Wisconsin Police Chief Caught on Video Mocking Folks with Racist Commentary while Surveiling Black-while-Eating Group

DeForest Police Chief Daniel Furseth is a racist
cop and noted scum-bag who rose through the
ranks of the DeForest Police Dept where
racism opens doors to white cop careers.

Cop problem surfaces again

Who is the voice of the vile racist on new cop video?

It's the Chief of Police in DeForest, Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin — A group of five young friends out to grab something to eat provoked a reaction in a hidden observer commenting on the folks gathering in a restaurant parking lot, (You Tube video).

The five friends are black, hence worthy of racist vitriol by the bigoted observer who mocked the people with hyperbolic commentary intended as ridiculing black vernacular that served as faux narrative on video and that has been preserved to shine light on racist Wisconsin cops.

The bigot is DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Dan Furseth, a typical white Wisconsin cop — hateful, ignorant and racist, (WISC-TV, Schultz, Wisconsin State Journal).

The video was made by a man working with the DeForest Police Dept as a police intern in 2007. The intern posted the video on YouTube in 2015.

The video offers insight into the character of Wisconsin municipal police departments, an open secret.

The cops are white, hostile, anti-social, criminal and dishonest.

The police are protected by their local governments, and cops use their position allied with small-town bureaucrats to harass, fine, engage in character assassination, and even to kill.

DeForest Police Chief Daniel Furseth is a racist cop who
upon viewing five young black men mocked the group
in some faux black slang with a demeaning, racist and
derogatory narrative of the folks' character because
they were black. Video is linked here, and is posted below.

As described by the former police intern, who goes by the name of Defiant Drone Pilot, racist cop Daniel Furseth was so comfortable emitting racist commentary, Furseth spoke into the cell phone he borrowed to use the then-still-novel video feature, in the apparent and valid belief other DeForest cops shared the values and racist viewpoints towards black folks.

Writes Defiant Drone Pilot in a chronicling of the incident accompanying his YouTube video:

Now you may ask 'how did I get this footage'? Well simple, when I was duped into thinking that the police were really out to help you back in 2007, I was stupid enough to do my internship with DeForest PD (yes, we all make mistakes, don’t judge). Foreskin wanted to borrow my video camera since it was so small and can fit into a pocket and THIS is some of the great footage he captured with it. Is it real? Yes, 100%, this is the actual voice of DeForest Police Chief Daniel Furseth. This is his actual character and some of his actual beliefs that he instills into all his officers, all 100% white males. He even made a comment about what he thought about people of color serving on his department, suffice it to say, it would not happen on his watch.

What’s more is that during my police internship, EVERY DeForest police officer I met showed racist tendencies and beliefs.

WISC-TV reports the racist cop is on paid administrative leave:

Chief Dan Furseth has been on administrative leave since May 23, Village Administrator Steve Fahlgren said.

News 3 approached Furseth at his home Friday morning, but he declined to speak with News 3, saying he was 'busy.'

Of course Furseth was busy. He needs to plan where he is going to spend his retirement after he resigns and Furseth gets his generous pension package for years served as a racist cop.

From the DeForest Times:

'Ok, we is out on our dates,' Furseth is heard saying. 'We got the (bitches), we gonna get them, and we gonna give them food. I got my cane, I’ve gots (sic) my suit,' Furseth said. 'Oh baby … Ok boys, let’s go in. This is the (fanciest) restaurant we ever been to and it’s called the Steak ‘N Shake.'

'Unbelievable,' Furseth continues, dropping the accent. ...

City Administrator Fahlgren said Furseth agreed to be placed on paid leave May 23, and an independent investigation has since been launched by a Boulder, Colorado firm.

'Basically, we felt – and he agreed – that him being on leave would make sense," Fahlgren said.

The investigation is looking into Furseth specifically, according to Fahlgren, and whether a culture of racism is pervasive within his department.

Whitewashing Racism

Wisconsin police are a destructive force, a continual threat to society, and yet as a public affairs issue in this campaign season, Wisconsin's cop problem gets little play.

