Madison, Wisconsin — A Young Generation Inspires

Minneapolis? Baltimore? This is Madison, Wisconsin
in 2015, with an enlightened police force that Chief
Mike Koval (ret) described as "cordial." In the shot
above just a bit more force and this non-violent,
young protester objecting to police killing could have
been the recipient of a police-inflicted fractured
vertebrae. Or choked to death. Quite sure that would
have been good for a few chuckles from Madison
Police. Photo: Reproduced from video by
Leslie Amsterdam

Madison, Wisconsin — A beautiful June Sunday at James Madison Park near the UW-Madison campus saw a crowd of some 150 people speaking on police violence and racism, behind a sign calling for the resignation of Matt Kenny, a killer employed by the Madison Police Dept.

Young park and beach-goers lounged near-by on blankets taking in the Sun, Lake Mendota and determined voices calling for justice.

Four years before, after Madison Police killed another human being in 2016, Mayor Paul Soglin (ret) said he lied in bed, thinking, "We’ve got a problem here," (WISC-TV, Mal Contends).

The perceived problem was not racism, not police entitlement to kill, not the ingrained adversarial attitude towards the public.

No, Soglin assured us, the problem is people don't follow police orders quickly enough, and Soglin was helpless to stop the police from killing.

This exemplified Soglin's problem, and not just Soglin's.

Said Soglin in an incredible statement:

We have to get to a point where it's understood, unequivocally, that when a police officer gives an order and gives a command that the only options are to fully cooperate or to go limp. Resistance is not an option. ... I'm very concerned, as we go further into the summer and the Fourth of July [2016] weekend, that if we get situations where police are called and it's a situation where they have to protect property and lives and they give an order, that they are not followed and obeyed.

Soglin' statement was bloodless, a typical reaction to what had become routine police killings, and hostile dealings from the black-and-blue, trained into delusions of monarchy.

Four years later, in 2020 Black Lives Matter and young police abolitionists across the nation are acclaiming humanity against police, against getting blinded permanently as police shoot out eyes with rubber bullets, as police beat, gas, pepper-spray, and arrest citizens for speaking the truth.

On a societal-level, a cult has developed in America, and police, "officers," are demi-gods — their every screamed whim and command is to be followed to the letter, or you faced imprisonment, death, beating, jailing, charge-stacking, defamation, character assassination, years in prison, or $1,000s in fines.

In Madison, the mayor had the cops' backs, (Isthmus, Mal Contends).

Soglin never encountered police killings to which he publicly objected, even going so far as to complain about several multi-million-dollar settlements with grieving families, victims of police assassinations.

See, for example:

• Ashley DiPiazza, gunned down by Madison Police in 2014, resulting in a record $7 Million verdict against Madison. A new record, and still standing
• Tony Robinson, gunned down by Madison Police in 2015, resulting in a $3.5 Million settlement against Madison. A short-lived record 
• Paul Heenan, gunned down by Madison Police in 2012, resulting in a $2.3 Million settlement against Madison. A short-lived record

The city of Madison criticized every settlement.

These three young people were gunned down by miserable people to whom life means little.

The partial list of killings above is not intended to minimize other police killings here, bogus arrests and citations, harassment and inflicted trauma. For that, the community deserves $100s of millions.

But reinsurance companies speak loudly. So, police reluctantly adopted a policy mandating, roughly, thinking before shooting.

Even as the Wisconsin citizenry increasingly said, 'no' to police killing, police unions and associations and then Chief, 'never-saw-a-killer-cop-I-didn't-like' Mike Koval bemoaned the new thinking-before-killing policy.

For victims of killer cops, trauma is never healed. Not ever. No matter the time passed.

It got to the point where even civil liberties and objecting community groups normalized police killing in Madison.

In 2016, a local group, the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, announced it was hosting a "discussion for teens to teach them how to interact with police. The teens will receive 10 rules that can help them deal with police encounters. Law enforcement officers have also been invited to join the conversation to talk about the importance of de-escalation tactics and how they respond to these incidents without taking someone's life," (Mal Contends).

This discussion occurred days after Soglin publicly gave his renewed green light to cops to kill citizens.

