In WI governor’s race, Defund Police is back in play.
Here we go again. Another white cop, another dead black man. Cue The Resistance. How many days before a mural dedicated to the latest undeserving martyr is splattered on a Madison WI wall? How many more events disrupted like last night’s Concerts on the Square? (Video here.)
All the usual suspects were present and accounted for after police shot and killed a knife-wielding black suspect Wednesday afternoon 07-22-26 on Willy Street at the intersection with Baldwin Street, just up the block from Brenda Konkel’s public nuisance Social Justice Center (as it so happens). (The knife.)
Say this about the late Corey Durrell Ruiz, age 38: the man appeared to be up to his old tricks again. Guy was trying to break into parked cars. Had 42 entries in the on-line CCAP criminal rap sheet dating back 19 years, the most recent a year ago — for retail theft and resisting an officer — adjudicated when he was already in residence at Dodge Correctional Institute. Previously, judged guilty of felony battery to a law enforcement officer and car theft and multiple resisting arrests.
That matters not to those who rush to judgment, including the leading Democrat(ic) candidate for governor, Francesca Hong, who posted this:
Madison police shot and killed a Black man just a few blocks from our campaign office and just a few blocks from where Madison police murdered Tony Robinson in 2015. I am horrified and devastated. … Our entire community is grieving. The bystander video … shows multiple officers surrounding and restraining the man on the ground while another officer fired at least three shots at close range. This was an execution, and it never should have happened.
No mention of the police officer injured in the line of duty. He is to be hounded, no investigation necessary. State Rep. Hong (D-Madison) joins frequent fliers like Brandi Grayson, Maia Pearson, and Progressive Dane county Supv. Heidi Wegleitner in condemning police. Led by Madison’s “independent” (snotty quotes) police monitor, Aeiramique Glass, who ostentatiously walked out of Police Chief Patterson’s press conference. So much for fact-checking.
Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway also threw police under the bus. As quoted by the Wisconsin State Journal:
“What decisions were made by officers that led to escalation instead of deescalation? What different choices could have been made to prevent harm? What needs to change in police policy and training to prevent more deaths?”
County executive Melissa Agard wasn’t much better:
“This is not just another headline, this is someone’s child. A family is grieving an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with them, with everyone affected by this tragedy, and with the bystanders and emergency personnel who responded to an incredibly difficult situation.”
Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley, the governor’s endorsee, tried to walk a tightrope:
“I am horrified by the reports coming out of Madison about a man who was shot and killed in the street by police officers. … these reports are painfully reminiscent of the tragedies we have witnessed in Kenosha, Minneapolis, and far too many communities across our country. … [But] We must allow the facts to come to light while reaffirming our shared commitment to justice,
accountability, and the dignity of every human life.”
Mandela Barnes also tried to play both sides of the street. This is Tom Tiffany:
“Any loss of life is tragic, and my prayers are with everyone involved. When I served in the state Legislature, we established the nation’s first statewide law requiring transparent, independent investigations of police-involved deaths. We should allow that process to establish the facts without politicians rushing to judgment or stoking division.“
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Cops are not infallible. They make mistakes. Pour all the de-escalation training at them you want, they’re still human, we must remind progressive scolds. The stun gun didn’t do the job. Neither did hands on. Cut me with a knife, I’m shooting and so are you, young socialist community organizer. But Madison, apparently, expects a police officer — someone’s father, husband, sister or daughter, someone’s child! — to bleed first and ask questions later. And maybe now, Madison progressives, police body cameras?
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