THE SYTEM is always letting people down

Where is the justice for resisting arrest?

The angel wings superimposed on the projected image of Corey Ruiz at his funeral Friday 08-14-26 may have been a little over the top but this is where some slack gets cut. [ADDED content:] There are no stolen bikes in heaven.

We’re willing to accede to Sister Helen Prejean’s dictum that every person is better than the worst thing they’ve ever done. (She’s the death penalty opponent who wrote Dead Man Walking, played by Susan Sarandon in the movie.) 

On Friday, about 260 people … joined Ruiz’s family in an emotional tribute that mixed tearful memories and sorrowful music with frequent calls for “Justice for Corey.” — Wisconsin State Journal

Despite a lifetime of crime, Corey Ruiz “was remembered as ‘a wonderful human being’ in [an] emotional Madison tribute,” Madison’s morning newspaper reports today. We should be so fortunate at our demise. But then, this scribbler does not intend to slash a knife at police. We’ve always gone quietly.

But slack is being cut here today, especially for the poor man’s mother. “He was not a piece of trash. He was not a nobody. He was my son.” Said as every mother should. A mother’s love is non-negotiable.

More needs, unmet

We cannot be as charitable toward racial grievance-monger Al Sharpton and civil rights ambulance-chaser Ben Crump. The two MS NOW! celebrities came to town for the black man’s funeral and (here it comes!) the big payday! Their tutelage may have informed this statement from Mother Ruiz:

“THE SYSTEM let him down in more ways than one, and the very people who were supposed to protect and serve have taken his life.”

One can argue that those “very people” — the four white police officers — were doing just that: protecting and serving.

The grieving mother argued that Madison felt her son was dispensable “simply because he was unhoused.” Another way of saying her boy’s needs were not being met by THE SYSTEM — not even by the social services smorgasbord available here in Madison. Does it not seem that Dane County taxpayers keep purchasing more social services (from $200 million in 2010 to over $313 million by 2026) yet keep getting more social dysfunction? (Madison homelessness last year increased by nearly 20% from 2020.)

Impertinent & heartless questions

Are we allowed to ask whether the mother was “housed” — or is the question beyond the pale? His three siblings, are they housed? If so, had they no room at the inn for their brother? [ADDED content:] Or are some people just impossible to help?

It is credible that Corey Ruiz treated his mental illness with illegal drugs. All too common. One exacerbates the other. We support mental health treatment — wish there was a penicillin cure. Is it possible July 22 on Willy Street was inevitable?

Were Corey’s multiple prison sentences too brief to stick? Dane County spent $207 million to reduce jail capacity — a jail that offers addiction and mental health treatment. Spent another $27 million on a homeless palace on Bartillon Drive that the City can’t afford to keep open 24/7 — all while city and county governments face budget deficits.

→ “A Milwaukee family is seeking answers after 16-year-old Armani Thomas-Cotton was killed in a drive-by shooting.” — Milw Journal Sentinel

Another black man was shot to death in Madison on Troy Drive Saturday 08-08-26 — by another black man. Ben B. Washington III was charged with the first-degree intentional homicide of Travion A. Flowers, age 21. In a dispute over a vape pen.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Young Travion’s mother may well think her son was wonderful, too. Did THE SYSTEM also fail both young men? Where are Al Sharpton and Ben Crump and the TV cameras in that case?

Do Corey R., Travion, and Ben 3 bear ANY responsibility?