The ultimate triumph of identity politics

All hail Chris Rickert and the Wisconsin State Journal for a bang-up job exposing the revolving-door criminal-justice system here in Dane County WI.

“Trouble down a one-way street” deserves to be read, saved, and discussed as the basis for action before someone gets killed. Oh, wait, someone HAS been killed. (“Car thief jailed in deaths of two in Madison.”)

Madison’s daily newspaper reports juvenile car thefts have increased threefold-plus in three years, from 53 in 2016 to 185 last year. Car thefts this year are on pace to blow well past that, projecting to 227!

The State Journal’s poster child is one Treveon D. Thurman. Now age 18, Thurman’s record of home invasions and 11 car thefts is impressive. We count 29 criminal charges listed on the State circuit court access site! All since last June! The only reason we know about them is because they’re now in adult court. Juvenile records are confidential, a big secret. Which is part of the problem. We learned of:

• Thurman’s repeated violations of probation.
• The second, third, and fourth chances Dane County’s criminal justice system gave the lad.
• The many times his charges were dismissed and reduced.
• Times he was released from custody on his own recognizance and/or reduced bail.
• The apparent failure of all those “restorative justice” programs.

Treveon Thurman learned three things by the time he was 17:

1. How to break into homes and steal cars;
2. When caught, to play the race card;
3. The criminal justice system can be played for fools.

Where did he learn these destructive lessons? Perhaps in a broken home, very likely on the streets. Where was he taught the error of those ways? Not in Madison’s public schools. Nor by the courts. No elected official used her bully pulpit to demand accountability.

To the contrary, young Treveon learned to cry Racism most foul to blame others for his criminality, to put police on the defensive, to play (however obscenely) the VICTIM!

The triumph of identity politics

The larger liberal-progressive-socialist culture, in general, and Madison’s mayor and most of its elected leaders, in particular, have been blaming “implicit bias” and other products of political alchemy in their headlong flight from personal responsibility.  It is, for one example, the stated policy of the Dane County Board of Supervisors to view everything — EVERYTHING — through “the lens of racial equity.”

What do the Treveons learn from a school system that fires teachers for trying to keep order in the classroom, promotes on the basis of race over accomplishment, and fires even an African-American father for teaching the evils of the F-bomb?

This idiocy is actively supported by too many public school teachers in Madison. Last school year, “Educators Actively Working Toward Anti-Racism” blamed “the white supremacy culture … flooding our communities with fear and distrust.” (Read it and weep.)

It takes an anti-empirical mindset, power-washed in progressivism to conclude that if the demographics of those arrested for crime do not match the larger population that some nefarious “-ism” is afoot. (“Madison’s racial disparities have gotten worse, despite decades of reports, task forces and funded programs.”)

Not enough excuses

The four juvenile court judges (Juan Colas, Susan Crawford, Shelly Gaylord, and Everett Mitchell — liberals all) told the WI State Journal’s news reporter that they don’t have “enough options.” Mike Koval saw through that excuse eighteen months ago. The police chief (now retired) wrote:

… The juvenile “justice” system is not responding to the issues at hand and we see a plethora of reasons why it is failing. The judges will tell you that they do not have enough dispositional options available for consideration; there is a paucity of programs, mental health resources cannot keep up to the demands, and there is a lack of suitable placement alternatives. …

But the one thing I haven’t heard enough discussion about are the needs of the victims of crimes caused by juveniles? What about accountability?

When a 59-year-old mom is leaving work at 10 pm at night and is jumped, thumped, and her car/keys/purse are taken from a trio of juveniles — only to have her family’s car subsequently totaled later in the morning — who is speaking up on her behalf?

Quite frankly, at this point in time, I am NOT preoccupied in looking at what “caused” these youths to transgress the law, I am more inclined to ask what the consequences will be for the behavior (assuming due process and an adjudication of delinquency)?

Time for Action

Madison is at a tipping point.

• Madison is searching, yet again, for someone to run its public schools.
• Madison is looking for a police chief to replace Mike Koval, who retired.
• Dane County will elect a district attorney on November 3. Ismael Ozanne MUST GO! (He got off easy in Rickert’s account.) A district attorney can move to take a case to adult court, if nothing else.

Blaska’s Bottom Line:  This is why David Blaska is promoting Mike Koval for district attorney. He tells us he doesn’t want it. Help change his mind.

What do YOU think?