Madison seeks felons, squatters, illegal aliens, and addicts to judge the police

Posted on July 15, 2019 by

Just jonesing to recommend Chief Koval’s dismissal

The War on Cops continues apace in the Emerald City, Madison WI. Two developments:

First, two excellent sources tell us that Brenda Konkel is about to be named to the nine-member Public Safety Committee. Madame Konkel co-chairs Progressive Dane, which is in league with Freedom Inc. and the Royko-Maurer group hounding police. The former Madison alder was so anti-police that the police officers’ labor union erected a billboard in her district on Madison’s isthmus to defeat her.

Inexplicably, the Madison Professional Police Officers Assn. endorsed Satya Conway-Rhodes for mayor over incumbent Paul Soglin in the Spring election. It is Satya who is appointing Konkel. Police officers! What were you thinking?

51qqgbyu13l-_ac_us218_An anti-police kangaroo court

The second development is even worse. For four long years, a city committee called the ad hoc Committee on Police Policy & Procedures has been conducting an unlubed colonoscopy of the police. Not a single member could be considered police friendly. (Greg Gelembiuk, anyone?) Yes, the city of Madison considers police — not youthful car jackers, for instance — to be a problem requiring relentless investigation.

The Gelembiuk committee was formed to consider the 146 recommendations (!!!) — most of them paper cuts but some of them eviscerating wounds — proposed by a pricey Berkeley CA boutique. That committee is now forwarding to the Common Council what may be its single most dangerous proposal: 

an independent police monitor
overseen by a civilian review board. 

The ad hoc Police Policy & Review Committee acknowledges: “We see almost all of our other recommendations as contingent or dependent on the establishment of a civilian police review body.” And what a body! 

Not representative of the community as a whole but tilted, weighted and freighted with anti-police special interests, just like the ad hoc committee that proposes it.

The civilian review board would be an all-star roster of identity politics favorites — including “but not limited to: African-American, Asian, Latino, Native American, and LGBTQ communities. Age, socio-economic status, work experiences, the very many genders, geographic residence … and

“Including individuals with arrest or conviction records.”

In that category, the Policy Werkes has got to think that a felony arrest record would trump a mere misdemeanor rap sheet. Ordinance violators? Get in back of the line! Respected your community, paid your taxes, gave an honest day’s work, stopped at the red light? You cop-loving RACIST!

Babylon Bee STARBUCKS

Police watch helplessly through Starbucks window as masked gunman empties register 
A Starbucks in Tempe, Arizona had its lattes and cappuccinos turn into a crime of opportunity this weekend. The coffee shop was robbed at gunpoint by a masked man, and, surprisingly, the theft occurred in plain sight of six uniformed policemen watching through the store’s front window.
The officers wanted to rush in and stop the crime but had just been asked to leave the establishment by a barista who told them that a customer “did not feel safe” with them in the coffee house. — from the Babylon Bee

­

This mess will be considered by the Common Council’s Executive Committee Tuesday, July 16, at 4:30 p.m. in Room 153, Madison Municipal Building.
 The agenda here.
Read Civilian Oversight Recommendation 7-11-19.

Will they meet on Upper State Street?

But wait! There’s more! As many as two of every five civilian reviewers should have a “lived experience with homelessness, mental health, substance abuse, and [once again] arrest or conviction records.” Administering this litmus test will be the City of Madison Racial Equity and Social Justice Initiative. Toriana Pettaway’s revenge!

Should not be difficult to find members. We suspect candidates are assembled in the 100 block of State Street. 

Groups of people hang out for hours, some drink in public, aggressively panhandle, fight, urinate and defecate in nearby doorways and alleys, deal and use drugs — especially crack cocaine and heroin — and engage in prostitution…. said Madison’s new mayor, Satya Rhodes-Conway, speaking of the spot where State Street meets the Capitol Square. — Wisconsin State Journal.

This kangaroo court will sit in judgment of Mike Koval, chief of police. If Koval is found wanting, that will constitute cause to kick his ass over to the Police and Fire Commission “with a recommendation for dismissal.” 

It will also dig its filthy fingernails deep into the department, making “policy-level recommendations on officer discipline, use of force, hiring, training, community relations, and citizen complaints.”

