(WIS) New Capitol Police Tactic: Home Delivery of Citations

[Ellipsis]

Last edited Tue Sep 11, 2012, 09:54 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative

At 4:20pm this afternoon, Jason Huberty answered a knock on his door. It was two Capitol Police officers calling to deliver citations to him and his partner, Lisa Wells. They were each cited for two violations of Wisconsin Administrative Code: 2.14(2)(v) “obstruct access, passage, etc. (no permit)” and 2.08(1)(b) “holding signs over railings-prohibited.” Earlier in the day, Huberty and Wells had joined dozens of other defenders of free speech and assembly at the Capitol for the Solidarity Sing Along.


At 5:30 pm Brandon Barwick was walking through the Capitol building when Capitol Police officer Mitch Steingraeber called him down to the Capitol Police Station to deliver his citation for violating WI Administrative Code 2.14(2)(v) “obstruct access, passage, etc. (no permit).” Barwick is a long-time participant in the Solidarity Sing Along.

In the wake of last week’s highly publicized arrests of eleven citizens for holding signs in the Capitol rotunda, the Capitol Police have apparently changed tactics. Instead of the over-the-top displays of force used last week where eight to ten officers handcuffed and arrested alleged violators of the Department of Administration administrative code that prohibits displaying a sign without a permit, today officers videotaped the alleged offenses and hand delivered citations to people at home hours after the alleged offenses.

Huberty, Wells and Barwick all say that they had not been warned that their behavior was in violation of the code. Officers made vague requests of Huberty and Wells to hold the banners with their hands instead of securing them with heavy objects. They complied with the requests. Barwick did not even speak with a Capitol Police officer until he was given the citation later in the afternoon.

Read more: http://wcmcoop.com/2012/09/10/new-capitol-police-tactic-home-delivery-of-citations/

---

Selective prosecution, imtimidation...not cool!

There's a new Sheriff in town, and he going to pay for those new uniforms... and hats.

http://wcmcoop.com/2012/09/09/new-arrests-no-laughing-matter-at-wisconsin-capitol/

[Scuba]

1. Intimidation away from the cameras.

Thanks to lefta dissenter and other DU'ers who are singing along every day!!!

[Generic Other]

2. Scott Walker hates democracy

And is afraid of the voters of his state. I can't wait for him to be thrown out on his ass! Wisconsin citizens deserve better.

[Blue_Tires]

15. +1

[marble falls]

3. No-one expects the Wisconsin State Police!

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="

?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Ellipsis]

4. The officers themselves are quite cool...

...at least the ones that have been there for a while. They just want to keep their job and pension. One can't fault that.


When you do get a comment out of them, it's ...talk to the chief.

[marble falls]

5. I'm certain there were polite gestapo police, too. Not saying the cops were in SWAT mufti ....

knocking on doors and handing out citations, but there was a certain smirkiness I noted in listening to the report, like when the cop called the guy by first name and said "we missed you at the capital building", and I am curious as to how they identified this guy and his partner.

[Ellipsis]

7. video... and facial recognition software. n/t

Wis. department of transportation implemented it this year, welcome to the new world order, Herr Falls.

[marble falls]

8. Thats my point exactly. They were "polite" because they could afford to be. The poor cop, he was ...

only following orders.

[Ellipsis]

9. Ja wohl, mein Führer

[TexasTowelie]

6. Lord knows what they would have caught me doing

if the police showed up at my place at 4:20!

[SomeGuyInEagan]

11. Damn ... beat me to it.

Nice work, Towlie.

[TexasTowelie]

13. And to top it off

it wouldn't have mattered if it was 4:20 in the morning either!

[nanabugg]

10. So under the GOP Wisc. is a fascist state? nt

[Squinch]

12. They can afford the manpower to do this, but they can't afford to pay a teacher?

[Ellipsis]

14. **PART II** Wisconsin Capitol Police Try Intimidation; Deliver Citations AT MAN"S JOB **PART II**

A man who regularly visits the Wisconsin Capitol building to quietly hold politically-themed signs was given two citations this morning for allegedly holding a banner over a Capitol rotunda railing yesterday. To be accurate, the citations were delivered to the man’s supervisor at his job, in an apparent attempt to intimidate or embarrass him into ending his peaceful political actions.

Here is an interview with the man. It is being conducted by the administrator of the facebook page “Shit Scott Walker is Doing to My State”:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/11/1130362/-Wisconsin-Capitol-Police-Try-Intimidation-Deliver-Citations-at-Man-s-Job

[midnight]

16. I wonder how many Milwaukee County workers who signed his recall petition are experiencing working

intimidation too?

[Ellipsis]

17. You will be cited, but I can't tell you why

Last week Rep. Taylor invited Capitol Police Chief David Erwin to her office for a meeting so that he could explain to her the specific behaviors that would put her constituents in jeopardy of arrest. Wendy Coomer of the Department of Administration under whose authority the Capitol police falls joined Erwin and Taylor for the meeting. But it was short lived. Erwin and Coomer did not answer any of Rep. Taylor’s questions but instead walked out of the meeting. They said that if people wanted to know if their behaviors required a permit, they should call the Capitol police office.

That’s what one concerned citizen has been doing every day this week. Katy Reeder made a sign with the phone number on it and Erwin and Coomer’s instructions. Each day she announces the official answer to her question of the day on the sign.

Chief Erwin is rarely seen around the Capitol building, and never appears during the noon hour Solidarity Sing Along. He has thus far only given interviews to carefully selected media outlets, some of them rightwing PR outfits like the MacIver Institute and Wisconsin Reporter. Other news organizations must resort to quoting those reports to give their audience any information about Chief Erwin’s strategy.

http://wcmcoop.com/2012/09/13/capitol-police-have-no-answers-for-concerned-citizens/

[Ellipsis]

18. ACLU Observer Threatened with Arrest for Recording Police Badge Number