Wisconsin Gov. Walker Wants To Charge Fees To Protest At The Capitol

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Dec 5, 2011 11:30PM

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants to charge demonstrators to protest at the Capitol, plus hold them liable to cover costs for cleanup and police because Walker apparently thinks he hasn't pissed off enough First Amendment supporters yet. The policy, which will be phased in by Dec. 16, forces demonstrators in groups of four or more people to apply for permits 72 hours before assembling.

First Amendment supporters are calling this out for what it is: Charging people to speak their mind. Do four people in one place really constitute a rally? And how could they afford to pay police officers $50 each per hour? But the Walker administration says they're just clarifying existing rules that exist for events held at state buildings. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes:

State law already says public officials may issue permits for the use of state facilities, and applicants "shall be liable to the state . . . for any expense arising out of any such use and for such sum as the managing authority may charge for such use."

Don't be quick to think this is just to quell Occupy protesters. Walker has had people protesting him pretty much all year. First he pissed off the unions with his plan to kill collective bargaining. The Wisconsin Democratic Party filed an ethics complaint against him in March for comments he made about a planting troublemakers in the crowds of protesters. In case he couldn't piss off any other liberal groups, he made sure to go ahead and pick on same-sex couples, too. At this point, it's hard to tell who Walker is trying to

By the way, the petition to recall Gov. Walker now has about 300,000 of the 540,208 signatures necessary to force the recall.