UW Madison Student Activity Center
4th floor Caucus Room
333 E Campus Mall
RSVP to sharbaugh@aclu-wi.org or call (608) 469-5540 if you plan on attending the workshop. Please forward this announcement to friends who are also interested in supporting everyone’s right (even if not always the content) to free speech, assembly and protest.
For more on the ACLU of Wisconsin’s legal observer program and for pictures of observers in action, visit the Cap City Liberty blog reports on legal observers in Milwaukee and at last year’s antiwar protest in Madison.
What are Legal Observers?
Legal Observers are trained volunteers who are legal witnesses to political demonstrations and who document the events of public protests, including any incidents of police misconduct or violations of the rights of protesters. Legal Observers are committed to defending free speech in a way that is as objective as possible so that their documentation can be used as evidence if police misconduct or obstructions to Constitutionally-protected free speech are challenged in court. As Legal Observers, volunteers can commit to being among others who are free speech defenders, but aren’t expected to be a every rally – volunteers pick which protests to observe with neutrality and can choose not to volunteer at protests where they wish to be participants.