Here are some rules, Johnny and Suzie, these will help police not to kill you. And for you police, here's how not to kill. Jesus.

I recall thinking, instead of a class on how not to be killed, blocking down the operation of the City is needed. Noone should ever have to receive lessons on how not to be killed, not from parents, not from community groups.

The next year, in 2017, Soglin's ally, outspoken Chief Koval (ret), said he canceled his subscription to watch NFL games amid "taking a knee" protests against racism and police brutality that he termed "self-absorbed ... diatribe," (WISC-TV).

Black folks taking a knee was too much for Koval to handle.

Three months prior to Chief Koval's insight on the nature of those protesting police violence, Lt. (then Det) Angela Kamoske of the Madison, Wisconsin Police Dept sent a letter to the St. Paul Pioneer Press on June 25, 2017 objecting to the police execution of Philando Castile in neighboring Minnesota.

It's was an extraordinary communication at the time; cops typically do not voice objection to their fellow cops executing the citizenry, much less a letter from a cop in a different state.

Soglin is gone. Koval retired because he was turned down after he requested more cops. Kamoske was promoted to Lt.

There is a new mayor, Satya Rhodes-Conway, who actually gives a damn about people.

Soglin lost badly to Rhodes-Conway, in the April 2019 election in large part because Soglin was perceived as out-of-touch and uncaring.

Groups such Urban Triage and Freedom, Inc work with 1,000s to keep pounding the message that Black lives do matter, and police need to act like human beings — controversial positions.

But rampant law enforcement's work against the public continues.

A young man was just charged with federal criminal extortion after using a bullhorn in a State Street restaurant to voice his opinion that people should be fed, instead of arrested by police. Federal criminal extortion? C'mon.

A pro-drug war Wisconsin State Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) antagonized a group of protesters in Madison last week, grabbed some headlines and continues his crusade against minorities following his decades of service in the drug war. The sap, Carpenter didn't show up to Madison for support.

Carpenter is a cop-wanna-be who brags he "completed the Milwaukee Police Department Citizen Academy in 2018," and made the Wisconsin Professional Police Association Law Enforcement Honor Roll, (Drug Task Force).

Carpenter also helped killed marijuana reform during the 2007-11 period when the Democrats controlled both the Wisconsin state legislature and the governor office.

Police, prosecutors and wanna-be cops like Carpenter won't change.

We need to defang them.

I hate reading about cops preying on people.

On more than one occasion, I reread Angela Kamoske's letter on the execution of Philando Castile.

St. Paul Pioneer Press on June 25, 2017:

Philando Castile's Life Mattered

By Angela Kamoske

I have been a police officer for 19 years. I love my job and serving my community. I have learned over the course of my career to never assume anything. As I watched the events unfold on July 6, 2016, on a Facebook Live feed, I thought that there must be more that happened. There must have been such a threat that wasn’t captured on this video, that forced Officer Yanez to feel his only option was to shoot into a vehicle with a child in the back seat.

Over the past two days, I have listened to the audio interviews. I have read the documents. And then I watched the dash cam video. And it broke me. Officer Yanez was in a position that if he perceived a threat, he could have disengaged. He could have taken other steps to ensure everyone’s safety, and not have forced this outcome.

Shooting a seat-belted man, with a child in the back seat, was not the only option. Until those of us who wear the badge are willing to stand up and speak out when we see things that are wrong, and lead hard conversations, how can we ever expect change? How can we ever expect to rebuild trust within our communities? Barbecues and pick-up basketball games are nice, but that’s not going to do it.

So today, I stand up and speak out, even if it means standing alone. To the family of Philando Castile, to those that loved him, and to everyone who watched that video and felt broken inside, I am sorry. This shouldn’t have happened. His life mattered.
---
Broken and dead. We keep fighting.

Have a fun and safe Summer.

Republicans Renew Attack Against Matt Flynn in Wisconsin Gov Race

Matt Flynn at NextGen America forum for
Democratic Party candidates in July 2018

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — The Republican daily, Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), ran a banner headline this week for a piece fed by state Republicans against gubernatorial candidate, Matt Flynn, who is running for the Democratic Party nomination.

