Suggesting crime fills out jail, not racism, is ‘inflammatory’
I will say this for Sharon Corrigan, chairman of the Dane County Board. The lady runs a good meeting.
For awhile Wednesday night, at what amounted to a public hearing on the proposed $76 million smaller-but-healthier jail, it looked like a mini-riot might break out. WMTV-15 reported:
The meeting got heated as one man who took the podium made inflammatory remarks toward the African-American community regarding incarceration. NBC15 is following up on that speaker’s statements and reaction from attendees of the meeting.
You can guess who that “one man” was, and is. The proprietor of the Blaska Policy Werkes was wrapping up his allotted 5 minutes of compelling testimony when he observed that had Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. been given one year in the proposed new jail instead of probation for his armed robbery conviction, he might be alive today to observe his 22nd birthday.
That being due to the treatment he might have received for his chronic drug abuse and mental health services to address his anger and violence issues. But the “one man” didn’t get that far before shouts of “Racist” filled the room, along with other imprecations pertaining to body parts best left unseen.
Chairperson Corrigan was firm in demanding that all sides be heard and, by golly, the mob quieted — although not before several walked out. One shouter insisted that my time had run out during the fracas. The heckler’s veto in action! But Madame Corrigan said her stopwatch had 15 seconds remaining, wherein Blaska finished his point with this challenge:
Think how many more lives you could have saved if you had designed a bigger jail.
If you read Part #4, “the myth of institutional racism,” you’ve got the gist of my remarks but here is the audio. (Do consult the entire video. We’re at 28:09 to 34:44.) Look also for some wise and welcome commentary from my old colleague, former Fitchburg mayor and sworn police officer Tom Clauder.
Liberal-progressive-socialist echo chamber
That’s the problem, this county board is not hearing from our likes any more. Principally because there might be as few as two (2) conservatives remaining on the 37-member legislative body. Also because of primordial fear of The Race Card.
Which is why Squire Blaska said this county board had been mau-maued by the racial extremists. This county board is viewing everything — we do mean everything — through a “racial equity lens.” You play the identity politics game, you get bit by the race card.
“House people in homes, not jails. Fund affordable housing,” one sign reads. Even for people who shoot up the neighborhood?
“Derail the Jail! We can definitely tell, the project is racist as hell,” chanted about 50 race-baiters during their rally in front of the City County Building, led by people like Eric Upchurch and Supv. Heidi Wegleitner. Along with the obligatory “Power to the People.”
They testified that the proposed jail is a continuation of Jim Crow policies designed to keep the black man down. That the “entire justice system” is systemically racist. With a black man as Dane County’s elected district attorney! What is needed, say these people, is More Free Stuff: more “investment in the community,” more mental health services (have they read the new jail proposal at all?) and “more housing not handcuffs.”
Their message: police are the problem
The bullhorn people are not outliers. Wegleitner, a Progressive Dane supervisor from Brenda Konkel’s old Isthmus district, could actually say that “communities of color are over-policed and disproportionately arrested.”
Blaska, in his remarks, responded: “If you look at it proportionate to the general population, yes. But are you looking at the proportion to the crimes committed? No.”
Unless you believe that the racist, trigger-happy police are arresting shooters in Allied Drive but allowing those in University Heights to blast away, unmolested.
Believe which, they do. These people actually believe that racist Madison cops are grabbing hard-working, family-providing black men off their front stoops for throwing a cigarette butt on the sidewalk so they can fill the jails, aided by vindictive prosecutors and judges in white robes and pointy hoods. That is what their sociology professors teach, anyway. It’s all in The Nation and MSNBC.
And the Dane County Board of Supervisors is doing their best to reach out to them. Then again, this is Madison. Which is why WMTV-15 thinks it is “inflammatory” to suggest that behavior, not systemic racism, supplies our jail with customers.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
Good on you Dave!
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It sure seems you are the only sane person left in Madison. Those shouters certainly aren’t sane. Kudos on your courage. I only hope someone listens to you. And thanks to the chairperson for letting you have your time.
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Have you ever considered moving to a more rationally civil locale? Why oppose the government and quality of life that they want and deserve? Why not just agree and close the jail. Suspend the police department. Release all the prisoners. Abolish the prosecution of crime. Invite drug dealers to the county to promote economic growth.