Whether folks live in Madison, Fitchburg, Stoughton or DeForest, the constant is police departments are staffed with dishonorable people. [Note: I caught Fitchburg PD trying to plant evidence in our yard in Feb. 2017 at about 1:00 a.m in an apparent corrupt and defamatory attempt to link me to a car accident blocks away. This after I blew the whistle on Fitchburg's continual voter obstruction against blacks and young people in alder dist one the Summer before.].
---
The reaction from DeForest Village Administrator Steve Fahlgren (white) is telling.

Fahlgren does not condemn the open racism, the hate, and the malice of Police Chief Daniel Furset. No outrage. No shock.

Reports WISC-TV:

The village hired someone to look into 'other potential social media racial misconduct,' Village Administrator Fahlgren said.

'We don't want our department to have a bad reputation,' Fahlgren said.  

Reputation and damage control are the objectives here, not the institutional racism of the DeForest Police Dept.

On a personal note, as a 54-year resident of Wisconsin, I can report racist and malignant police are as authentically and pervasively Wisconsin as cold weather in February.

From Defiant Drone Pilot

Published on Dec 2, 2015

This is what the stupid, ignorant, and imbecilic Village of DeForest elects to be their “Top Cop.” This is the racist Chief of Police Daniel Furseth, who is much like the rest of DeForest, poorly educated, socially intolerant, and completely incompetent when it comes to federal law (you know the one that trumps state and local law when it’s in conflict with it). Only a redneck and backassward community like DeForest would want someone like this as a Chief to keep the black man out.

Now you may ask “how did I get this footage”? Well simple, when I was duped into thinking that the police were really out to help you back in 2007, I was stupid enough to do my internship with DeForest PD (yes, we all make mistakes, don’t judge). Foreskin wanted to borrow my video camera since it was so small and can fit into a pocket and THIS is some of the great footage he captured with it. Is it real? Yes, 100%, this is the actual voice of DeForest Police Chief Daniel Furseth. This is his actual character and some of his actual beliefs that he instills into all his officers, all 100% white males. He even made a comment about what he thought about people of color serving on his department, suffice it to say, it would not happen on his watch.

What’s more is that during my police internship, EVERY DeForest police officer I met showed racist tendencies and beliefs. I did have to “bait” them to elicit these tendencies “Borat style” but I was genuinely interested in what kind of person the “community” authorizes to take away someone’s freedom at their discretion, and it horrified me to the bone. Aside racism there was also an immense culture of corruption at DeForest PD. As a juvenile I was subject to an unlawful arrest based on planted evidence and false police reports by DeForest Police Officer Diana O’neill. And when I brought about my grievance to Dan Furseth during my internship, he basically told me something to the effect of “you were a little shit so you deserved it”. Well Dan, you and your department deserve to be exposed! Because tolerating corruption is in my opinion the same as committing it.

Here is some “food for thought” to contemplate as you watch this ... .

What if DeForest PD was to get caught up shooting an unarmed black man? Would the surfacing of this video mean anything? Would it mean nothing at all since he is just expressing his right to free speech? Does he have free speech rights being a peace officer? He told me he does not during the internship.

And while you are at it, think about aerial cameras (AKA "drones") being used to capture LEO's (police officers) committing civil rights/civil liberties violations against people of color. Think about how upset the LEO's would be that they cannot shoot your camera-of-truth out of the sky (under federal law it is actually an act of terrorism since a UAV is an aircraft). They cannot confiscate it out of your hand and smash it, kind of hard when it's hovering 100+ ft above you. They cannot (physically) get ahold of it and delete the incriminating footage. The truth is - the Law Enforcement Officers are scared to death of aerial cameras! Keep posted to see what great lengths they go to in order to silence the Defiant Drone Pilot for posting this truthful video. 

There are mid-term elections this year. Every candidate for public office should be addressing the vile, pervasive and invidious Wisconsin cop problem.