In short, this trojan horse of New Left, A.O.C. activism seeks to largely supplant the statutory, non-political PFC.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: INCREDIBLE! Madison is truly upside down and inside out. We have said it has to get worse before it gets better. But This Much Worse?

 

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Posted in identity politics, Madison city government, Progressives, War on Police | Tagged , , , , , | 21 Comments

Enjoying Wisconsin’s Big Heat

Posted on July 13, 2019 by

Heat units

Blaska Experimental Work Farm (and Penal Colony) here in the badlands of Madison WI is receiving some major heat units from the local solar-power monopoly, as well we should in the middle of July. (The climate isn’t changing THAT much!) Just recompense from a cool and wet June.

The unlettered field hands have been mowing the lawns extra high, as directed by their cruel (but fair) overseer. (As they labored, they sang their primitive work songs from the Black Sabbath catalog.) 

Kentucky bluegrass likes cool feet and should withstand the 90-degree F heat being forecasted. Also said to crowd out weeds. We are trying to reduce chemicals. (Blaska also loves puppies.)

The overseer does wish the white clover  drilled into the front lawn last year had taken hold. Probably too shady. Love the look of all those little heads, like white caps on an ocean of green. The legume makes its own nitrogen; deep roots keeps the lawn green.

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The Work Farm’s stand of Monarda is magnificent. (AKA bee balm, bergamot.) May have planted a couple a few years ago but they have naturalized beautifully. We get our fair share of hummingbirds, which relish the flower. Also filling feeders with the clear sugar water.

Speaking of naturalized, that’s what the milkweed is doing. Totally wild. Used to pull them but now weed around them. Good-looking plant and fragrant flower. Said to be catnip for butterflies but have seen few so far. Are they being turned away at  the Mexican border? (Trolling the Trump haters.)

This ownership never planted bluebells but they are everywhere. If they are invasive, we’re not complaining. They have taken over the area under my spruce tree, now that I have purchased more real estate by pruning up to shoulder height. 

Pole beans are doing better than last year thanks to the heat. The field hands allowed the beets get weedy. 

Spring-planted asparagus roots sending up wispy, feathery foliage. Had allowed the beds to go to weed but now hacking through the overgrowth to give them sun. Nourished the tender shoots with a taste of Jung’s 17-16-28 NPK slow-release fertilizer. The old-fashioned Mary Washingtons are doing better than the hybrid, all-male Jersey Knights. (Maybe you cannot fool Ma Nature.)

Ornamental grasses look good, too. Will give them a shot of nitrogen soon. They will thank me later with full seed heads and fall color. 

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Only 57% of Wisconsin farm fields were said to be in good condition this week compared to 75% a year ago. Hoping this summer’s heat — and reprieve from daily drownings — will do the trick. Everyone has a stake in agriculture’s success.

Posted in Experimental Work Farm | 27 Comments

Grand theft auto vs. girls’ soccer

Posted on July 12, 2019 by

Time to lay down the law!

There will be no illegal soccer on Edgewood’s soccer field!

You know you are tripping over your own ruby slippers in the Emerald City when girls are outlawed from playing soccer on their high school’s soccer field.

A committee of City of Madison pecksniffs voted 4-0 to prohibit sports competitions on Edgewood high school athletic field last night (07-11-19) because the school’s Master Plan itemizes athletic practices and gym classes but does not mention the word “competition.” 

Megan Rapinoe

Take it someplace else, Megan Rapinoe

The private Catholic school argued that Edgewood has been playing sports openly (and the Policy Werkes would add, “brazenly”) for 90 years. But the school’s liberal-progressive-socialist neighbors on fashionable Monroe Street are A.O.C.-militant against proposed lighting and seating for the athletic field. In that, they’ve got the backing of their newly elected alderman, Tag Evers, Progressive Dane.

These are the same people who want open borders, cops out of our troubled high schools, drag queen story hours, and reparations for slavery. But no girls playing soccer!

According to the Capital Newspaper account, Edgewood argued that the master plan labeled the space as an “athletic field.” Would not the ordinary person understand the common meaning of the word to include games? I.E. athletic competition?

This leads to one of Blaska Policy Werkes’ Great Reveals:

There are no ordinary people in the Emerald City!

