Be careful with whom you stand on stage!

Not for the first time, a black man played the race card against another black man deemed insufficiently Woke. Someone tell Dane County Supervisor Anthony Gray that gambit is getting old.

His target: the Dane County Sheriff, who also identifies as black. No shortage of racists for the Woke folk!

Sup. Gray likens Kalvin Barrett to a reincarnated Bull Connor because the sheriff called out Dane County supervisors who have been slow walking replacement of the Alcatraz-like, 70-year-old jail atop the City-County Building:

“The Dane County Board has failed to put the safety of everyone in the Dane County Jail as their top priority. Certain members of the Board have shown a lack of empathy and comprehension of the research and evidence leading to intentional delay tactics that places lives at risk and is irresponsible with taxpayer’s dollars.“

— Sheriff Kalvin Barrett.

This prompted Sup. Gray to do his best Joy Reid/Al Sharpton imitation: 

“Sheriff Barrett stood on stage with three white men (all former sheriffs), and in the finest tradition of Willie Lynch, attacked the integrity, the competence and the fundamental intellect of his colleagues on the Dane County Board.” (Apparently, Willie Lynch is an apocryphal story of controlling slaves by pitting one against the other.)

— Sup. Anthony Gray, as quoted here.

GOAL! for Sheriff Barrett for attacking the Woke left where it hurts the most: their lack of empathy for the innocent and vulnerable victims of crime! Ironic, because Barrett is the sheriff who calls his customers “residents” instead of “inmates”!

Big vote tonight at 7 p.m.

The county board votes tonight whether to pony up another $13.5 million to cover cost overruns on a six-story jail addition (requiring a two-thirds majority) or to put the issue to the voters in April, which requires only a bare majority of the 37 members. (They are items #2 and #3 on the agenda.) (The jail consolidation project explained.)  

The demagogic Gray (endorsed by The Capital Times) misrepresents the Prairie Ridge, Maple Prairie, and Country Gove neighborhoods on Madison’s SW side. He has plenty of progressive company. He’s one of the majority of 19 who derailed the jail when it last  came to a vote in November. One of whom is Sup. Dana Pellebon (Progressive Dane), whose 33rd district encompasses most of Fitchburg.

“We are not protecting people by incarcerating. We are protecting a system, a system that harms people.”

— Sup. Dana Pellebon

Which is upside down, inside out, and bass ackwards. Who harms people? Criminals harm people! They do (or are being adjudicated for) murder, sexual assault, domestic violence, dealing fentanyl, breaking into homes, and stabbing fellow students at Sherman middle school. Yes, most (51%) of the jail is black; so are a majority of their victims. They’re also 87% male, if you want to play the gender card.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: We advise the board to up the dollar figure to $18 million on both measures to cover any more inflation. And to ignore race mongers like Anthony Gray and Dana Pellebon.

Where does YOUR empathy lie?