Video of racist cop is below:

It is the intention of this site, Mal Contends, to continue as a vehicle of reporting, analysis and commentary of Wisconsin police misconduct.

To support this enterprise, see Mal Contends.

Wisconsin Restaurants and Police State Do Not Mix

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. Ex-cops
now, but why would a City hire killers to begin with?
Employment is a statement of values.

Cop Problem Is Bi-partisan

Madison, Wisconsin — Teryl Franklin in the Wisconsin State Journal notes some Madison-area restaurants have shuttered their doors in a continuing feature.

Restaurants are tricky and each restaurant closing has its own story.

Ignored in metro coverage is the role municipal police have in shooing away small business.

We used to live in a state where traffic and OWI citations meant it was likely the driver did something wrong.

Those days are gone. With liberal buy-in, now-a-days a trip for dinner and a glass of wine is risking one's future.

Cops will harass and cite anyone for anything, they are emboldened, racist and deceitful. Evangelicals and whites with a bad attitude are filling the ranks of the police, and not just in Fitchburg and Stoughton.

Cops possess unlimited discretion to inflict anything onto people, and liberal mayors such as Paul Soglin will applaud.

So draconian are the fines and so dishonest and malicious are Wisconsin cops, they will target for harassment or citation any critic, any driver with the wrong bumper sticker and in the worst-case scenario the wrong color skin.

Wisconsin journalists should ask around. Know someone with the Wisconsin Restaurant Association or the Tavern League? How about the ACLU?

Why go to a restaurant for relaxation and socializing with the stakes so high?

It's not just Republicans and cops.

There remains a liberal lust for the police state.

Take Kathleen Falk, a former Madison pol with an authoritarian streak, who after assuming office as Dane County Exec (1997-2010) determined the problem in Dane County is not dirty, overzealous cops, rather the desperate need for police roadblocks, more police everywhere and a government-run propaganda effort to change the "culture," (Mal Contends).

Whom did Falk think would get hurt the worst in a police state?

It's the black and brown folks, and when policy gives already emboldened cops more power, the results to vulnerable members of the citizenry are predictable and apparently acceptable.

In 2009, there was a brief statutory flirtation with the idea that cops had to indicate race/ethnicity of the person they pulled over. Cops hated the idea. So did Republicans who quickly repealed the statute upon assuming office in 2011.

Until Wisconsin solves its cop problem, our state will remain the worst place for a black person to live, as 1,000s of white municipalities turn to police-state tactics evolving into 1,000s of little Milwaukees.

Its where we are heading, and restaurants are just a collateral damage of Wisconsin's cop problem.

White Wisconsin Cop Beats Black Teen, Caught on Video

White Wauwatosa, Wisconsin cop is caught on video beating
 a 17-year-old black teen. The cop was not arrested. Instead,
the cops charged the kid with three felonies.

Update: In a related piece this weekend in The Guardian, see Black activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance. The man, Rakem Balogun of Texas, spoke out against police brutality and violence and because of his published stands was arrested, amid increasing surveillance and police harassment nationwide.
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The first thing readers should know about the white cop caught on video beating a black teen in Wisconsin this weekend is the cop will be cleared of wrongdoing. No criminal charges, and no loss of pay and benefits for the cop will result from an internal police investigation.

Bank on it.

In Wisconsin, cops beating, killing, harassing, fining and terrorizing the population, especially black and brown folks, is widely regarded as a social good in itself. If cops can begin the process of imprisoning a minority ... or killing a minority, so much the better.

The location of this latest cop attack is Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, next to Milwaukee.

Slate Magazine and WISN-TV, (Milwaukee) have the story. Civil rights groups protested the police beating this weekend.

Cops of course did not arrest the other cop for repeatedly beating this 17-year-old. Rather, the cops cited the victim with disorderly conduct, battery and resisting an officer.

Testilying, cooking police reports and engaging in character assassination against the community seem pointless when the court system is rigged against people, in favor of perps in military-black-and-blue.

