George Schils Photo Exposition

by George Schils.

Madison Protests 2011

Permalink: Madison Protests 2011

About two weeks ago I went for a bike ride to get some exercise and decided to ride around the Capitol square since it was one of the only dry places to ride amidst the melting snow. A massive crowd greeted me and caught me somewhat by surprise. I thought "It looks like we are having a real protest"; and yes we were. At that time I did not know that this would be such a large protest or that it would be going on for over two weeks (and longer).

News reports gave the size of the gathering on Sat. Feb. 19 to be around 60000 people. That is a very large crowd, and competes with Madison's very large celebrations such as Haloween.

Then a Saturday later (Feb. 26) I headed downtown to spend some time at a coffee house. And I again noticed a very large crowd on State St. The crowd was not shoulder to shoulder but the whole street was full with people involved with the march/protest. Most of the people were carrying signs. Again the crowd reminded me of the very large crowds on State Street, such as during busy Haloween celebrations. The crowd was estimated to be 70,000. Of course you saw it on the news reports on your TV.

As I have been on the square several times while exercising and riding my bike, crowds are still gathered. So the protest has been ongoing now for weeks.

It is unfortunate that I did not have my camera with me on the previous two Saturdays. But today, Tuesday March 1, I did grab some photos. The crowds were much less than on the previous two Saturdays, but it was still neat to try to capture some of the protest.

Of course these protests have gained national attention. Further there are over a gillion photos of it (just google for it). But I am contributing a few photos here to do my part.

I am presenting the pictures here as a series of pictures that are hopefully unbiased, and I do not necessarily agree or disagree with views, opinions, and positions taken. (These pictures are not tweaked or modified except for standard Photoshop processing.)

The pictures below are taken at the protest on Tuesday March 1, 2011.

Also see my main photo page for older photos and much more information related to photography.