Defund the police is not dead

Just more clever!

Like we were saying in the last thrilling episode, the first impulse of the ruling UniParty here in Dane County is to slash law enforcement.

After years of dithering over replacing an outdated and unsafe jail, our elected officials decided to build a new — but smaller — lock-up in Wisconsin’s fastest-growing county. We’ve lost track of the county’s decarceration initiatives.

Now some county supervisors want to shrink the number of sheriff deputies and give the savings to the homeless. A county board committee will consider three different proposals tonight.

The first would cut 16 deputy positions.  Savings would be given to the Human Services Department for social welfare programs and “non profits” who, in the words of Supv. Jeff Weigand, “grift off the taxpayers.” Supv. Weigand can say that because his attempt to audit the $325 million spent on social services was defeated 28 to 5.

Another would cut an additional 7 sheriff deputy positions to free up money for the City of Madison’s homeless shelter. Supv. Weigand contends that the majority of homeless are single, able-bodied adults with no minor children. “Men who chose the homeless lifestyle.” That may be overly harsh but about homeless shelters, a liberal social worker told us: If you build them, they will come.

The third would cut 5 sheriff deputy positions and would give the savings once again to another homeless shelter in Madison for “households without children.”  (Read ’em and weep.)

Local Democrats have gone Woke

All three were proposed by Supervisors Heidi Wegleitner and Yogesh Chawla, both representing city of Madison districts. They’re endorsed by Progressive Dane, which once had the far left playpen to itself. But the Dane County Democratic Party is also endorsing the Far Left these days. Did we say “UniParty”?

Despite an announced $31 million budget deficit, none of the cuts would save money, just transfer it to the homeless.

Wait, there’s more! Just in time for Saturday’s “No Kings Day” demonstrations here in Madison and around the country, the chairman of the Dane County Board of Supervisors wants to eliminate or reduce special elections to fill vacancies so that his appointments can serve longer.

Bitch at the whole bunch of them! 

Blaska’s Bottom Line: The Dane County Sheriff’s Department is having trouble filling positions, hence this year’s raid. Law enforcement agencies nationwide are under-staffed, due in large part to the War on Cops.

→ “Law enforcement has yet to recover from a workforce decline due to the pandemic and protests against police.” — Governing magazine

Couple years ago, Supv. Wegleitner proposed removing the Pledge of Allegiance and the word “prayer” from county board meetings, arguing that they were “divisive in a pluralistic society.” All 37 supes are up for re-election this spring. Filing deadline is January 6.

Could we elect a few moderates this time?