Siege and Standoff

(Via The Wheeler Report)

Okay, there's an awful lot of stuff hitting the wire about the Wisconsin State Capitol building.

Image via WaxingAmerica

Supposedly, the building is being locked up, people are being denied entrance, barriers have been erected, and windows are being bolted shut. (the bolted windows story appears to be crap)

This, apparently in defiance of a court order that the building be open.

What the hell is going on?

Well, if you read the WI DofA memo - whoever is calling the shots has decided to get the last remaining protesters out of the capitol by denying them essentials and waiting until they leave.

All access to the capitol in the meantime is strictly controlled until these holdouts give up the ghost. On the one hand you could say this is good policing - certainly preferable to going in and dragging people out. On the other hand, there are reports that state GOP legislators do not seem subject to these new access procedures, nor are attendees to a party for the Joint Finance Committee (this per State Rep. Mark Pocan's open letter).

Trust between the sides is nonexistent.

So, the position of the administration that is essentially "Leave, and then we'll let everyone back in" is a very hard sell. Apparently a judge has ordered the capitol open by Monday, March 7 - (but even then, there's noises from Dems like it will be open tomorrow) after the protesters are removed.

So we could have arrests, or other confrontation with the remaining capitol protesters. Or not.

And to top it all off - we have the WI Senate issuing orders to detain the missing Democratic State Senators.

Which is an interesting escalation, since (at least according to law firm Cullen, Weston, Pines & Bach) it is illegal to do so (emphasis added):

Members of the legislature shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest: nor shall they be subject to any civil process, during the session of the legislature, nor for fifteen days next before the commencement and after the termination of each session.

This is not an absolute bar against sanction - Wisconsin Statues Section 13.26 spells out a brief list of things that the legislature can punish "...contempt, by imprisonment, a breach of its privileges or the privileges of its members..."

Here's the first item on that list:

(a) Arresting a member or officer of the house, or procuring such member or officer to be arrested in violation of the member's privilege from arrest.

And, thus we have an interesting dilemma for WI State troopers.

And Wisconsin is no closer to ending this mess anytime soon.

Late Edit: Dane County Circuit Court Judge John Albert has ruled that the state's restrictions on access are illegal- and that the protesters must leave the capitol when the building is closed.

Which seems very reasonable.

It remains to be seen if the new restrictions on capitol access that follow this order are equally reasonable. Restricting protests to the ground floor seems very unreasonable.