How I got arrested.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: How I See It - Protesters in Wisconsin are being required to get a permit - Column

I walked over to the Wisconsin capitol around noon on August 15 to report on the Solidarity Sing-Along. It's what remains of the mass protests we saw here against Governor Scott Walker in February and March of 2011. A sturdy, defiant, yet joyful ad hoc group has gathered there at the noon hour every workday for the past two and a half years. The singers should be in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Walker doesn't like them. He issued a rule that said any group of four or more people had to first get a permit from his Department of Administration before it could protest in the capitol. When you sign the permit, you assume liability for any extra expenses that might be incurred during your protest.

The protesters don't believe they need a permit under the First Amendment or under the Wisconsin state constitution. Nor do they believe they ought to be forced to pay to exercise their rights.

One of the protesters sued, and got a judge to agree that the four-person limit was ludicrously low. But the judge said that if there is a group of more than twenty people, the Department of Administration could require a permit while the court case continues.

So, starting in late July, Walker's capitol police have been arresting nonviolent protesters singing freedom songs. I'd covered several of these incidents for our website at progressive.org, and I was intending to cover any arrests at the August 15 sing-along.

When I got there, Madison city council member Mark Clear had just been arrested while singing "This Land Is Your Land." Clear was the first currently serving elected official to be rounded up in the more than 200 arrests that Walker's capitol police had made up to that point.

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I got out my reporter's pad, and I did my usual head count, tallying about 100 people in the rotunda and 60 sympathetic observers in the balcony.

I interviewed Sharon Puttmann, who was holding a sign that said, "United in Purpose, United in Song." I asked her why she was there. "I'm a teacher, and I'm a mom," she said. "And I'm standing up for my rights." She's never been arrested, she told me. But she was willing to be now.

I interviewed Victoria LaChapelle, who was holding a sign saying, "You can tie my hands, but you can never silence my voice." She'd been arrested twice. "Every time I come, I feel like I need to come back in solidarity," she said.

I saw that the Raging Grannies were in attendance again, this group of activist grandmothers who...