They left him in a parking lot!

Free Dead on $100 bail

Madison teenager gets gunned down by drive-by shooters. Cue requisite puff piece on what a wonderful young man was the late Jovan Freeny, killed at a late-night party Saturday (08-14-21) among some 100 revelers within the shadow of Camp Randall Stadium.

Missing from the excellent WI State Journal account, the cap-and-gown graduation photograph; for good reason: the 17 year old would have been only a junior in high school.

More tragedy: the teenager was “a father-to-be”! Pipe and slippers after a hard day at the office providing for his young family. (That was snark, for the slow on the uptake.) Unwed mother, also 17: “He was a good person to be around,” she testifies. Apparently.

And ‘Fun loving’

As described by his family. Whether that fun included receiving stolen property, concealing a weapon without a permit, stealing a car, and trying to elude police — all felonies, we cannot say and the WI State Journal will not broach. His most recent (and, as it turns out, final) court date was Friday August 13. He was free on cash bond of $100. So the thought occurs that a less lenient court may have saved his life.

We do agree with his grieving mother: “Fun-loving” though he may have been, Jovan Freeny “definitely did not deserve this.” (No snark; we mean it.) But even mom believes that the boy’s whacking was no random accident; that he wasn’t in wrong place at the wrong time. She knows that her son was targeted. Which means victim and killers knew each other. Kids these days!

Think maybe young Jovan made some wrong decisions? Mother doesn’t go there. Who are we to be so judgmental? the good Madison progressive demands. Blaska Policy Werkes, we answer. Someone needs to judge, set parameters, put up guardrails — even if Jovan’s mother would or could not. To the boy’s obvious detriment. (Or is it obvious?) We don’t mean to put all the onus on mom; Dad, apparently, wasn’t available for an interview.

Progressivism as usual

The streets of Madison remain calm these five days later. No “mostly peaceful” protests. No statues torn down (not that many remain to be toppled). Because once again, BLM and its apologists cannot blame police for killing a young black man.

It may yet transpire that it was Trump supporters who popped a cap in the unfortunate teenager. If so, it will lead MSNBC. Kamala Harris will place a phone call. Gov. One-Term Tony will activate the National Guard. But we’re guessing otherwise. (Just a hunch.)

Meanwhile, local and state government — and more and more private employers — will continue race-shaming their workers for their supposed white privilege. Damning institutional racism, ferreting out implicit bias, bad-mouthing personal responsibility is the safer bet in Progressive Town.

They never explain how their critical race theories keep the young Jovans from killing each other. Now for the phrase in the WI State Journal report that set our ears a-pricking:

After the shooting, [the mother] said Freeny’s friends then drove her son to the hospital and left him in the parking lot. 

“Left him in the parking lot”? !!! And those are his friends? (More exclamation points: !!!) Was it because they did not want contact with anyone in authority? We know, the young man fell in with a bad crowd. One hundred of them, apparently. All drinking milk and cookies.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: One more thing: at that late-night party in the first block of Lathrop Street, was a Black Lives Matter sign posted in the front yard?

Who else in Madison asks such impertinent questions?