Saturday, March 12, 2011

Video: Wisconsin Protesters Surround Bus With Republican Senators, Bang on Windows and Doors

After the vote passing the budget repair bill, Republican Senators were led from the Capitol through a tunnel, and then onto a bus, where protesters surrounded them and chased the bus, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel::
Amid unprecedented protests, Republican lawmakers have at times been escorted by officers out of the Capitol through a tunnel - and in one case this week were given their own bus to get away from demonstrators.

Shortly after abruptly voting to sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees, senators boarded a Madison city bus and Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs stationed himself near the driver to tell him where to go, according to video from the bus released Friday.

They boarded the bus after they were taken through a tunnel under W. Main St. that leads to the Risser Justice Center.

Protesters quickly surrounded the bus, banged on it and briefly followed it as it drove away from the Capitol.
The Journal-Sentinel did not post the video, but I found it at the Wisconsin AFSCME website, which was upset that a union bus driver was forced to drive the bus:
It is reported that law enforcement seized this Madison city bus, ordered fare paying riders off and escorted the Assembly republicans through the tunnels that lead away from the State Capitol. The bus driver, a public employee that these very Republican legislators just stripped his collective bargaining rights from was forced to drive the bus to an unknown location

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