As with Edgewood’s field, UW-Madison’s Natatorium and Goodman Softball Complex are also zoned for recreation; both host competitions! For that matter, the UW’s Camp Randall Stadium down the road is located in a residential area, as well.

gta-6-e3-2019-rockstar-1126109

We could suggest that Madison has more pressing issues than girls playing soccer. In the wee hours of Thursday morning (07-11-19), three 14-year-old boys led police from three municipalities on a not-so-merry chase in a stolen car.

The chase began in Fitchburg; a Town of Madison officer put spikes in the road but the thieves kept going until finally conking out near Park Street, where they took off on foot. 

A sheriff’s K-9 dog tracked the last of the miscreants. NBC TV-15 has more.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: At least these three boys weren’t playing illegal soccer.

Posted in Madison city government, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 36 Comments

I’m not a racist and so are you

Posted on July 11, 2019 by

The more we obsess about race, the worse it gets

The sticky note from hell!

As a candidate for Madison school board, Blaska was interviewing with the Capital Times editorial board for an endorsement that was never going to happen. Except that Blaska was asking the questions.

suck-it“Are you guys racists?” I asked the panel of four, led by editor emeritus Dave Zweifel. After some sputtering, the four — three of them white — disavowed any racist inclinations. “Then how about Madison’s teachers? Are they racists?” More sputtering.

They wound up endorsing my opponent Ali Muldrow, who accused the average Madison public school teacher of acting this way:

“How do we blame black children, how do we hurt black children, how do we get rid of black children, how do we not listen to black children.”

We have gotten to the point in American life that if a person of color alleges racism it must be so. 

  • This is what empowers Freedom Inc. to condemn Madison teachers as fundamentally racist. 
  • It’s what allows Brandi Grayson license to spout the most spurious nonsense and still be appointed to advisory committees. 
  • It permits the school superintendent to ruin a beloved positive behavior coach because the Rev. Marcus Allen saw an incomplete and misleading video. 

The new McCarthyism

“Pusillanimity has become the plague,” writes Daniel Henninger. “The lurch toward timidity” causes:

  • The great Nike corporation to scuttle the rollout of Independence Day sneakers embossed with the Betsy Ross flag because a showboating scold named Colin Kaepernick said to do so.
  • The New York Yankees to banish Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America.”
  • A San Francisco school to paint over a Works Progress Administration mural (painted by a Communist!) depicting the life of George Washington that includes a dead Native American and slavery. (Shades of the Taliban!)

None of which The Capital Times will criticize lest “Your Progressive Voice” (as it bills itself) be itself smeared with the brush of racism. It’s the new McCarthyism.

The latest victim of this 21st Century smear-mongering is Edgewood College, one of the most liberal of institutions. The Capital Times is up this week with a lengthy hit piece branding this small liberal arts college as a haven of racism.

suck-itThe cover story is headlined, “Culture shock: Former Edgewood College students and staff complain of racist campus culture.” The story is anchored by a disenchanted Edgewood College administrator named Tony Chambers, who left the school. 

So liberal is Edgewood College, that after Donald Trump’s election in 2016, the school invited its supposedly traumatized students to vent their rage on Post-It© notes on a specially designated table.

Not a swastika … but a smiley face!

Some mischievous prankster mocked this institutional hankie sniffing by posting a sticky note reading “Suck it up, pussies.” This message was accompanied by a winking smiley face.

The small liberal arts college went into a DEFCON 1 alert. The diversity and inclusion director summoned a committee of security officials and college administrators. It determined that that the school was victim of a hate crime under the federal Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities to report crime and security incidents to the U.S. Department of Education. Madison police were notified. The insensitive Post-It noter remains at large. The Capital Times writes:

Chambers became the public face of the incident when he prepared a statement to send to faculty, staff and students. In the missive, Chambers called the posting of the note a “targeted act of intimidation and cowardice” that “violated every value that this institution considers to be at its core.”

Except that of free expression, apparently.

The letter was mocked by local conservative commentators who portrayed police involvement as runaway political correctness and Chambers’ letter as overblown. Chambers blames talk radio host Vicki McKenna’s on-air discussions for fueling a backlash.

Blaska was one of those. (“Is it a swastika? Is it a burning cross? No, it’s a sticky note.”)

You will get that which you pay for

suck-itLike every other institution, Edgewood has committed itself “to develop cultural competency among faculty, and students.” Minority student enrollment is up. 

