Giles Goat Boy shared the news yesterday of the latest shameful chapter in the crackdown on dissent in Wisconsin's Capitol: Wisconsin Capitol Police Ambush Disabled Vet, Send Her to Hospital with Cardiac Symptoms. The diary included photos of a disabled veteran, Dawn Henke, in pain after she was handcuffed in the Capitol hall and collapsed with cardiac symptoms.
Now there is video. The YouTube video below was filmed and edited by Nicole Schulte and was originally published by Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative. [A separate YouTube video with footage taken by Sara Blackthorne was originally published on Occupy Wisconsin: Disabled Veteran is Arrested and Collapses in the Capitol] (inaccuracy re video versions corrected 9/15/12 10:30am)
A seventeen-minute, unedited version of Blackthorne's footage was too large for YouTube but may be found as a public Facebook video.
Please view and share widely. As far as I am aware, there has been no mainstream news coverage of this outrage -- they've gladly ignored it in favor of covering the judicial smackdown of Walker's union-busting law.
Fortunately, the veteran in the video was treated, released, and "unarrested." Dawn still doesn't know exactly on what grounds she was initially arrested, as related in a story on Wisconsin's Citizen Media Cooperative: Capitol Crackdown Sends Disabled Veteran to Hospital, Another Activist to Jail.
I'll leave the final word to the other arrestee, Ted Voth, who was arrested for attempting to come to her rescue (he was jailed but has been released, and he has a court date pending.) Reflecting on the crackdown, Voth said:
“I don’t think Chief Erwin or Scott Walker have any concept of what the constitution means.” He added, “I tremble for democracy.”
So do I.