Democrats criminalize their political differences

George Will:

The early-morning paramilitary-style raids on citizens’ homes were conducted by law-enforcement officers, sometimes wearing bulletproof vests and lugging battering rams, pounding on doors and issuing threats.

The police seized computers, including those of children still in pajamas. Clothes drawers, including the children’s, were ransacked, cellphones confiscated and the citizens told it would be a crime to tell anyone of the raids.

Some raids were precursors of, others were parts of, the nastiest episode of this unlovely political season.

This attempted criminalization of politics in order to silence persons occupying just one portion of the political spectrum has happened in Wisconsin, which often has conducted robust political arguments with Midwestern civility.

Wisconsin has long been fertile soil for conviction politics. Now, however, Wisconsin has been embarrassed by Milwaukee County’s Democratic district attorney, John Chisholm.

He has used Wisconsin’s uniquely odious “John Doe” process to launch sweeping and virtually unsupervised investigations while imposing gag orders to prevent investigated persons from defending themselves or rebutting politically motivated leaks.

According to several published reports, Chisholm told members of his staff subordinates that his wife, a teachers-union shop steward at her school, is anguished by her detestation of Walker’s restrictions on government employees unions, so Chisholm considers it his duty to help defeat Walker.

Chisholm has misinterpreted Wisconsin campaign law in a way that looks willful. He has done so to justify a “John Doe” process that has searched for evidence of “coordination” between Walker’s campaign and conservative issue advocacy groups.
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This process was used to suppress the civil rights of conservatives under color of law.  That is probably a violation of federal law, but with this administration don't look for the DOJ to do anything about it.  But it points to an abuse of power by Democrat DA's similar to the one used to charge Rick Perry.