Except today, every micro-aggression is grist for censure. Did you know that two of Mitch McConnell’s great-great grandparents owned slaves?! 

Back to the sticky note, the school president refused to throw the school’s full institutional weight behind Tony Chambers’ over-wrought letter of condemnation. More evidence of racism! The Capital Times reports that Mr. C. “spent thousands of dollars on legal representation, filing complaints with the school and with the state, all of which were dismissed.”

Which can only mean the State of Wisconsin is complicit in Edgewood’s racism! Certainly not that Chambers’ micro-aggressions were ill-founded.

But credit to CT reporter Steven Elbow for including this nugget of truth: 

[Edgwood College] isn’t alone. Chambers’ story and those of others who have worked and studied at Edgewood highlight a vexing dilemma for institutions of higher learning: a growing emphasis on diversity and inclusion brings with it an escalation of racial tensions.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: It’s why presidential candidates are talking about making Joe and Jane Blow pay reparations to Oprah Winfrey. It is why the Madison Common Council has decided police are the problem, not crime. Why city government has a “racial equity coordinator” who cries racism when she doesn’t file enough signatures to get on the ballot.

  • It is why Jussie Smollett.
  • It is why “We don’t have to listen to the police and you can’t touch us.”
  • It is why A.O.C. says Speaker Pelosi  “is singling out newly elected women of color”

Because I’m not a racist but you are.

Posted in Race, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 16 Comments

School is out; lock your garages

Posted on July 11, 2019 by

UPDATE: Three 14-year-old boys have been arrested after stealing a car and leading multiple departments on a chase Thursday morning (07-11-19).

At 2:30 in the morning, a Fitchburg police officer saw a stolen car in the area of the Verona Road Frontage and Atticus Way. The officer tried to stop the car, but it drove away. Then, a Town of Madison officer spotted the vehicle and was able to successfully put out a tire deflation device, but the car kept going.

A Wisconsin State Trooper then saw the car on the Beltline, just as one of the front tires came off the rim. The car finally came to a stop on the highway near Park Street, but then all three teens got out and starting running.

Officers were able to catch the driver and one of the passengers after a chase, and the final passenger was tracked down by a Dane County Sheriff’s Office K9. All three of the 14-year-old boys were taken to Juvie. NBC TV-15 has the story.

Today’s blog is given over to the first seven incidents Madison Police Chief Mike Koval reports in his police blotter today (07-11-19) . Do subscribe to his daily report.

From 6:00 a.m. on 07/10/2019 through 6:00 a.m. on 07/11/2019, MPD received 535 calls for service.  This number does not include parking complaints or 911 misdials.  For purposes of clarification, the following abbreviations are short-hand for race designations: W=White, AA=African American, NA=Native American, H=Hispanic, ME=Middle Eastern, A=Asian, MR=Mixed Race, U=Unknown.

1) WEST: Stolen Autos – 7:16 a.m.  Two vehicles were stolen from Sandhill Road overnight.  One of the stolen vehicles was involved in a crash on the interstate where the driver/suspect (UM) fled.  A female passenger/juvenile was conveyed to a local hospital for an evaluation/treatment but she fled from the hospital when her mother arrived at the hospital.  The second vehicle has not been located.  Keys were with both vehicles.  Investigation continuing.

2) NORTH: Information/Sexual Assault of a Child – 11:12 a.m.  Officers met with a victim (16-year-old AAF) who reported being sexually assaulted by a known acquaintance/suspect (32-year-old AAM).  Investigation continuing.

3) EAST: Weapons Offense – 12:26 p.m.  Officers responded to reports of shots fired near Great Gray/Owl Creek.  Shortly thereafter, a local hospital advised that a victim (19-year-old AAM) arrived at the hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.  Preliminary investigations have determined that both of these calls are related.  Incident report on MPD’s website completed.  Investigation continuing.

4) WEST: Suspicious Person/Recovered Stolen Auto – 5:08 p.m.  Officers responded to Woodington Way after it was reported that a vehicle was parked on their street and appeared to have been in a crash.  The caller advised that two male subjects were near the vehicle and talking.  When officers arrived, the male subjects (AAMs) took off running.  The vehicle was found to be reported stolen.  The suspects were not located.  Investigation continuing.