The latest in a string of Republican troll attacks is bogus as Republican attacks tend to be.

These political hits are revealing of whom the Republicans and their Party press fear in the general election campaign: Matt Flynn, a Milwaukee progressive.

Matt Flynn stands alone among the eight candidates for the Democratic nomination in vowing to litigate Foxconn out of Wisconsin.

Foxconn is so unpopular in the northern two-thirds of the state that Gov. Scott Walker (R) refuses Foxconn photo-ops.

Not just Republicans and Foxconn fear Flynn.

State Democratic Party insiders who rigged the 2016 nomination for Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders are working an inside game against Flynn, who is often irreverent toward Party flunkies, and rightfully so.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin has done nothing to discourage the stealth campaign against Flynn.

Misplaced in Party machinations is the Lost Decade (2010-2019), an unmitigated disaster for the Wisconsin people.

The Wisconsin disaster required the small number of incompetent and patronage-happy Democratic Party followers to abandon the people, leaving future generations in the lurch, many of whom ridicule Democrats as a force for change.

Take a trip to the Meadowood Shopping Mall on the southwest side of Madison and ask young and minority folks for whom they are voting.

Most folks whom this writer has contacted the last five years are not voting.

Matt Flynn pitches for support at
NextGen America forum for Democratic
Party candidates in July 2018

Expressing political sentiment by fleeing the ballot box is music to Republicans who maintain their voter obstruction work against the vulnerable segments of the population who want to throw in the towel.

At a NextGen America forum for Wisconsin Democratic Party candidates for governor this week, Matt Flynn outlined an agenda demanding tuition relief, legalizing marijuana, implementing mass use of the governor's pardon power and a comprehensive reform of the criminal justice system.

Thanks @nextgenamerica WI #youthvote for a great forum! We discussed everything from legalizing marijuana, the governor's pardon power, providing 2yrs free tuition at Wisconsin colleges and universities, and why a hot dog IS a sandwich (if it's in a bun). https://t.co/mm4lsqo7yG pic.twitter.com/s70ZCyoVEF

— Matt Flynn (@ForwardWFlynn) July 24, 2018

If you're in Wisconsin, consider: When is the last time you've read anything from a Democratic Party of Wisconsin member publicly questioning their Party's performance during the Lost Decade?

From 2007-2010 Wisconsin Democrats had gubernatorial and legislative control of state government. But when Democrats considered legal use of medical marijuana, for example, the Party allowed one Democratic state senator to block a vote on the popular reform.

There was no strategic reformist legislation passed. Rather, the Democratic Party, as with insiders today, follows the golden rule of Democrats: Groupthink rules and don't rock the boat.

The Dems could have passed at least some manner of legalization of marijuana, reforms against gerrymandering, strengthened the rights of organized labor, locked in funding for the UW System and public schools, codified local control of government, reformed the criminal justice system, strengthened voting rights, among a host of initiatives not dreamed of among Party bureaucrats.

It's not like the writing was not on the wall spelling out what Republicans would do upon taking power. But few Democrats think, even less act.

Republicans do think and act in the current campaign for governor.

The GOP is not trolling Tony Evers, the white bureaucrat from east-central Wisconsin who will animate young and minority voters with all the passion generated by a baseball score from last Spring.

The GOP and Paul Ryan are trolling Randy Bryce, Democratic candidate for Ryan's seat, and Flynn.

August 14 Wisconsin Partisan Primary

There are too many X factors for anyone to make a data-drivien prediction on who wins the Democratic Party nomination for governor.

Early voting and registration in Madison are picking up and will accelerate in late July. Informed sources say they expect a 45-percent turnout in Madison, thanks to the municipal government's pro-voter initiatives. Other municipalities continue to contact Madison City Hall for tips, after being pushed by their local voting rights workers.

Does Madison Mayor and candidate for governor, Paul Soglin benefit from this massive turnout relative to the rest of the state? No doubt Soglin will benefit, but the question is to what degree, and speculation elicits wild disparities among observers.