Just leave. Let them create their own utopia by replicating the northside “community” life of Milwaukee. You must have known for years that there is no end game, save defeat. Leave and allow them to “enjoy:” the utopia of their own making.
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You picked the wrong handle man.
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Pingback: When race is all you see, race is all you get | Stately Blaska Manor
Your experience is a textbook case of liberals’ idea of free speech in action: there’s THEIR speech–enlightened, virtuous, science-based–and YOUR speech–hateful, racist, benighted, and above all, too dangerous to be heard. When stifling the voice of opposition can be branded as an act of heroism, we’re well and truly on the road to fascism–progressive-style. (In Madison’s case, we arrived at the promised land long ago.)
Of course, what the mob of virtue-signalers really want is not a new jail but closure of the old one–and of every other jail in the country as well. Because for them crime is just the inevitable manifestation of racism and marginalization of minorities. In the latest “Isthmus” there’s a letter that recites the stale old liberal line about crime: more funding for education, social welfare, resources for “at-risk youth” etc,. etc., etc. It ends with this observation: “If you really want to prevent crime, keep people from HAVING TO become criminals” (emphasis mine). For Madison’s self-regarding liberal elites, it’s anathema to think that anyone CHOOSES to become a criminal. No, they’re forced into it because there aren’t enough after-school basketball leagues in minority neighborhoods. What they’ll never be able to do is wrap their heads around the notion that there are people out there who simply don’t want to live like nice upper-middle class white liberals, and who will continue to think so no matter how much free stuff Madison and Dane County tosses their way.
If you ever decide to launch a “One Man” t-shirt line, I’d be proud to be your first customer!
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At least WMTV-15 didn’t say “one white man.” Thanks.
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Dontcha think you could’ve made your point without invoking the name of a dead man and calling him a violent, mentally ill addict? You kind of incited the response. No Mr. Sensitivity Award for you.
And didn’t your mother teach you to comb your hair when appearing in public?
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You don’t think the BLM has made Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. the poster boy for its cop hate? Convicted felon, assaulting complete strangers as well as one of his drug abusing friends to the point where they had to call the police, they couldn’t control him? THAT Tony Robinson.
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Oh, so your point was cop hate and BLM? Silly me, I thought it was the size of the proposed jail.
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Conservative morons can’t even figure out what they’re talking about. Treating someone’s child who has passed that way – you are so full of hate. You guys can’t even figure out if you want tax breaks or not – gotta wait to see how many black lives the proposal is going to ruin!
Even Bill O’Reilly’s scumbag self acknowledged white privilege. Too bad you’re not even as smart as a sexual harasser!
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“Housing, not handcuffs, for the guys that robbed the Stoughton Bank.”
“Housing, not handcuffs, for the guys that made the Culver’s contractor die of a heart attack. (“Dude’s got to wait; I’m gonna get that money.”)
“Housing, not handcuffs, for the guy that killed his wife then burned down the house.”
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Yes. Had MOST of the people who commit crimes grown up with their basic needs met, we wouldn’t be having this “conversation” right now. If you really think Black people commit more crimes and that crime is committed because of moral depravity, you are UTTERLY racist. Wait – I knew that.
PS you’re STATISTICALLY wrong: black people do not commit more crimes; their neighborhoods are just over-policed.
PPS: this woman is wayyyy smarter than you, despite what your mommy told you: https://youtu.be/UdUzSc6p1oU
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“Had their basic needs met.” Do you wonder why you must resort to the passive voice rather than the active? Why “most of the people who commit crimes” don’t, instead, meet their own needs? Let me blow your mind, as the hippies used to say: Crime causes poverty, not the other way around.
As for statistics, I am locked and loaded.
In 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that black are six times more likely to be victims of murder than whites. At the same time, blacks were murdering eight times more often (34.4 to 4.5 per 100,000).
The nation’s police killed 987 civilians in 2015. Whites accounted for 50% and blacks 26%. “The black violent crime rate would actually predict that more than 26% of police victims would be black.” — “The danger of the Black Lives Matter movement.”
“Who is killing them?” asks Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute. She answers, “not the police, and not white civilians, but other blacks. … Black males of all ages commit homicide at eight times the rate of whites and Hispanics combined.”
One last riposte to the urban myth: “Their neighborhoods are over-policed.” More than 3 of 3very 4 police calls result from citizen contacts. Madison police, for example, didn’t go looking for Tony T. Robinson Jr. His fellow substance abusers — three adult men in the prime of their upper body strength — called the police when they couldn’t handle Tony T’s out-of-control violence.