5) EAST: Stolen Auto – 6:33 p.m.  Officers responded to Droster Rd for a report of a stolen auto.  The vehicle was stolen out of a garage.  Attempt to locate aired.  The vehicle was listed as stolen in the appropriate databases. Investigation continuing.

6) MIDTOWN: Attempted Residential Burglary – 7:15 p.m.  Officers responded to a Midtown district residence (Summit Ave) after the caller/homeowner reported that three suspects (AAMs) were in their garage attempting to steal their vehicle.  The caller’s husband gave chase to the suspects who fled on foot.  Investigation continuing.  See # 7 – related call.

7) MIDTOWN: Assist Police – 7:15 p.m.   UW-Police Department observed a stolen vehicle on University Avenue.  The vehicle crashed and the suspects fled on foot.  The suspects (16-year-old AAM and 15-year-old AAM) were apprehended.  This incident occurred right around the time of the attempted residential burglary in call #6 above.  The two calls may be related.  Investigation continuing.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 17 Comments

Fighting discipline ‘and other racist acts’ in the Madison schools

Posted on July 10, 2019 by

Kaleem Caire for Madison school board

A reader has shamed Blaska into applying for the vacancy caused by Mary Burke’s inexplicable resignation from the Madison Board of Education.

As I told the WI State Journal, I have no hope of being appointed but one must put up the good fight.

cropped-postive-behavior-coach.pngI see that Ed Hughes has applied. He served nine years and is a member of GRumps (“GRandparents  United for Madison Public Schools.”) That group of former school board members includes the likes of Nan Brien, Anne Arnesen, Carol Carstensen, Bill Keyes, and Bill Clingan. All good, guilty white Madison liberals.

GRumps held the first candidate forum of the Spring election campaign. They asked how the candidates would close the racial achievement gap. Blaska responded thusly: “You guys OWN the achievement gap. It occurred under your watch. Blaska did not eat anyone’s homework.” GRumps’ agenda copies that of the Democrat(ic) party: choke off school choice, deny charters, repeal Act 10 reforms, labor union teachers first, kids second. 

George Corley Wallace stood at the schoolhouse door preventing black kids from getting in; GRumps stands at the schoolhouse door preventing them from getting out.

Heather Mac Donald Diversity-Delusion‘I AM the diversity’

One Hundred Black Men held its own candidate forum at Wright middle school. Blaska pointed at himself and announced, “I AM the diversity.” All the others, with the exception of Kaleem Caire, were more of the same old, same old, I said.

Speaking of same old, same old: the Madison school district has some window dressing called the “Black Excellence Think Tank.” It stamped out a report that accused the district of “a long history of failing to make space for and to nurture the excellence of Black children and their families.” (More here.)

Standard virtue-signaling boilerplate. What do you mean there’s no space? There are no desks for black kids to sit? They got to stand out in the hallway? No textbooks? No computers? Banned from sports? 

“MMSD must undergo fundamental changes in its organizational culture and practices.” Like what? The report never says.  

Pay parents to parent

The report is more notable for what it does not say. Not one syllable referencing the duty to parent, the disaster that is the Behavior Education Plan, the ineffectiveness of restorative justice, “truancy in school,” abysmal truancy rates and unacceptable in-school behavior Madison under-achievers. Now THERE is your fundamental change!

Instead, the think tankers call for the same old, same old. “Culturally competent” teachers, preferably of color. Teach black history. 

The Tankers want to reintroduce segregation: a black student union. And pay black parents to show an interest in their kids. The tankers prefer the term “paid parental liaisons.” And, of course, a black ombudsman to sniff out racial incidents. Not that anything could deter Jen Cheatham from rushing to judgment as she did in the Whitehorse “hair-pulling” incident.

Black Excellence Think Tank gives their game away with this statement: 

We want students and their families to know there is accountability for the emotional trauma of discipline and other racist acts. We want regular reporting on how these issues have been handled.

“Discipline — and other racist acts.”

What did you expect from a group that included Black Lives Matter disrupter Brandi Grayson and Matt Braunginn and Freedom Inc.’s Mahnker Dahnweih? The latter informed the school board that “black, queer feminism has the answers.”

Blaska’s Bottom Line: My application for the school board vacancy says if they don’t name Blaska, appoint Kaleem Caire.

Posted in Freedom Inc., identity politics, Madison schools, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 34 Comments