Among a strong field of candidates, I predict post-air wars that Matt Flynn overtakes Tony Evers, and the Democratic  establishment takes another shot on their collective chin, not that this bothers Party bureaucrats who are still lined up at the trough, like so many pigs and cows at a factory farm.

Scott Walker is vulnerable.

Cop Problem Looms in Early Wisconsin Summer and Mid-term Primary Elections

The face of hate in Madison, Wisconsin wears military-
blue-and-black. Killers Justin Bailey and Gary Pihlaja
have bad attitudes and they found a home with
local police in Madison, Wisconsin before gunning
down 26-year-old Ashley DiPiazza in 2014.

Madison, Wisconsin — It's early Summer in Wisconsin this morning, beautiful outside. Each day, each breath is a celebration.

Yet, many will be killed and harassed the next few months by a vicious and mindless gang, the cops.

In Wisconsin's two largest cities, the cops have the political backing of the local liberal mayors, Tom Barrett in Milwaukee and Paul Soglin in Madison.

In Milwaukee the ugly, cop attack on Sterling Brown this year showed on video the true colors of police. Certainly, many who watched the video thought, 'at least they didn't kill him this time.' Small favors from the Evangelicals, Trumpists and assorted brutal human garbage in military-black-and-blue who have become the menace few openly oppose.

The Milwaukee cop attack on Mr. Brown was relentless — insulting, taunting, racist, hostile, aimed-to-provoke a reaction and inflict humiliation and anger, (it's a cop tactic) — until the cops finally decided to taser and beat the black man for apparently parking not very well over two handicapped spots in the middle of the night before the man picked something up at a local Walgreen's.

SOP in Milwaukee and the suburbs. SOP everywhere, daily. Residents are by-standers, and in Milwaukee Barrett, the mayor no less, is afraid to take on this armed gang of punks and thugs.

What kind of people treat other others in the manner caught on the Brown video? Scum-bags, in other words — cops. It's who this gang wants to be — violent, opposed to all outside the gang, and loyal to each other against the public interest.

Our beautiful Summer comes during a major election year.

Madison's Paul Soglin is running for the Democratic Party nomination for governor. The race is wide-open. Absentee voting begins June 28 for the partisan primary in some two weeks.

Soglin should be a natural for gov. Anybody visiting Madison knows why.

The world-class university, UW-Madison, is connected by State Street to the Capitol, ringed by bars, restaurants and boutique shops. The Capitol is connected by Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd to Lake Monona and the Monona Terrace and Convention Center, as envisioned and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Soglin has pursued a high-wage local economy, a progressive social agenda and the results to any fair-minded observer are impressive.

Soglin deserves credit for Madison, its libraries and its elections, all together that are nothing short of magnificent, continually drawing the ire of Gov. Scott Walker (R) who in policy and rhetoric demeans Madison to the point of actually shooing away $100s of millions in federal money, lest Madison becomes an even more fervent oasis offensive to the current fundamentalist Wisconsin governor.

There's another side of Madison though that's glossed over, and Soglin is the major collaborator of this daily exercise in indecency.

It may cost Soglin the nomination on Election Day, Aug. 14. It should.

It was July 2, 2016 and after the Madison police killed another unarmed man, Paul Soglin reportedly decided he needed to say something.

But not about the police, not challenging the killing, not vowing to use every lever of the Mayor's office to stop the killing, and certainly not eviscerating the Madison Police Dept.

No, Soglin publicly castigated the Madison community in 2016 warning the police will continue to kill people and it's the public's fault, the victims' fault, (WISC-TV, WKOW-TV, Isthmus, Mal Contends). Read links above and tell me Soglin was not indecent for his lack of empathy of killer-cop victims.

It was an incredibly cold-blooded statement, and Soglin's reptilian psychology locked in the biggest political knock on Soglin: He's out-of-touch, even pathologically incapable of identifying with victims of police violence and brutality.

In 2017, a record $7 million was awarded to the family of young Ashley DiPiazza after two Madison cops gunned her down in cold blood in 2014. Though Madison cops and Soglin did not, and do not see this young woman as a human being, it is worth affirming Ashley DiPiazza was a human being — a beautiful, young woman gunned down by people for whom life means little.

