I was pretty surprised to see nothing on the council agenda addressing the police shooting of an unarmed black teen. No opportunity for community . . . well, community anything . . . input, outrage, suggestions, expressions of grief, raising concerns etc. Not even a resolution expressing sympathy for the family?
The Police and Fire Commission, the Public Safety Review Committee and the county Health and Human Needs and Public Protection and Judiciary all had meetings in the last week. They patiently and compassionately (for the most part) listened to the community. The council, I guess they can’t be bothered? Or? Or what? I’m baffled.
They are the ones that have some, albeit limited, control over the police department, they pass the budget. The Police and Fire Commission acts as the personnel board and the Public Safety Review Committee looks at policies and makes recommendations to the council to pass. If any discussion about what happened is happening, it should probably be taking place there! Instead they are talking about Economic Development Plans about being the biking capitol of the world, chasing homeless people off State St. and getting presentations from the Convention and Visitors Bureau about how great they are and why us tax payers should give them more money. The priorities seems a little screwed up this week.
I know they did this statement, finally, on Friday:
March 13, 2015
To the residents of our community:The death of Tony Robinson is a horrible tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Tony
Robinson’s family and friends. We are sorry that we have lost the life of an African American
teenager in our community.Black lives matter. Our history, both nationally and locally, with respect to our African American
community is unacceptable. Many of the incidents, shootings, and deaths that we see reported
on the news find their root cause in the intolerable disparity present in our community. That
disparity and its attendant injustice may have arisen from our history, but we allow it to
continue.This past weekend in Selma, President Barack Obama said “[Our national creed is] the idea held
by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress; who
believed that loving this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding
uncomfortable truths. It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for
what is right, to shake up the status quo. That’s America.” We thank those community leaders
and citizens who enacted those words before they were spoken. It is time we all joined them.We must do better. We are here to ask each of our constituents to accept along with us the
challenge of ending the shameful racial disparities in our community. Every one of us must be a
part of the solution. Black lives have to matter to each and every one of us. We must be the City
and County where a Black youth, a Latino youth, an Asian youth, a Native American youth, a
White youth, where any young man or woman feels that this is a community they belong to, a
community full of opportunities. A community where their dreams can happen, not end.Jointly signed by the following City of Madison Alders, Dane County Supervisors, and Madison Municipal School
District Board members:
Sup. Carousel Bayrd
Ald. Shiva Bidar‐Sielaff
Sup. Jerome Bollig
Ald. Maurice Cheeks
Ald. Joe Clausius
Ald. Mark Clear
Ald. Lauren Cnare
Sup. Sharon Corrigan
Ald. Lucas Dailey
Sup. Patrick Downing
Sup. Jenni Dye
Ald. Denise DeMarb
Sup. Chuck Erickson
Sup. George Gillis
Sup. John Hendrick
Board Member Ed Hughes
Sup. Tim Kiefer
Ald. Steve King
Sup. Mary Kolar
Sup. Dorothy Krause
Board Member Dean Loumos
Sup. Patrick Miles
Ald. Larry Palm
Sup. Leland Pan
Sup. Jeff Pertl
Ald. Matt Phair
Ald. Scott Resnick
Sup. Kyle Richmond
Sup. Michele Ritt
Ald. Marsha Rummel
Sup. Paul Rusk
Sup. Andrew Schauer
Ald. Chris Schmidt
Sup. Robin Schmidt
Board Member Arlene Silveira
Ald. John Strasser
Ald. Lisa Subeck
Ald. Mike Verveer
Sup. Heidi Wegleitner
Ald. Anita Weier
Sup. Abigail Wuest
Ald. Ledell Zellers
Sup. Nick Zweifel
Ok, and? Now what? What’s the ACTION plan?
I think there is absolutely one place the NEED to start. The police re-wrote their policies as of February 25, 2015. The whole 300 page manual that they had was changed to a 12 page “Code of Conduct” and finally on Friday they put up the policies that replaced the manual – tho, if you look closely, there is much, very much, missing from the manual. I’m guessing there is yet a third document somewhere, but I haven’t found it. If the police are making these changes, I think the public should have input and review over them. Especially at this time and when we have such disparities in our arrest rates.
In order to review these there needs to be a series of public education about what the policies are, an opportunity for public input and suggestions and then changes need to be made. There are three issues that I see, there are the relatively minor things (compared to death) like when they put on the yellow vests they cover their names and have no identification for the public to properly identify them. The witnesses not being allowed to have attorneys when they are standing in the hallways, not cleaning up the crime scene even when they say they did, the police officers being insensitive (at best) the night of the incident, etc. And then there are the disparities, the training and the biases in the arrest records. And then, there is the use of force and officer fitness for duty discussions, long over due. The only way to get these things discussed in the community, is by a thorough public review of the policies, procedures and practies. And we have to just rip the band-aid off and do it. Separately, there is also the body camera discussion, but I feel that is a distraction at this point.
The council, our elected leaders, need to hear from the public, that’s the bottom line. And then, after they hear from the public, they have to act based on what they hear. And in order for that all to happen, there has to be a process, and that process should have started tomorrow night. I don’t so much care exactly how it happens, it just needs to happen in a meaningful, and I mean meaningful, kind of way. I can’t figure out why they are being silent on this. I find it embarrassing and it makes me pretty damn angry. Fluffy statements that do nothing are not what I expect from our city leaders, its about the least they could do. They need to do better.
