14 Goons Arrested at Capitol

ed-SURE ISN'T THE SAME CROWD AS THE TEA PARTIES WHICH NEVER HURT ANYBODY NOR WAS ANYONE EVER ARRESTED FOR THEIR BEHAVIOR.  UNLIKE THE ANARCHY AT THE CAPITOL WEDNESDAY

as per MIRS

14 Arrested During Capitol Evening Protests 

The Michigan State Police (MSP) reported hauling away 14 protestors today at the Capitol, including nine for refusing to leave the building at the 5:30 p.m. closing time, said Capt. Gary NIX. A 10th protestor was apparently caught trying to get into a locked Capitol window with a weapon. That person will be charged with a felony.
Three more were thrown into the police van with the other 11 for trying to block the vehicle as it was leaving for the Ingham County jail.
"There were 3,000 people here at the Capitol today, doing the American thing, expressing their views. They were polite, respectful,"
Nix said. "These were predominately young, college-age males who had an entirely different agenda than what we had seen all day long."
The focus of this evening's events centered around five young male protestors, who locked arms and plopped down on the Capitol rotunda's glass floor at about 6:30 p.m. They were led away in plastic handcuffs at about 7:51 p.m. after giving extensive media interviews.
Four others were led away shortly after 6 p.m. for trying to break a human barricade made by the MSP to prevent those inside from letting in protestors standing outside on the first-floor Capitol steps.
At about 6:30 p.m., a mini vote among 40 protestors on the glass floor of the Capitol rotunda was held. Most agreed they would leave and would continue their chants outside.
The five, who identified themselves to the media as Bret KELLY, Max KOOPSEN, Mike SHALLAL, Steve HAYNES and Jonathan JONES, sat on the floor, locked arms and declared they were not moving. At that point, they became mini-media celebrities.
"I saw everything that was going on in Wisconsin and I wanted to get attention so the people of Michigan would realize what's going on," said Koopsen, a Western Michigan University student. "I'm staying because I want to set the MIRS Capitol Capsule, Wednesday, March 16, 2011 http://www.mirsnews.com/capsule.php?gid=3535&printable=1
1 of 13 3/17/2011 10:58 AM precedent that we're going to stay and fight, if it means going to jail."
Koopsen's main gripe was the emergency financial manager reform legislation Gov. Rick SNYDER signed into law and the fact the Governor could essentially "take over a city or a school district" by assigning someone to eliminate the employees' bargaining rights.
"My mom is going to kill me," said Jones, a 20-year-old dishwasher who attends Kalamazoo Valley Community College. "I just got off the phone with her and told I might be getting arrested. Then I hung up."
Today's protest came after a similar effort was staged by former Congressional candidate Lance ENDERLE, which broke up with no arrests (See "Capitol Sit-In Scattered Without Incident," 3/15/11). Enderle was back today, but said he had no role in the organizing of the rotunda protest, which he described as more of a spontaneous grassroots event spurred by a full day of protests outside.
Enderle attempted to lead a peaceful resolution to today's effort by trying to lead the initial bigger group of 50 outside. But after being accused of spouting "empty rhetoric" by one of the protestors, Enderle called them stupid, threw up his hands and said, "I'm done."
Among the horde of media inside the rotunda watching the protestors were UAW 6000 legislative liaison Ray HOLMAN and Leigh FIFELSKI from Progress Michigan.