Madison’s police monitor/civilian review board is pretty scary, boys and girls

Voting NO on the city referendum kills the monster!

We say it again: if Madison’s so-called Independent Police Monitor were just a ghost — as it has been in the two years since the shape-shifting Robert (now Robin) Copley filled the position — it would merit a call to Egon Spengler and Dr. Peter Venkman. But now that the office has worked up a complaint form and has assumed corporeal form — it’s scarier than ever.

Bee-vare!

No way a cop gets a fair shake from this house of horrors. That’s because it and its four-year-old Police Civilian Oversight Board were built from the ground up to do a hatchet job on police. As its application for board membership reveals.

• Do you have a criminal record? Excellent!

• Substance abuser? Just what we’re looking for!

• Check the box if you black or “Latinx.’ (Despite Blaska’s law suit which declared racial quotas unconstitutional.)

• More points if you are LGBTQ+.

• Were you or a family member ever police? Rev up the chainsaws!

 These essay questions are a scream

• “Describe how your lived experience supports the Board’s desired diversity.”

But the board does not desire diversity — not of political philosophy, as the next question makes clear:

• “Please describe your experience and/or interest in police reform.”

This loaded question assumes police need to be reformed.

• Were you nominated by one of the City’s favored community organizers? If so, Go to the head of the line.

The favored nine community-based organizations “have an interest in civil rights, immigrant rights, disability rights/mental health, racial equity and social justice, and that also have an interest in the safety of the city and criminal justice reform.” Pretty much leaves out the Kiwanis, Downtown Madison Inc., and the Steamfitters Union.

 It’s alive! It’s ALIVE!

So who did Robert (now Robin) Copley hire as policy analyst? 

Greg Gelembiuk! Stalked the earth as a member of Amelia Royko Maurer’s Community Response Team. Along with Shadayra Kilfoy Flores, former chair of the Oversight Board (“Do you know who she is?“), and Sharon Irwin, agitating grandmother of the dead Tony Robinson Jr.  

Those who endured Greg’s dirge-like readings from his laptop at Common Council meetings know him as “Dr. Gobbledygook.” 

Gelembiuk haunted the Police Monitor/Oversight Board as a member of the Madison Police Department Policy & Procedure Ad Hoc Committee. Its report admits that “other communities have attempted civilian oversight through an independent auditor and civilian review board, with notably mixed results.”

 Knights of the living dread

Like an incantation, that report recites his Community Response Team a whopping 44 times. That group made common cause with Cops Out of Schools, Derail the Jail, Progressive Dane, Freedom Inc., Urban Triage, and the local Black Lives Matter franchise. Like Greg himself, most of them oppose police body-worn cameras. Of course.

Even if no taxpayer dollars were involved, voting No on the November 5 city ballot would improve public safety. But a No vote also saves this Frankenstein monster’s $509,420 budget.

Gelembiuk’s position is budgeted at $75,975 to Robin Copley’s $138,381. Unlike most oversight boards, the 13 members (11 voting) of the Police Civilian Oversight Board are paid (a cumulative $37,600). That includes $50,000 to pay litigants to file complaints against police. 

Blaska’s Bottom Line: We call that a bounty. When even Kamala Harris is posing as a tough-on-crime prosecutor …

Is Madison WI under a spell?