Said DiPiazza's grieving father in 2017: "She had just told me all her friends were married and had kids, and she felt a little left out. She’d ask, ‘Dad, what kind of mother do you think I’d make to my child?’ I told her she’d be great," (Schultz, Wisconsin State Journal).

Forget good-health professionals. No family member ever fully recovers from vicious killings of the young.

Not the family and friends of Paul Heenan, gunned down by Madison cops in 2012. City settled for $2.3 million in 2015.

Not the family and friends of Tony Robinson, gunned down by Madison cops in 2015. City settled for $3.35 million in 2017.

"City of Madison insurance costs have risen by more than 42 percent over the past three years after the city has agreed or been ordered to pay nearly $13 million in two settlements and a jury award in three fatal police shootings," reports the Wisconsin State Journal this morning.

The reasons explaining why police kill so many people, harass so many people, imprison so many people are many.

But one thing is certain. Cops would not inflict a vicious assault against society in Madison, if the police did not have the full backing of Mayor Paul Soglin.

I have seen what Madison and area police are capable of and police misconduct, deceit, character assassination and violence are the defining features of these municipal gangs, and as much as anybody Paul Soglin should be counted in the company of the guilty.

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin Says He's in Wisconsin Gov Race—The Bernie Sanders Delegate Bets on Broad Reach

Madison, Wisc Mayor Paul Soglin

A Paul Soglin-Scott Walker race would be epic clash not seen since Feingold-Neumann, 1998

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin—Madison Mayor Paul Soglin says he'll enter the race for Wisconsin governor, making a formal announcement the second week of January, AP writer Scott Bauer reports, (Twitter).

Soglin's comments to Wisconsin media this week follow public statements made in June 2017 in which Soglin cited the success of Bernie Sanders' candidacy in Wisconsin's 2016 presidential primary as evidence independent candidates can win statewide office against the Democratic Party establishment.

Soglin was a Bernie Sanders delegate in 2016.

Sanders' performance with young, independent voters combined with appeal in the northern two-thirds of the state is cited by political observers as a formula for defeating the incumbent Scott Walker.

The right to vote is key in elections, a truism that escapes notice in much of Wisconsin's political culture.

Under Soglin's administration, Madison has recognized the right to vote, as Walker has worked to obstruct the right to vote.

This sets Soglin apart from the field where support for the right to vote is not a defining feature in stated policy objectives or campaign commitments thus far.

Candidates for the Democratic Party nomination are lining up fast as Walker is seen as a vulnerable incumbent.

Soglin will become the ninth major candidate declaring against Gov. Scott Walker, (R), who formally announced on Nov. 5.

"The other highest profile Democratic candidates for governor are: state Superintendent Tony Evers; state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, of Alma; state Rep. Dana Wachs, of Eau Claire; former state Rep. Kelda Roys, of Madison; statewide firefighter union leader Mahlon Mitchell; former state party chairman Matt Flynn; Milwaukee businessman Andy Gronik; and political activist Mike McCabe," reports the Wisconsin State Journal.

In the 2014 Democratic Party primary campaign, the state Democratic Party successfully discouraged candidates from running for office, a strategy that failed.

Today's AP report by Scott Bauer was augmented by the State Journal with silly facts.

Soglin is counting on social media to reach Wisconsin voters who care about public policy more than the fact Soglin has a mustache.

Writes Soglin this week:

I need your help. In a few weeks I plan to formally announce my candidacy for governor of Wisconsin. Social... https://t.co/2PagvkqBhs

— Paul Soglin (@Paulsoglin) December 26, 2017

Reports Abigail Becker in The Capital Times: "Soglin said Wednesday he will make an official announcement in the second week of January."

As noted in Mal Contends, a Paul Soglin-Scott Walker race would be an epic clash of cultures pitting an intellectual pragmatist with genuine vision in municipal policy, and roots in the Civil Rights Movement against a religious fundamentalist who is vindictive against swaths of the state opposing authoritarian rule, and has worked to transfer public resources of the Badger state to billionaires and special interests.

Soglin brings a large base of support to the 2018 race, critical to winning in a large field in the Primary.

