I’m so tired of hearing that Madison Police are trained to national standards and there is no need for review. No need for review? Check this out! This is what you expect from other police departments, but not the national model police department here in Madison (Warning the content may be triggering, watch with caution)
The police might be trained to the national standards, but is this what they call the national standards?
That is the video nearly 400,000 people saw (and heard) before it was removed between 1:00 and 1:30 am last night. Here is the longer version
It was a long night last night, and I’ve had technical difficulties so my video may be delayed. The council meeting got over around 8 pm last night. After the meeting, someone pulled me aside to tell me about someone threatening to kill me (that’s story for another day), but I was a little distracted by that thought. I went to catch up with Marsha Rummel because I was in the middle of a conversation with her and as she walked away she didn’t hear me. As I crossed the street, I could see Alder Barbara McKinney nearly stopped in her tracks in the middle of the street. Mo Cheeks and Matt Phair were with her. She was clearly upset. I found Marsha and three other alders (Amanda Hall, Mark Clear, Ledell Zellers), Matt Phair joined us shortly. They were all watching the video and trying to contact various city officials. McKinney went straight to the jail with Cheeks. Samba Baldeh was texting me about a person who needed funds to get into a hotel that night and I was trying to help with that situation as alders were texting, emailing and calling, trying to figure out what information they knew and what they should do. I told Baldeh to look at the video on my facebook page, he said in a minute. Meanwhile, I left the beer I started drinking, went home to grab my video camera and went to the jail where I heard concerned community members were gathering.
While we were standing there, this happened.
Yeah, that’s an egg. It got thrown at us and whizzed by my head about a foot and a half away. Some people say it got thrown from a white car. My perception was that it was thrown at us from the Fairchild building (where the police park their cars). At least that was the angle it appeared to come from – from my perception. When I turned to look, I saw no one.
More frantic phone calling, trying to find people’s cell phone numbers, etc. Michael Johnson arranged for the chief to meet with family and friends. So we went to the chief’s office. By this point Representative Chris Taylor and Shiva Bidar had joined Alders Mo Cheek, Barbara McKinney and Marsha Rummel. We waiting in a VERY HOT hallway for a bit, and then the chief let the family and friends in, with the elected officials and Michal Johnson and Andrea Johnson. He say we with my video camera and glared at me. I didn’t move. Dylan Brogan from the Isthmus just started to walk in – I was frozen in my tracks. The chief quickly said “no media” and shut the locked door. So four of us sat in the hallway – Dylan, myself, Matt Braunginn and Andre Johnson’s wife. If we left we wouldn’t get back in. Slowly we were joined by three other media people and Alders Rebecca Cnare and Samba Baldeh. The alders couldn’t get anyone’s attention to get into the room. Meanwhile, the protesters outside the jail grew in numbers, along with a ton of people holding video and audio recording equipment.
After about a half hour or 45 minutes they all came out of the room . . . this was the video I could get . . .
After that we went out side, they repeated the same information for the 25 video and audio recorders there, there was some protesting and the groups listed what they wanted to see happen.
(will insert video when it uploads)
After we dispersed, I came home and around 1:15 discovered that the video has disappeared from facebook . . .
All in all, it was a violent night that made no sense. Questions in my mind is why the young woman didn’t get medical attention but the officers did. Why didn’t they charge her with something less than felonies so that she could be released and be with their family. Let the DA sort it out later. If they don’t have enough information and have to investigate – why do they have enough information to hold her? Why can’t chief Koval use the same equipment nearly 400,000 people did to see that video. What is this talk about restorative justice – I hope its not just the process the young woman will go through, but that the community will get some restorative justice with the police. And finally, how could anyone watch that video and not come to the conclusion that the police didn’t try to descalate and instead escalated, and went over the top. Yes people, those were MADISON WISCONSIN police officers. Our national model of policing that can do no wrong. Yeah, now tell me that review is not needed. Something went terribly wrong here.
