Video shot by Bonnie Bucqueroux during the time the Michigan State Police prevented people from entering the Capitol
NOTE: The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and a coalition of labor unions asked a judge today to strike down the recently passed right-to-work law because it was enacted while the public was locked out of the Capitol in violation of the Open Meetings Act, the First Amendment, and the Michigan Constitution. Bonnie Bucqueroux is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, and a copy of this article appears on the ACLU blog.
The gap between my classes on Thursday, Dec. 6, allowed me only a brief window to drive to the Capitol to capture some (often-shaky) video on the Michigan legislature’s attempts to ram through a flurry of last-minute bills. The GOP lame ducks were threatening to move on Right To Work, the “Abortion Superbill,” changing Blue Cross/Blue Shield and medical marijuana.
Like an old firehorse who lunges into action when the bell rings, I hurried to the Capitol to report on stories that other reporters might miss. My plan was to interview any protesters and legislators willing to speak to me, then dash home after class to post theYouTube footage on Lansing Online News, the experiment in citizen journalism I co-publish.
As I walked toward the Capitol, a speaker on the bullhorn announced that the Michigan State Police were refusing to allow anyone to enter.
Surely that couldn’t be true. Not in a democracy.
But when I tried to go inside myself, the MSP officers refused to let me or any protesters enter. Why? Overcrowding? Then why weren’t they letting at least some of us in when others streamed out?
I alternated between shock and fury. As a journalist, I know access is paramount. As someone who had also previously spent almost nine years training law enforcement officers, this show of force violated everything I value about policing in a democratic society. Pressed for time, I interviewed a few protesters on the Capitol steps before snapping a picture of an MSP patrol car parked on the sidewalk, a symbol of intimidation.
I teach journalism. I love journalism. For the past five years, I have been doing what I can as a citizen journalist to fill in the cracks as the number of paid professionals continues to decline.
One of the joys of the digital age is that people like me can cover the stories we care about, whether it’s a Tea Party rally or a forum on the supposed dangers of sharia law. When MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow put my YouTube on this summer’s hearing on the abortion bill on her blog, more than 7,000 people watched my video overnight. We provide an important service in ensuring government transparency and accountability – if we can get the story.
I teach a freshman seminar on free speech every spring at MSU. I tell my students about how important it is to live in a country where you don’t need government credentials to be a reporter, where citizens have the right to be part of a free press.
Not anymore?
Go Bonnie!