By now even most low-information voters have heard about the IRS bullying of conservatives. Although, ho-hum… since the mainstream media mostly ignored it, there must not be much to worry about there.
Well now it appears that – since the feds have essentially gotten away with that abuse – using the strong arm of government to intimidate political foes is becoming a popular trend among leftists. Here’s a frightening tale of jack-booted “legal” thuggery from Wisconsin.
Governor Scott Walker’s success in the Badger state, winning two elections and surviving a recall vote in between; “fundamentally, a proxy fight pitting the union-led Left against the Tea Party–led economic Right,” really angered radical progressives. Milwaukee district attorney, John Chisholm must have been so infuriated with Walker’s politics he just couldn’t stop himself from abusing the power of his office. Weaponizing campaign-finance law, he and his cohorts bullied, threatened and traumatized dozens of private Wisconsinites over the course of several years.
The National Review article by David French, details middle-of-the-night raids, multiple armed agents, property seizures, even battering rams! Chisholm not only channeled the IRS, he incorporated Stasi tactics ~
For dozens of conservatives, the years since Scott Walker’s first election as governor of Wisconsin transformed the state — known for pro-football championships, good cheese, and a population with a reputation for being unfailingly polite — into a place where conservatives have faced early-morning raids, multi-year secretive criminal investigations, slanderous and selective leaks to sympathetic media, and intrusive electronic snooping.
Yes, Wisconsin, the cradle of the progressive movement and home of the “Wisconsin idea” — the marriage of state governments and state universities to govern through technocratic reform — was giving birth to a new progressive idea, the use of law enforcement as a political instrument, as a weapon to attempt to undo election results, shame opponents, and ruin lives.
Astoundingly, the reason this is all news to so many of us is that those being “investigated” were ordered to remain silent!
Most Americans have never heard of these raids, or of the lengthy criminal investigations of Wisconsin conservatives. For good reason. Bound by comprehensive secrecy orders, conservatives were left to suffer in silence as leaks ruined their reputations, as neighbors, looking through windows and dismayed at the massive police presence, the lights shining down on targets’ homes, wondered, no doubt, What on earth did that family do?
This was the on-the-ground reality of the so-called John Doe investigations, expansive and secret criminal proceedings that directly targeted Wisconsin residents because of their relationship to Scott Walker, their support for Act 10 (which repealed collective bargaining for most public employees), and their advocacy of conservative reform […]
Speaking both on and off the record, targets reflected on how many layers of Wisconsin government failed their fundamental constitutional duties — the prosecutors who launched the rogue investigations, the judge who gave the abuse judicial sanction, investigators who chose to taunt and intimidate during the raids, and those police who ultimately approved and executed aggressive search tactics on law-abiding, peaceful citizens.
According to French, some form of justice for these victims may finally be reached soon ~
Largely hidden from the public eye, this traumatic process, however, is now heading toward a legal climax, with two key rulings expected in the late spring or early summer.
But the lives and families invaded by these tyrannical government bullies will never be the same. And what about the damage to the rule of law?
In international law, the Western world has become familiar with a concept called “lawfare,” a process whereby rogue regimes or organizations abuse legal doctrines and processes to accomplish through sheer harassment and attrition what can’t be accomplished through legitimate diplomatic means. The Palestinian Authority and its defenders have become adept at lawfare, putting Israel under increasing pressure before the U.N. and other international bodies.
The John Doe investigations are a form of domestic lawfare, and our constitutional system is ill equipped to handle it. Federal courts rarely intervene in state judicial proceedings, state officials rarely lose their array of official immunities for the consequences of their misconduct, and violations of First Amendment freedoms rarely result in meaningful monetary damages for the victims.
Another form of thuggery the Palestinian Authority has become adept at is pure and simple terrorism. And that’s exactly what we have here – government terrorism. Just like Islamic terrorists, Chisholm and his band of bullies traumatized victims, creating a climate of fear, deliberating aiming to silence opposition to their agenda.
Who knew fighting the Global War on Terror would mean we’d have to beat back insurgents like the Milwaukee district attorney in our own local governments?
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Related:
Politicized Prosecution Run Amok in Wisconsin
