Won’t be played the race card
Blaska Policy Werkes here reproduces the majority of the official City of Madison blog written by Ald. Charles Myadze, District 18. On a test vote last Tuesday 07-06-21, the Common Council barely defeated by a vote of 10-9 (with one excused absence) a Progressive Dane non-binding resolution opposing police body cameras. (More here.)
By Ald. Charles Myadze
Some of my colleagues on the Madison Common Council are opposed to equipping Madison police officers with body-worn Cameras (BWC). I respect that there are different views on this issue. But, as the old saying goes, everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts. I would like to address several of the most glaring inaccuracies that have circulated about BWCs.
Inaccuracy: Because of the looming budget hole, Madison doesn’t have the funds to pay for a BWC pilot program.
Fact: We do. The $83,000 for the BWC pilot is allocated in the approved 2021 Capital Budget.
Charles Myadze
Inaccuracy: Communities and leaders of color oppose BWCs.
Fact: The Final Report of the Police Body-Worn Camera Feasibility Committee lists the groups and individuals it heard from who expressed “varying degrees of support for BWCs” including Greg Jones of the NAACP who said “without BWCs, all we have is the account of an incident provided by police, so [i]f we don’t have a tool like this, we lose this battle.”
Judge Everett Mitchell “urged adoption of BWCs” stressing “the importance of BWCs for creating a record that can be used to contest police-officer accounts of incidents.” Dr. Floyd Rose of 100 Black Men “told the Committee that BWCs could be part of the solution to policing problems in Madison, but that adopting BWCs should not be done in the absence of making bigger fixes.” President Obama supported and funded BWCs.
It is painful to have to point out that four alders of color – myself, Alder Harrington McKinney, Alder Carter, and President Abbas – all support BWCs. No opponent of BWCs and no alder of color should presume to make statements that devalue the experiences of other people of color, suggest black or brown people walk in lockstep on issues or worse, that black or brown people who have different opinions are not “leaders.”
Inaccuracy: We should not fund body-worn cameras because they are only a tool that does not help rectify or correct racism and disparities in the law enforcement or criminal justice systems.
Fact: This is what is called a strawman: it sets up an argument that is not being made in order to tear it down. No one has said that BWCs are in-and-of-themselves the solution to curbing police misconduct or the key to police reform. No one is suggesting that once we fund and implement BWCs that we do not need to make any other changes in order improve policing. BWCs are just that: one tool that has proven its value in our on-going, large scale and urgent efforts to improve policing. BWCs should be implemented in concert with other reforms which Madison is undertaking including the Police Civilian Oversight Board and the Office of the Independent Monitor, with power to conduct its own independent investigations and subpoena documents.
Ald. Myadze included this video in his city blog:
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Charles Myadze is the leader this city needs.
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
Good to see him stand up but it would have been nice to see a blurb about the accountability of the POLICED.
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Agreed.
Good for him for speaking up and calling out the dishonesty. He seems more level headed than the rest. I especially love this part.
“No opponent of BWCs and no alder of color should presume to make statements that devalue the experiences of other people of color, suggest black or brown people walk in lockstep on issues or worse, that black or brown people who have different opinions are not “leaders.”
Yet he and BWC supporters seem to be coming at this solely from the “what cops do wrong” standpoint. His last paragraph shows me that he sees police as the problem. No mention that BWCs can vindicate good cops. No mention of the increase in attacks on police. No mention of holding people accountable for their own crimes.
Hopefully he’ll come to see that there are different points of view when it comes to police.
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What Ald. Charles Myadze wrote puts him in the ethics hero category.
Those who are opposed to the body cameras are putting themselves in the ethics dunce category.
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I think it’s significant for the City of Madison that a black man is willing to stand up to his fellow black peers and tell them where the bear shits in the woods.
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Good to know the cost of body cams is covered in MPD’s operational budget.
Besides, if the City of Makistan can afford the frew-frew of painting rainbows on their police cars, (no kidding), they can afford an effective police tool. Do it for the children:
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Is the rainbow thing on police cars new or was that just done for June?
On one hand I get that that the police are trying to show the LGBT & black communities that they’re nothing like some cops from the PAST.
Yet it reeks of favoritism.
More troubling is that MPD is now separating itself into various special interest groups, like LGBT cops, women cops, black cops. The black cop coalition partnered with 1000 Black Men group to bring them needed groceries and they did a remembrance for Anisa Scott. Nice job! Except what about the other victims and needy?
I do NOT want to see my police department fragmented like this. It’s divisive and most certainly NOT inclusive.
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Speaking of rainbows and loving who you want and all that crap, the last time there was a gay “pride” parade in Madison, BLM fanatics prevented gay/lesbian cops from participating. I’m old enough to remember when a cop would be fired on the spot if it were discovered he/she was gay. But of course we all know by now that the only persecution that counts is the kind directed against blacks.
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Oh, and that video is repulsive. “We’re coming for your children” is not satire and not a joke. It comes off as a direct threat.
I don’t care what they as consenting adults do, but how dare they try to indoctrinate children and usurp parental rights. They’re not doing their community any favors with that.
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Good to hear some sanity once in a while from a Madison Alder.
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“Looming budget hole”? Madison has at least one of those per year, and they always plug it the same way: more taxes.
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Indeed.
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Hopefully, BWC will be standard equipment. They do not lie, they cannot lie. That would protect all the good LEO’s from terrors like Tony Terrell Robinson. Like wise, it would show the (very) few bad LEO’s like the crazy Heimsness who shot Paulie Heneen so many times. Whatever Ald. Charles Myadze’s real motive is not important, but the technology certainly is. Time after time, BWC provide a true glimpse into the reality of an arrest/confrontation, without prejudice. Of course they do…
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Indeed. Based on what I’ve read thus far, I don’t pretend that Alder Myadze’s motivations are guided by what’s best for Madison police.
More important is that we get cops fitted with BWCs. It’s the right thing to do, regardless of who recommends it.
“Whatever Ald. Charles Myadze’s real motive is not important, but the technology certainly is”
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