In June, Republicans ridiculed Soglin's work for citizen action in the Civil Rights Movement, the environmental movement and anti-war movement as "left-wing."

Voter turn-out in the 2014 general election was some 57 percent.

Swastikas, Pro-Trump Graffiti Defaces Anti-Fascist Plaque Outside Synagogue in Madison, Wisconsin

Unknown person(s) defaced a plague honoring the anti-fascist
Abraham Lincoln Brigade outside the Gates of Heaven Synagogue
building at the popular James Madison Park in Madison, Wisconsin.
Photo is from Dylan Brogan at the Isthmus.

Update: See also Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism's report on the incident and the series documenting hate, (Ibrahim and Hall).
 ---
Madison, Wisconsin — A plaque celebrating the Abraham Lincoln Brigade's anti-fascist battles during the Spanish Civil War was defaced with swastikas some 20 yards outside the Gates of Heaven Synagogue building at the popular James Madison Park about one mile from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The community is at a loss for words, (Isthmus, Wisconsin State Journal).

As even progressive cities face emboldened rightwingers, long-time Madison residents do not know where the bottom of racist activity lies.

Reports Rob Schultz:

'I'm horrified, I'm sad. I would have hoped that we were beyond this — especially in Madison,' said Dawn Berney, the executive director of Jewish Social Services of Madison. 'But xenophobia is everywhere, even in Madison.'

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin said that the graffiti was the act of ignorant people. 'Given the enabling rhetoric from Donald Trump, particularly since Charlottesville, we know that vicious racist and Nazi attacks have increased. While we know that over 99% of the people of Madison abhor and reject this terrible act, let it stand as a reminder that there are always a few ignorant people who would destroy our liberty and rights,' Soglin said in a statement. 'I ask that they come forward not to be punished but to explain themselves. True patriots never hide and attack in the darkness; striking in silence and in the shadows lies in the heart of cowards and fools.'

The act was committed in the progressive and activist Madison Isthmus, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the first of the Jewish High Holy Days.

Wisconsin has for many decades been a home to anti-Semitic groups such as the John Birch Society and assorted hate groups.

Most concerning is the generic fascism in rural and small-town Wisconsin often dominated by xenophobic white people who vote Republican and support Gov. Scott Walker.

Madison Wisc Mayor, Paul Soglin, Eyes Challenge to Scott Walker for Gov

Paul Soglin, Madison, Wisconsin Mayor

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — The political world in Wisconsin was treated to news this weekend hitting early Summer like a bomb.

Madison, Wisconsin Mayor Paul Soglin said this weekend he is considering running for governor in 2018, citing specifically the success of Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I-Vermont), in winning Wisconsin in the 2016 presidential primary, (Sommerhauser, Wisconsin State Journal).

Soglin made his comments to the Wisconsin State Journal at the state Democratic Convention held in Madison.

Soglin would bring his spanning-decades administration of America's most livable city, an unemployment rate of some two percent, and a city remaining the Athens of the Midwest through Wisconsin's lost decade of 2011-precent.

A Soglin-Walker race would be an epic clash of cultures pitting an intellectual pragmatist with genuine vision in municipal policy and roots in the Civil Rights Movement against a religious fundamentalist who is vindictive against entire swaths of the state who oppose his authoritarian rule, and has made giving public resources of the Badger state to billionaires a center of adminstration.

Reports WISC-TV:

Soglin said that Madison's economic growth could be a focal point in his potential run for governor.  He said Walker takes credit for Wisconsin's job growth, despite much it occurring in Dane County.

'Almost two-thirds of all the jobs that have been created since Gov. Walker and I both took office in 2011 have been here in the Madison metropolitan area,' Soglin said.

The longtime mayor also pointed to accomplishments on homelessness, affordable housing and transportation.

'In the northern and western parts of the state, they've got the same challenges that we've dealt with here,' Soglin said. 

Economic growth, good schools, civil rights and Bernie Sanders. Sounds like the foundation for a place to call home.

