Firing the police monitor is only Round 1!
Before 14 of Madison’s 20 alders voted to fire disputatious police monitor early this morning, Aeiramique Glass hired an attorney to re-litigate the death of Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. Eleven years later! After the case had been investigated by the WI Department of Justice and its findings submitted to the elected district attorney, a Democrat of color, who — based on the evidence — saw no reason to prosecute the police officer who shot the substance-abusing felon.
To what body does the police monitor take this case? To the Police & Fire Commission! It was there all along! The one duly authorized, statutorily empowered, and truly independent agency responsible for police oversight! The power to reprimand and even fire the police officer. Madison’s police monitor can do neither. Nor can she prosecute in criminal court.
Does anything tell you better than the Office of Independent Police Monitor was a boondoggle from the beginning?
At 2:34:00 in the video, catch Sharon Irwin, grandmother of Tony T. Robinson. (Was Mike Koval right about this woman?)
‘Stone-cold racists’
Madison 365 (a police monitor cheerleader) reports that 140 citizens (some from Illinois!) registered to speak at the marathon council meeting. That testimony ran from 7:30 p.m. Tuesday 10-20-26 to 4 this morning. All but three spoke in opposition to the resolution to fire Mizz Glass. Blaska was one of them. (We are disappointed in our platinum subscribers.) Mayor Satya (with incredible patience) had to pause our testimony (at the 1:39:06 mark) to quell the intolerant boo birds. Scroll through the 12-hour and 21-minute meeting to savor the shouting, the profanity, and the disruptions.
VOTING TO FIRE: Alds. Tag Evers, Derek Field, Yannette Figueroa Cole, John Guequierre, Badri Lankella, Noah Lieberman, Sabrina Madison, Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford, Sean O’Brien, Will Ochowicz, Joann Pritchett, Bill Tishler, Mike Verveer, Regina Vidaver. — 14
AGAINST FIRING: Alds. Carmella Glenn, Julia Matthews, Ellen Zhang, Barbara Harrington-McKinney, Davey Mayer, Devine Nzegwu — 6
Madison remains frozen in the amber of A.O.C.’s Woke One. Speakers accused alders of being “colonizers.” The term “Defund the Police” was revived. White guilt was massaged like pizza dough. Did not know SDS was still around but apparently Bascom Hill has a chapter, because several members spoke. All shades of socialists testified. Posted by OIPM number-cruncher Greg Gelembiuk, “Rad abolitionist” calls former county Sheriff Dave Mahoney, elected as a Democrat, “a stone-cold racist.”
Aside from the live-action soap opera, we are fascinated by this issue because it perfectly illuminates the schism roiling the Democrat(ic) party — A.O.C., Bernie, Mayor Mamdani, Francesca Hong, El Sayed in Michigan versus our fathers’ liberalism. It is no accident that The Nation magazine (the Woke Left’s Weekly Reader) blames the French riots on … the right wing! In socialist France! Thus the hammer and sickle and Antifa symbol graffiti on French monuments. Their voices (in various forms of English) echoed overnight in Madison’s council chamber:
“You all better take a hard look at what is going on right now in Albania, Spain, and France. The people in this community have had enough.” — Michelle McCoy, union leader
“[The IPM] is here to confront racism and fascism here in this city.” — police monitor supporter
“Anti-blackness is a reality of Madison. … We have to take personal accountability for everyone of us who identifies as white. … It’s the day we burn this mother-f’r to the ground,” — Erica Bach, of Middleton
Chickens — home to roost
City leaders thought they could buy credibility with the bullhorn blowers after George Floyd died in Minneapolis six years ago. They dictated that the monitor’s oversight board be stacked with social justice advocates; like reps from Freedom Inc. and Brandi Grayson’s Urban Triage. Amanda Royko Maurer’s Community Response Team has a seat, among other Woke progressive organizations. No business owner need apply. Police, retired or not, are forbidden by ordinance!
Aeiramique’s defenders are proud of her work on the case of Richard Lee Johnson, who died in police custody on 12-30-24. The man was high on cocaine, committed burglary, tried to run from police, and wrestled them on the ground before being subdued. Police asked if the perp wanted to be taken to the hospital. Johnson said no. When the man showed signs of medical distress, Madison police rushed him to the hospital anyway.
Prime example of the socialist war on personal accountability! Aeiramique Glass blames police, not Richard Lee Johnson!
Blaska’s Bottom Line: This feels to us like an inflection point. We think even a founder of Progressive Dane like Ald. Michael Verveer, who voted to fire Ms. Glass, has to be re-examining how runaway progressivism is destroying civil society.
Figure this: the state’s report on career criminal Corey Ruiz’s death has been sitting on District Attorney Ozanne’s desk since at least September 25. If he wanted to prosecute the police officer, he could have done so by now. We’re guessing the elected Democrat doesn’t want to whack the hornet’s nest, so he’s just sitting on it.
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