Them is the facts.
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Yea, it is too bad that his friends, fearing for his safety while in the throes of a mental health crisis, had no one else to call. It’s too bad they had at least partly bought into the myth that police are here to protect us, surely at least partly because what choice did they have?
Even MPD knows they police the south side more than elsewhere. And if I thought it was worth the time to research, I’d set your perspective on stats straight, but something tells me your response to facts such as that Blacks and Whites use and sell drugs at equal rates yet get locked up for it at drastically different ones would not be one worth waiting around for.
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The police officer called to the scene did not sign up to be a martyr. He wanted to return to his family that night. He did not consent to be the next victim, to be pushed down the stairs, to have his service weapon wrestled from his hand and used against him and others. It is not his fault that many in the community aided and abetted Tony T’s drug use, his dysfunction, or his sense of victimhood. Most especially those who provided him with the drugs, should you be inclined to wonder who that might be. (And you should.)
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This site is a bunch of weird white men and self-hating white women who care more about avoiding taxes than babies’ health. And you still can’t decide if you’d rather avoid taxes or pay more of them for a jail. You’re all gross. Good day
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I think the issues being discussed are far more important than combing hair, don’t you? Not that we’re going to change the world here, but we might. And besides, that is how he looks after combing his hair! Tom may be on to something in his post, but if the city/county did succumb to the rants and wishes of the protestors, who would want to stay and pay the taxes? It would not be safe to leave your home and the taxes would be 10x higher. Much easier and less stressful to move.
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During the public orgy of anti-Walker hate in 2011, someone (no doubt from Madison) held up a sign that said, “I love paying taxes.” The only thing liberals like more than paying taxes is scrupulously obeying the latest government regulation, no matter how demented. My neighbor moved here from California about 5 years ago and even she was shocked at Madison’s taxes. So higher taxes will do nothing to dislodge Madison liberals–they’ve convinced themselves that they’ve found Nirvana and are more than willing to pay–anything!–for the unspeakable privilege of living here. As for safety, that takes a back seat to myths like crime being caused by poverty and mental health issues (see Allison’s remarks above).
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For some reason, I watched the video with the sound off and it was quite a revelation. Not surprisingly, DB stuck out like a sore thumb–and not because of his hair-do. He was the only speaker who didn’t look like he came from Central Casting, upper middle-class Madison liberal division. After a little while, I found myself chuckling, then laughing out loud as the casting call continued–not a liberal stereotype was unrepresented by the time it was all over. (Sticking out like a sore thumb in that crowd is the ultimate compliment.) Dave’s “Support Our Police” t-shirt was an inspired touch–kind of like showing up at a BLM rally in a MAGA baseball cap. I’m surprised our hero made it out of there without getting beaten to a pulp by all those peace-loving social justice types.
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Thanks for being brave enough to speak the truth.
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Allison,
It is never a good idea to default to name calling and labels when discussing an issue. Few will then take you seriously because you are not supporting your position with facts and logic.
Prager University has six five minute videos on race relations. I have included the URL of one of them and trust you can find the others if interested. I have also included the URL of a ten minute video by Tommy Sotomayor.
You may discover those who think differently than you are not “weird white men and self-hating white women.”
https://www.prageru.com/courses/race-relations/top-5-issues-facing-black-americans
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So glad we still have white men like you desperately clutching to their cultural ideals to remind us of the right way to live our lives
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Allison, did your middle class values serve you well or not? Why would you not recommend what works to everyone? (Go to school, get a job, show up on time, sober, and ready to take instruction, defer gratification, save.) Or do you think that the chronic victimhood, “needs unmet” method is working for them? BTW: Mr. Sotomayor’s advice (thnx Batman) is what I would give my children. Yours?
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No, “middle class” aka “white” values are serving us HORRIBLY! Haven’t you noticed that everyone is anxious and depressed because they’re isolated form each other and are glued to their screens trying to find a way to make more money so they can buy more crap? If you think this is how things are supposed to be, you’re deluding yourself.
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So THAT is why the bangers are shooting up the hood. They’re depressed by Facebook.
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No, that’s what YOUR problem is. Whiteness makes you want to drink. I get it!
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Not likely
Sent from my iPhone
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