Observers contacted this morning handicapping a Soglin-Walker race say the numbers are there for Soglin,

Cop Shoots Caretaker of Autistic Man Playing in the Street with Toy Truck

Dumb cop in North Miami shoots innocent man with hands
in air. Man is dressed in yellow shirt and black skin. Image
is from video seconds before dumb cop shoots black man.
(Miami Herald)

Another dumb cop shoots man
——————— Cop caught on cell phone video before he could
cook police report, lie his way out of shooting innocent man

In officer-involved shooting news this morning, an idiot with a badge shot a caretaker of an autistic man for being black.

The dumb cop used an assault rifle to shoot Charles Kinsey, (Miami Herald), after Kinsey tried to help an autistic man who wandered from a group home into an apparently deserted street in North Miami.

After being shot with the dumb cop's assault rifle, Kinsey asked the ass in blue, why. The cop replied, "I don't know."

The unidentified cop is on paid vacation, aka administrative leave, and will be cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation is conducted by the Florida Office of State Attorneys.

A Florida website in the image below shows the State Attorney and staff attended a violence reduction meeting on November 18, 2105. The sub-headine reads: Miami-Dade Police Department.

Other municipalities are engaged in how-to-convince-the-police-not-to-shoot people clusterfucks, as many citizens now claim they should not be harassed, beaten, arrested, and killed.

No news on whether North Miami cops attended a violence-reduction meeting last year.

Secrecy, Disrespect of Life and Liberty Define Madison Police

Paul Soglin Warns Citizens to Obey Commands or Police Will Kill You; Seriously

Update: "It's hard to call the police when you think someone is going to die," said John Hendrick, Dane County Supervisor, (WKOW-TV).
---
Take a honest look at the Madison police and observe a closed, violent society with a dangerous sense of entitlement and ingrained adversarial attitude toward the public, aka human beings.

Life is cheap with the Madison police so when this household heard on the local news (WISC-TV) that an apparent burglar was shot and killed by an unknown cop in the Isthmus, our reaction was: Quick-on-trigger cop kills another human being, and Happy Independence Day weekend.

Killing and beating people is SOP with the Madison police, so Madison Police Chief Mike Koval will cover up and lie as his first, second and third reaction to police killings and beatings.

We expect better from Mayor Paul Soglin and wonder what happened to this guy.

Said Soglin before any investigation of the police killing: "We have to get to a point where it's understood, unequivocally, that when a police officer gives an order and gives a command that the only options are to fully cooperate or to go limp. Resistance is not an option. ... I'm very concerned, as we go further into the summer and the Fourth of July weekend, that if we get situations where police are called and it's a situation where they have to protect property and lives and they give an order, that they are not followed and obeyed."

Soglin is concerned. He called for better education for citizens on how to interact with police and said resisting arrest was unacceptable. Yeah, that's right, Soglin said resistance or hesitation to a police command was not appropriate behavior, and police violence should be expected.

Has the 71-year-old Soglin taken leave of his senses, or is he hopelessly out-of-touch with simple decency?

I wonder if the Madison community realizes what an incredible statement Soglin is making. I don't know.

Soglin is giving a green light to police to beat and kill, and citizens not used to dealing with amped-up and authoritarian cops are now the subject of 'concern' from Soglin.

The formerly reformist-minded Soglin obviously has had a significant change of heart in addressing police violence: The police culture has changed Soglin and not for the better.

In much of America, police forces are coming to recognize that it is they who must be better-educated to interact appropriately with the citizenry, not the other way around.

From the Isthmus (Brogan):

The police shooting on Morrison Street Thursday night is just two blocks from Kevin O’Malley’s home. That’s where Paul Heenan was killed by officer Stephen Heimsness in 2012, right in front of O’Malley. 'I think the point we’re at right now in the neighborhood is complete and utter fatigue,'

O’Malley said on Friday. 'It feels like the new normal.' O’Malley is close friends with the homeowners at 1303 Morrison St., where police killed a man later identified as 41-year-old Michael Schumacher of Fitchburg. O’Malley said the homeowners were big supporters of his family in the aftermath of Heenan’s death. Now, inexplicably, his friends are going through a similar trauma. 'He came up to me and gave me a hug last night and let me know his family was okay. That’s where you’re at. You’re not at any other level when it happens to you.'

