Governor's Islamist terror comparison shocks Wisconsin protesters

Participants in the massive political protests in Wisconsin in 2011 have reacted with a mixture of shock, disbelief and anger to remarks by Governor Scott Walker which compared his handling of the peaceful demonstrations to his stance on Islamist terrorism were he to become president.

Walker, who is enjoying a surge of support among the conservative wing of the Republican party amid early jostling for position in the 2016 presidential contest, made his controversial comments to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathering of rightwing activists in Maryland on Thursday.

In his speech, he referred to “radical Islamic terrorists” before immediately evoking the Madison protests: “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.”

Back in Wisconsin, Walker’s contentious comparison provoked expressions of astonishment from those who took part in the protests four years ago that erupted after the newly elected governor moved to strip public sector unions of most of their collective bargaining rights. Thousands of teachers, social workers, off-duty police officers and other public employees occupied the state capitol in Madison for almost three weeks.

Brian Austin, a police officer in Madison who joined the protests when he was off duty, under the banner “cops for labor”, said he found it “very unfortunate that our governor equates the exercise of democracy to radical terrorism”.

Secretary of the Madison Professional Police Officers Association, which represents rank-and-file officers, Austin said that by labelling protesters the enemy, Walker had sounded a discordant note in a state “where we have always believed in respectful disagreement”.

Charity Schmidt, one of the organizers of the initial protests, said Walker’s remarks “demonstrate for me as someone who was there in 2011 that he sees the demonstrators, the working people of Wisconsin, as the enemy. His underlying goal remains to divide and conquer rather than to work for all Wisconsinites.”

Harriet Rowan, then a student in Madison and who slept in the capitol building every night for the duration of the occupation, said she found the comments “shocking and quite offensive”.

“For him to compare Islamic terrorists is totally misplaced,” she said.

After his speech, Walker tried to counter any political fallout by insisting he had not drawn a parallel between Islamist terrorists and the Madison protesters, but had merely wanted to say that “that’s the closest thing I have in terms of handling a difficult situation”.

Rowan was not assuaged. “His clarification negates his original statement – it’s one or the other, it can’t be both.”

She added that she found his reference to his bearing during the 2011 events “almost funny. He pretty much hid from us protesters for the three weeks we were there. He came in and out of the capitol via tunnels and was always surrounded by security.”

In his recent book, Unintimidated, Walker describes the Madison protests in disparaging terms. In one passage he claims that “protesters urinated on the back door of my office”.

He continues: “The capitol grew so packed with human bodies, the staff who worked there physically could not move around the building. There was no possible way to clean it because the bodies never left. The smell, as soon as you walked into the building, was overpowering.”

That’s not how John Matthews, executive director of Madison Teachers Inc, remembers things, having been there for the duration.

“The occupation was extremely peaceful,” he said. “The people who took part in them cleared up the refuse every day. If anyone was seen to be getting emotional then people would calm them down, and tell them we were there not to make trouble but to make a point.”

Walker implies in his book that the protests turned violent: “The media liked to comment on how ‘peaceful’ the protests were. They must never have tried to get around the capitol in a suit and tie … anyone in a suit was assumed to be a Republican and accosted.”

In another passage, he describes an incident outside a factory in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in which he claims that his official vehicle was set upon by “hundreds of angry protesters” who shook it in an intimidating fashion.

He writes: “As we tried to pull out, they surrounded the car and began beating on the windows and rocking the vehicle. Just as we extricated ourselves from their grip, a truck pulled up and blocked our path, playing a game of chicken with the troopers. They turned the lights and sirens on and warned him to get out of the way.”

The watchdog PolitiFact scrutinized this account and concluded the governor’s description was false. “Local police, journalists at the scene, and people from the company and the crowd do not recall seeing Walker’s car rocked or banged upon,” it found.

Nor could it find any evidence that a truck had blocked Walker’s car.

The kind of unrest that convulsed Wisconsin four years ago could return this month, as the state legislature is rushing through legislation that would restrict private sector unions in similar ways to Walker’s attack on their public sector equivalents. The governor has promised to sign into law the “right-to-work” bill.

The bill is expected to be passed next week. It will prevent labor unions from demanding fees from employees in return for collective bargaining. The legislation is based almost word-for-word on a model bill framed by the corporate lobbying group Alec.