“History has shown what that can be.” — Madison’s mayor.
At some point, the WI Division of Criminal Investigation will release its report on the shooting death of a black man, Corey Ruiz, by a white Madison police officer. Could be today, could be later this year.
This state agency will have had weeks to analyze, pixel by pixel in a secure, climate-controlled environment, the split-second decision made by a very stressed human being back on July 24 while trying to subdue a career criminal slashing at him with a knife on a hot summer day on the hard pavement of Williamson and Baldwin Streets.
If DCI doesn’t lay the basis for tar, feathers, and life imprisonment for the police officer (District Attorney Ismael Ozanne will decide whether to prosecute), Woke Madison will explode. If past is prologue, windows will be smashed, jewelry stores looted, dumpsters lit on fire, busy streets blockaded, statues of Civil War heroes toppled, and innocent bystanders injured.
Except, maybe, this time. We’ve come to praise Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway (she may never recover). This mayor appears to be locked and loaded for NEXT TIME, having learned from the carnage of the George Floyd riots six years ago and the Ruiz autonomous encampment this time. That much became clear from Monday evening’s Common Council inquiry, ably moderated by Council President Sabrina Madison.
Police monitor gets the hot seat
Ald. Madison hit the so-called independent police monitor hard with questions submitted by the public.
“You took the megaphone and exhorted those present to maintain the blockade … Is this type of advocacy and participation in the protest consistent with your duties to handle all matters in an objective and fair manner?”
“Do you understand that many in the city no longer view you as a neutral arbiter of fact?”
“Do you believe it is O.K. for city employees to make inflammatory statements in volatile situations and not apologize?”
Instead, Aeiramique Glass actually said she awaits an apology from the mayor! Listen at the 1:16:45 mark.
A plan is coming together
Mayor Satya is strategizing with police, fire, and the streets department (with their heavy machinery) on A PLAN for DCI-Day. If it’s as effective as the August 4 clearing of the Ruiz encampment, her name will rank with Eisenhower on the original D-Day (at least in these parts). Except for initially posting city trucks to guard the encampment in its first few days, the Mayor made no apologies last night.
“I knew from the beginning we could not allow it to continue indefinitely. We couldn’t allow it to take root.”
Defended not going down to the encampment personally. Ike didn’t hit the beaches at Normandy, either. “I did not want it to be about me,” she said. Even threw shade on Francesca Hong for calling Ruiz’s killing “an execution.”
Corey Ruiz dystopia zone
Nails on boards, public defecation, festering trash, electric cords strung through rain puddles, vandalism, open fires, fights, drugs dealt and used, rumors of rape. Neighbors trapped in their homes unable to get to work and kept awake all night. Businesses losing customers. No, Mayor Rhodes Conway corrected, she did not “raid” the encampment. “We reopened the street.”
Kept the clean-up operation on the down low — told not even the local alder. Smart! Tried to de-escalate police since they were the subject of the protest but deployed force when city street clean-up crews were met with rocks, thrown batteries, and fires. Thirty-two arrests.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: The DCI verdict will be no time for de-escalation. Got to think that the governor will be ready with the National Guard. It’s an election year, and Democrats don’t want to look weak on crime.
Candidates for mayor of Woke City sniff opportunity. We think Francesca Hong runs for mayor. Former supervisor April Kiyega is rumored. Satya has declared. Former alder Syed Mustajab Abbas is running. Another former alder, Brian Benford, has announced. His pitch is “racial equity and social justice.”
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