I've met Paul Soglin before. Brilliant and likeable, imbued with arrogance that is tolerable.

Now, I hope Soglin realizes it's time for him to resign from public office because he's either morally unfit or no longer has the best interests of the public at heart.

Arrogance not tempered with decency leads to tragedy at worst and vile public policy at best

Police Kill and Assault No One in Ferguson, Missouri Last Night

Wonderful news out of Ferguson, Missouri last night: Police killed and assaulted no one.

• Police arrested no journalists
• Police assaulted no journalists
• Police destroyed no filming equipment

There was even no expressed hostility from the out-of-control group of "excessively armed and undertrained wannabes," (Nick Wing, Huffington Post) dangerous hicks playing war with "(j)et-black rifles leveled at unarmed citizens (backed by) mine-resistant vehicles once used to patrol the roadways of Iraq and Afghanistan (now) rumbling through small town America," while drawing overtime pay. (Gibbons-Neff, Washington Post)

Under orders from Gov. Jay Nixon, the Missouri State Patrol displaced the murderers of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the accomplices of the St. Louis County police.

The first night I felt safe, said one human in Ferguson. (Reilly, The Huffington Post)

Today, police even IDed the perp: "Officer" Darren Wilson, six-year veteran of the openly racist police force.

Police forces are composed of self-selecting officers in America.

For many police, especially forces in small-town and rural America, the emphasis is on force and authority and not public service.

Understandable when the psychology is that of an untrained occupying force in enemy territory.

Been reading more of former Madison, Wisconsin Police Chief David Couper, mentioned on the Rachel Maddow Show in its lede segment (Ferguson an object lesson in bad policing, 08/15/2014) last night.

The Maddow segment features footage from the PBS film (Two Days in October (Robert Kenner)) and commentary from a retired thug in the Madison Police in 1967, Prof. Maurice Zeitlin and Mayor Paul Soglin. Worth checking out in video below; history and humanism ought always be instructive, especially from police:

Blaska Wrong on Neighborhood Ills

People of color about; run away!

Update: Customer today at Meadowood shopping mall: "Why are Blaska and the media talking down business here. Not ONE crime has occurred against a person in this mall. It doesn't making any sense!"

David Blaska Short Sighted and Wrong

by Jackie Captain

To what end does David Blaska ask us to seek the 'root causes' of the Meadowood neighborhood's 'ills' (see Blaska's guest opinion column, Wisconsin State Journal; 10/6/12)?

So that he can have someone to blame -- other than himself -- for the neighborhood's supposed demise? Because Mr. Blaska, if you are not part of the solution, you are definitely a part of the problem here.

What are the 'root causes' of the neighborhood ills -- Blaska never says really in his piece. He implies that it is section 8 housing, 'food stamps, free meals, and other goodies.'  Are those involved in any of these government programs ever asked to join the neighborhood associations or welcomed to the area?

I lived in a condo in the adjacent Jamestown neighborhood for twelve years and never once was asked to join the neighborhood association. I never felt I was a welcomed part of the community.

Does section 8 housing itself cause neighborhood deterioration, as Blaska implies, or is it the existing neighborhood's response to section 8 housing that underlies the lack of community?

Why do none of the neighborhood associations ask the apartment, condo, and duplex dwellers to join and become active members of the community?

Why aren't they welcomed to the neighborhood and asked to join committees that decide the fate of their streets and the celebrations throughout the year?

Many of my neighbors in the Jamestown area had moved up to Madison from Chicago to escape that city's mean streets only to find mean people here.

Blaska seems to argue that once he miraculously disclosed the root cause of the Meadowood neighborhood's ills as section 8 housing that flight from the neighborhood is the only option.

Does Blaska's column give us any insights with which to go forward. No, but Madison Mayor Soglin has. Blaska gives us only snide jokes and disparaging comments.

To create a healthy, friendly community, you have to treat all members of the neighborhood as equals and ask them to join in the fight to make their city, neighborhood, and community to be the best place possible.

Forget the name calling and the finger pointing and get down to work, David Blaska.

Note: A version of this column appeared as a letter in the Wisconsin State Journal.