Bart Stupak: “I am a former police officer. I spent 12-13 years in law enforcement. In fact, one of my posts was with Michigan State…”

“I am a former police officer. I spent 12-13 years in law enforcement. In fact, one of my posts was with Michigan State police at the State capital post. We had to go periodically to demonstrations outside the capital hearing rooms, things like that. I would say in this picture here, you see a police officer putting what we call flexicuffs on this individual. That is a standard operating procedure. I want to say that Capital Police who were put in a tough, a very difficult situation, handled themselves very professionally. They were very courteous. Not only was I at the committee, but I went down to where this photograph was taken in the basement of the Rayburn Building, as they were loading the individuals in the squad cars to take them to the booking station. I went down to the police captain, police headquarters, where these people were being booked, and observed the procedure. Having been a former police officer, needless to say, I was somewhat interested.”