September 30, 2019 by Barbara With
Five Wisconsin Democrats have signed on to support SB 386 and AB 426, what have been dubbed the “Anti-Protestor Bills” and are being pushed by the Trump Administration.
Sens. Janet Bewley (25) and Patty Schachtner (10), and Reps. Christine Sinicki (20), Don Vruwink (43) and Jason Fields (11) are co-sponsoring these bills that amend original legislation passed in 2015 that they voted against and was modeled after the American Legislation Exchange Council (ALEC) legislation.
Among other things, the bills expand the definition of “energy provider” to include water, oil, petroleum, and renewable fuel companies’ properties and allows prosecutors to impose large fines and felonies, not only on individuals who are arrested protesting, but organizations that support them.
Bewley, Schachtner, Sinicki, Vruwink and Fields
In the aftermath of the events of Standing Rock, the oil company, Energy Transfer Partners, agreed to pay North Dakota $15,000,000 for use of law enforcement from around the country to implement the illegal arrests of hundreds of peaceful protesters that they falsely claimed were violent.
The “Bewley Bill” will now allow those same oil companies to use local public law enforcement to falsely arrest peaceful protesters and claim they were violent, at the expense of the taxpayers.
These Wisconsin Democrats have now lined up in support of Trump Administration policies to make civil disobedience and protection of water criminal:
The Trump administration is seeking to dramatically escalate federal penalties for pipeline protesters. Under newly proposed changes, pipeline protesters could face up to 20 years in prison for disrupting the construction of oil and gas infrastructure. The move echoes similarly harsh penalties for anti-pipeline activists being adopted in several states.
But environmental groups and activists will likely oppose the proposed measures and are expected to seek legal action against the Trump administration. The updates are also likely to spark alarm among environmentalists as the proposal positions the federal government against pipeline protesters, marking a new frontier in the acrimonious relationship between the White House and fossil fuel infrastructure opponents.
Wisconsin Democrats are now in the same boat as the Trump Administration: facing legal challenges to their Anti-Protesting Bill and sparking alarm among their constituents, who did not vote for them to support the Trump Administration.
Contact your legislator and urge them not to support these bills. If they refuse, understand that they are now openly supporting the Trump Administration’s energy policy and the push to criminalize dissent.
Then remember on election day.
Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative 
corp greed and fascism rule nowadays ..disgusting ..I have called…will call again and will not be supporting Bewley next election
And I hope many more wake up to this and do the same. I, too, will not be voting for Bewley for anything ever again. If we get Tiffany, he will be no worse than Duffy, but the people will be awake. With Bewley or any other DPW sponsored them, we will have a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Watch closer how Bewley et al respond. This is what they will do in Washington, much like Baldwin and her horrific support of F-35 among other things.
Taconite Tom hasn’t paid taxes in 5 years and his company didn’t pay them for 15 years. He pushed Walker to fire DNR scientists and eliminate the Science Bureau. Then he lied and said he didn’t. It would be a big deal if he were elected to Congress.
If Janet Bewley can fall to ALEC and corporate fascism on this issue that is so critical, then she can be a traitor on any topic at all. The difference is, people will resist Tiffany. They will make these kinds of excuses for Bewley. Sorry, I would prefer to have an awaken electorate fighting corporate fascism, than weak kneed dems making excuses for their candidates fascism.