Wisconsin's Trial Run for New Law, Verdict Is In: Lives Are Cheap

Updated - The New York Times has a piece on the new Wisconsin law mandating outside agencies investigate cases of police shootings.

Erik Ljung has a video with the Times piece with compelling footage of community outrage against recent police killings of Paul Heenan (Schenider, The Capital Times) and Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. in Madison, Michael Bell in Kenosha (2004), and Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee (Luthern, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Mal Contends).

Killer cops in Madison, the most liberal city, notes Paul Gottinger in CounterPunch.

Writes Gottinger:

Since 1976 there has been 1,403 people convicted of a crime, sentenced to the death penalty, and then executed. This number is only slightly larger than the number of Americans killed by cops LAST YEAR ALONE.

Imagine if ISIS, or Black gangs were killing at this scale. What would the country’s reaction be?

Now we’re told to wait for the investigation of Robinson’s murder by the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation.

Acclaimed former Madison Police Chief David Couper (ret) has been writing about the police assaulting the citizenry as enemies residing in the occupied territories for decades. Stop the Killing—Now, writes Couper in a particularly incensed recent piece.

Blind faith in outside law enforcement investigators (the Wisconsin Department of Justice led by a Republican with a history of corrupt political action) gathering evidence on police killings is what we have now.

Considering the investigation into the police killing of Tony Robinson under 2013 Wisconsin Act 348, why not a new law mandating an investigative agency with subpoena power composed of civil liberty activists, retired law professors, legal journalists and other academics?

The reason is murderous police would not stand a chance.

Being Police gives police a license to kill, and prosecutors a (qualified) license to lie.

The Times piece asks: "As this Times video explains, it would be the first case to test how effective the new law is. Could it help provide a new faith in the justice system?"

No, no faith.

The law, 2013 Wisconsin Act 348, the Times cites is indeed on trial, but the verdict is in.

There won't be a prosecution.

Don't blame Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne for this, Ozanne can't make up evidence that won't be presented to his office.
 
The law needs to be expanded and police killings considered in an objective sphere of justice and truth.

The Wisconsin DoJ will present the results of its investigation into the Tony Robinson killing within two weeks.

Consider that Wisconsin and the nation will never get the facts from the tainted Wisconsin DoJ whom adults know are playing politics every bit as much as 'law enforcement' in what passes for a criminal justice system.

In America, lives and liberty are cheap in the eyes of police and The Prosecutor, as the jurist Robert Jackson noted some 75 years ago.

Wisconsin Greens Want Re-Investigation of Dontre Hamilton Killing

Black lives matter

by David Schwab

From Michael Brown in Ferguson to Eric Garner in New York City to Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee, there is an epidemic of police violence against unarmed Black men in the United States. In Wisconsin in recent years, we've also seen white men like Michael Bell killed by police, and white vigilantes kill Corey Stingley for shoplifting in suburban Milwaukee. This systemic pattern of excessive force has caused a sense of fear among Blacks even in routine encounters with officers, eroding the trust in law enforcement that is essential to keeping our communities safe. The problem of police brutality is inextricably connected to Wisconsin’s runaway mass incarceration of people of color, showing an urgent need to reform our criminal justice system.

These deaths are preventable. Measures can be taken to solve this problem. Among them include:

• Truly independent investigations of police killings. Wisconsin law requires an independent investigation, but Dontre Hamilton's killing was investigated by retired Milwaukee detectives – from the same department they were investigating. We call for a new, truly independent investigation of Hamilton’s killing, and for rules to ensure the independence of all future investigations.

• A massive overhaul of Wisconsin’s justice system to address problems including:
  • unrestrained police and prosecutorial power
  • racial profiling and policies like “stop and frisk”
  • “zero tolerance” policies and mandatory sentencing, which erode judicial discretion
  • privatization of prisons and the resulting economic incentive to lock up more people
• Establish independent citizen review boards to monitor police behavior, with the power to press charges and issue subpoenas.
• Eliminate the sense of impunity that law enforcement officers and vigilantes enjoy when they commit harassment, assault, and extrajudicial killing of Blacks. We must put an end to a law enforcement culture where even routine traffic stops turn into incidents of abuse for which police are never investigated and held accountable.
• End militarization of local police. Stop training civilian police in military tactics and end provision of military equipment to police departments, resulting in actions like SWAT raids for minor violations.
• Stop the mass incarceration of people of color. Wisconsin has a higher percentage of Black men in prison and parole than any other state. At 12.8%, Wisconsin’s incarceration rate for Black men is almost double the national rate of 6.7%. Wisconsin also incarcerates a higher percentage of its Native American men than any other state.
• Every officer should wear a body video camera. While not a complete solution for these systemic problems, the use of body cameras would be a tangible first step to deter abusive behavior by officers.
• Legalize marijuana and end the “War on Drugs”. Criminalizing and incarcerating people for victimless crimes, like selling and using marijuana, has needlessly destroyed lives, wasted huge amounts of public money, and fueled organized crime. Systemic racism in the enforcement of “drug war” policies has been a key driver of mass incarceration and worsening relations between law enforcement and communities of color. We call for legalization and regulation of marijuana, and replacement of drug prohibition policies with a harm reduction approach