Police Haters?!?

May 23, 2017 8:49 am

Ok, I’ll take Chris Rickert’s bait . . .

I find it funny that on May 3rd, Sly private messages me on Facebook and says:

Your hatred of Chief Local saddens me.

Obviously he meant Chief Koval, This was my response:

I don’t hate him . . .. I want him to work WITH us . . . I’ve tried for years to get a dialog with him and others in the police, particularly around something as realatively simple as homelessness . . . but he won’t talk to people . . .. he’s so entrenhed on his side of the blue line its impossible to work with him on anything . . . which makes the important issues now – life and death – seemingly insurmountable His beliegerance and contempt for the council are unbelievable from a public srvant. No other department head would get away with that.

Sly didn’t respond to me . . . it was seen on May 3rd. I guess he didn’t get the answer he wanted from me.

On May 12th, I get the following email from Chris Rickert:

from: Chris Rickert <CRickert@madison.com>
to: Brenda Konkel <brendakonkel@gmail.com>date: Fri, May 12, 2017 at 8:08 AM
subject: Koval, legal fees, May, Kenny
Hi Brenda: In all seriousness, and on the record, what is the end game to all of this for you and Koval’s detractors? I’ve heard there’s a petition floating around asking for a reconsideration of the legal fees decision. Are activists planning to keep up the pressure until Koval and Kenny and possibly others resign or are fired?

Thanks,

Chris Rickert
Metro and SOS columnist
Wisconsin State Journal
608-692-8508 (cell)
608-252-6198 (office)
@ChrisRickertWSJ

I was home sick that day, but I wrote back:

I can’t give you a sound bit on this . . . so off the record . . .

Honestly, speaking only for myself, I’d like to have an opportunity for ongoing dialog with the police department around issues in our community. For example, when they decide they need to solve the problem at the top of State St., panhandling or issues at the CCB, instead of issuing press releases and introducing one-sided solutions, I’d like to have a community discussion about what possible solutions are – and I’m not talking about carpet bombing people or lacing their heroin with fentanyl. If we can’t do it around simple issues, how will we ever be able to do that around issues like use of force and other police department policies. The police department needs to drop their guard and start having conversations with people who disagree with them and embrace basic concepts of community policing.

Honestly, I don’t think Koval can do that, or let go of control and let his officers do that. We need a police chief who can. If we have a chief who thinks it ok to call people who disagree with him all kinds of names (perpetually offended, raging lunatic, etc.) and belittle them in his blogs and comments in the community, and send the message to his officers that this is ok, then we will never have a police department that is truly rooted in community policing and trust is hopeless. If we continue this us v.s them mentality, we will continue to see problems with policing in our community, more lives will be lost and we will continue to pay millions of dollars in settlements. The chief can embrace change and community dialog, or we need to find someone who will. We deserve that.

If you want to use some of that I might say it on the record as long as its not taken out of context.

Rickert replies:

So, yes, the effort is to get rid of Koval?

What qualifies as “out of context”?

I replied this and went to sleep:

That is up to koval

Rickert replied:

You’re dodging on the first and not answering the second.

That’s OK, though. No biggie.

I think it pissed him off, but I talked to many other people who had some other exchanges with him, and said they thought they had pissed him off too. I’m guessing there is some sort of police department campaign to get reporters to get us to say something about how we hate Koval and make it personal. It’s not personal, except when the Chief makes it so by attacking Brandi Grayson or Greg Gelembuik or Sharon Irwin. It’s about police accountability, making sure no one else needlessly dies and we don’t have to pay millions more in settlements.

So . . . on to the Chris Rickert bait . . . on Sunday he opened up his column with this statement:

The small group of Madison police-haters and the City Council that largely does its bidding celebrated last week when the council approved, and the police chief accepted, a set of 13 “actions items” created by a council subcommittee on “police and community relations.”

So much wrong with that one sentence, but it made me laugh . . . wanna see who these radical police haters are . . . my favorite is Kathleen Fullin speaking on behalf of that radical police hating group – the League of Women Voters . . .

Also in the audience that night Mary Anglim . . .(pictured on the left)

Those police haters had such radical things to say that night as . . . (I went back and retyped it better than I blogged it that night). This is the testimony from those evil police-hating League of Women Voters.

Members of the League of Women Voters observed the meetings of the President’s Workgroup on Police and Community Relations over the past several months and we have reviewed the report and the response of Chief Koval to an earlier draft, his response was dated April 28th. We urge the council to adopt the report. The League believes that police policies should be developed cooperatively by citizens, local elected officials and law enforcement agencies and should reflect local needs. We believe this set of recommendations effectively represents the concerns of the community and appropriately directs our experts in the police department to follow broad guidelines in developing specific procedures that will be workable. We have been impressed by the care taken by the workgroup to investigate models of police policy such as the International Association of Chief’s of Police and the City of New York. The workgroup has taken care to prioritize the safety of the police themselves. The workgroup has not tried to impose specific wording on the Madison Police Department but is directing the MPD to incorporate these concepts into its own standard operating procedures. Our police were found to have followed departmental policy in all of the following incidents of concern: the deaths of unarmed men in 2012 and 2015, the death of a mentally ill individual who was alone in a home armed with a metal rake was approached and then killed by a police officer in 2016 and the violent arrest of an 18 year old woman outside of East Towne mall in 2016. The League believes that Mayor Soglin accurately represented the majority opinion in our city about what we saw on video of Genele Laird’s arrest by commenting that “just because the police tactics in this incident were legal, that didn’t make them right.” Our community wants our police to be trained and empowered to de-escalate situations. Our community wants our police to get help to deal with people disoriented by mental illness, alcohol or other drugs. Our community wants that when a person does not present any immediate threat to public safety that police attempt to talk the individual into cooperation rather than immediately resort to physical force. Chief Koval does not object that the principals compromise the safety of his officers or of the public. He summarizes his concerns by stating “I cannot endorse any effort by the Common Council to direct MPD operations.” The League believes it is critical to support the principle that our elected officials have the authority to set community standards for public policy. Americans support our soldiers and sailors and appreciate their willingness to serve but we retain the principle of civilian control of our military. In the same way our community supports police and appreciates their daily bravery on our behalf, but we adhere to the principle that our elected representatives set overall policy for city employees. Our community has been waiting since Paulie Heenan’s death in 2012 for changes that will keep our police and citizens more safe. We ask the council to take the next steps toward making appropriate changes by adopting this report. Thank you for taking the time to listen to the perspective of the League of Women Voters of Dane County.

Do these ladies and what their organization has to say seem like the people these kind of police haters? (just a sampling of what comes up when you google “police haters”)