At the Clinton-Barrett rally: "Theyre arresting the walker supporter."

Theyre arresting the walker supporter twitter.com/RosieGray/stat…

— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) June 1, 2012

Free speech, anybody?

MORE:

@rosiegray Saw the arrest take place. Cop said it was because protester pointed his finger in cop's face when cop told him to leave.

— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) June 1, 2012

@rosiegray Cop also said Willoughby's sign was "too close to the President"... But Willoughby was 30 feet from Clinton.

— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) June 1, 2012

Willoughby? I wonder if he's related to Tricia Willoughby, the 14-year-old girl who spoke — over boos and heckling — at the Tea Party rally in Madison last year.

AND: Here's the Buzzfeed article by Rosie Gray

"I have no idea why I'm being handcuffed," he told the gaggle of reporters who had followed him. "They won't tell anybody what I did wrong. What rally specifically do I get to peacefully protest?"

A crowd of Barrett supporters formed around the Walker supporter, yelling "Why agitate the people?" and "Bye-bye!" as he was led into a police car.

A police officer on the scene would not say why the man had been arrested.

The man has been identified in previous news stories as David Willoughby, a swimming coach at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He stood in the middle of the crowd at the Clinton/Barrett rally holding a tall sign and was repeatedly asked by volunteers to move. One volunteer asked him to "move to the left of the press." Willoughby refused.

His presence, which was vocal, angered many in the crowd, especially when he yelled "Tell me how you're going to create jobs!" repeatedly as Barrett and Clinton spoke. He argued with Barrett supporters for the duration of the rally and even drew attention from speakers on the stage; Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Mike Tate mentioned him twice. One man in the crowd said he would "take him out," and a woman told him "I'm a union thug and you're ignorant as hell!"

Quite aside from the free speech rights, it's stupid to arrest someone in this situation. Now, he's the story, instead of Clinton rallying for Barrett. And the police are the story. The Milwaukee police. The Madison police didn't treat protesters/counter-protesters this way. And you know something about Milwaukee? Its mayor is Tom Barrett.