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| Family of slain Madison, Wisconsin, resident, Tony Robinson, remains unappreciative of glory of his sacrifice and the valor of Robinson's killer, Matt Kenny of the Madison police department - Image is a self-portrait by Kathe Kollwitz, (1867-1945), an anti-fascist artist who endured personal tragedy captured in her work (NYT) |
Police killing in man-just-asking-for-it case shows worst of American municipal populations rejecting unity and greater good of community
Madison, Wisconsin—Citizen reaction to the $3.35 Million federal civil action settlement with the family of a police victim killed in 2015 is revealing of a growing citizens' culture steeped in civil liberties and human rights.
This culture should be cleansed.
An unarmed, black nineteen-year-old Tony Robinson of Madison, Wisconsin, was shot seven times by veteran killer cop, Matt Kenny of the Madison Police Department. Kenny successfully shot and killed two people in his 14-year police career (CNN).
Wisconsin's corporate press typically offers compelling news accounts of the spectacular displays of systemic police violence and killings of domestic populations by municipal police departments, as in the Robinson case (Democracy Now).
In police killing-us-for-us incidents, local press often reports news-worthy developments, for example, profiles of the idealism and nobility of law enforcement—traits typically not acknowledged by ungrateful populations remaining unappreciative of the dedication, skill, sacrifice and commitment police employ when they kill people.
The Tony Robinson family of Madison are ingrates of a particularly virulent strain as word among young Madison human rights activists is the Robinson family has not contacted and thanked Officer Kenny in the some two years since he skillfully gunned down the young Tony.
City officials are all on message supporting the work of the City insurance carrier negotiating and paying the record $3.35 Million settlement, following a different local record settlement for a different police killing in August 2015 (Treleven, Wisconsin State Journal).
But let's not mix up righteous killings of our fellow citizens when the Robinson family so shamelessly perches on the wilderness of clean Madison society and takes pot shots at the helpless police working to make America great again.
"Attorneys representing the family of a man killed by a Madison police officer say the city’s mayor should not lie about how a federal lawsuit was settled," reports WMTV (Madison, Wisconsin).
Robinson's attorneys made their provocative reply comments following the statement by Mayor Soglin asserting neither the City Attorney nor the Mayor's office influenced in any manner the multi-million dollar settlement:
Mayor Paul Soglin stresses that the decision to settle the lawsuit was made by attorneys hired by the city’s insurance carrier.[This writer does not believe Soglin's statement of no influence to be true. Soglin and City Atty Michael May appear to be brilliant politicians working behind the scenes for their conception of what civil libertarian types call 'police reform,' but this asserted long-game strategy is a different story with no direct evidentiary support, just a wild hunch.]
'Neither our office nor the City Attorney were involved in the settlement,' writes Soglin in a statement. 'Let me be clear in asserting that the City of Madison, who was not a party to the case, had no standing and no ability to influence the court or the parties in approving a settlement. Any statement to the contrary is false.' (Potter, Isthmus)
The traumatized Robinson family should be forgiven its collective transgressions against our community.
What is beyond dispute is the American police will kill some 1,000 people in 2017, (Killed by police), (Washington Post), following a better-than-average killing year in 2016 that saw some 1,155 people killed (Killed by police, 2016).
Methodologies used in compiling a killing statistic differ, so those tracking killings by police arrive at slightly different figures.
Is is as well incontrovertible that Madison police are courageous killers.
Madison Police Chief Mike Koval offers his latest analysis continuing Koval's expert, never-met-a-Madison-Police-killing-I-didn't-like commentary. This work should be adopted into a Hollywood movie, and everyone from Chuck Norris to Steven Seagal can rejoice in the Chief's prose.
Cleansing the culture and educating the citizenry are projects that should never conclude. We must be vigilant, as President Trump has said, powered by our love.
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