were pleased with the protesters and the tone of the demonstration so far. They confirmed that they had had no problems whatsoever with any of the demonstrators. They did, however, all express concern about the arrival of Tea Party members Saturday, and acknowledged that they were concerned about the counter-demonstrators' possible behavior. 

We left after four hours. The crowd had not thinned at all, and the chanting was still going strong. Some of the university students I spoke with were planning on staying the night - again - but most of us were leaving and planning to return again on Saturday.