The video below, WISN-TV, raises numerous questions. Did it occur to the cop that being well-planted and balanced and then throwing a power punch to an unguarded teen's face could result in permanent damage? Perhaps permanent damage is the objective.

After-all the kid is black, hence worthy of beating, harassment, imprisonment; there is no apparent bottom to the crimes cops will inflict for any or no reason.

Watch how this story unfolds—Wisconsin white cop beats unarmed black teen—and witness the predictable police cover-up, the character assassination of this young man, and raw displays of racism in comments from white Wisconsin. It's SOP, and it's getting worse as Trump cheers on police beatings.

For a revealing look at the phenomenon of police beating people, Google police beating. Watch how fast your In Box fills up.

From Slate Magazine and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry Weber said in a statement. "We thoroughly review all incidents in which force is used by an officer and will do so in this incident, as well."

Bull-shit.

Humans Suffer at Alter of Stupidity in Wisconsin

Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son,
painted sometime between 1819-1823.
The image represents America today,
as the country teeters on the brink.

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin—A piece in Vox Media by Sean Illing reports from a Yale Conference held this month noting democracy failings accelerating with Donald Trump and ascendant Republicans, including hostility towards liberties of people, who still enjoy an undulating significance in American society.

Of course, since America's birth popular liberty has been a lie for most living at a given moment. Those charged through history with keeping the faith of America as represented in rhetoric and myth, that is our fellow citizens, are typically ignorant, irrational and stupid, (Achen, Bartels).

Today, as contemptible as Trump and his white-supremacist followers are, one should note neo-liberals and Hillary Clinton have blazed the trail for Trumpists by promoting private prisons, mass incarceration, distribution of public resources to the one percent and unthinking corporatist tropes in politics.

On the up-side, a plurality of Americans reject neo-liberalism and fascism.

There are moments caught in American reporting that mark in iconic description the reality of American society. Wisconsin is at ground zero in hostility against democratic traditions with a strong ferment of pro-democratic institutions now under Republican-corporate attack.

Long Lake, No Wake

In Wisconsin in 2013, Kate Golden at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Reporting took a famous shot looking out at Long Lake in central Wisconsin, (Plainfield, Waushara County), of a sign reading, "Long Lake, No Wake," surrounded by instead of water, dried-out weeds, trees next to ironic fishing-rules signage.

The proliferation of high-capacity water wells by Big Agriculture has depleted ground and surface waters, and lakes are literally drying up. Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans have worked specifically to make this crisis situation worse since 2011 with one Party objective being that multi-generational Wisconsin families become disgusted and leave the state.

Obama's Plan, White Slavery

In April 2009, Jesse Russell shot a small group of white Tea Party ralliers at the Wisconsin capitol in Madison. Russell captured a man holding a sign reading, "Obama's Plan, White Slavery."

The sign refers to the proposed 2009 Obamacare bill. No American white person was actually enslaved after the implementation of the Obamacare plan, but the sheer lunacy that drove opposition to Obama, and tame healthcare reforms led to the 2016 election of Trump, and was on display in Russell's iconic image, first published April 15, 2009 in The Lost Albatross.

An innocent woman was arrested and convicted because she is
an out lesbian. Railroaded by deceitful Madison and Dane
County police, found guilty by bigoted jurors, Penny Brummer
remains in prison today. This is a
crime committed by the state that no one wants to face.

Innocent Woman Imprisoned as Life Goes on in Dane County Wisconsin

When movements for civil rights, equality, innocence met the Police State in Wisconsin in 1994, the Police State won in Brummer v. Wisconsin.

An innocent Madison woman, Penny Brummer, is in prison for 23 years now since former Dane County Judge Patrick Fiedler in October 1994 declared at the murder trial that circumstantial evidence is "strong enough to exclude to a moral certainty every reasonable hypothesis of the defendant's innocence." Fiedler is nuts.

A honest human being, not Fielder, would have rejected the jury's verdict. See Penny Brummer. See Brummer-Mal Contends, Lueders-Isthmus, Ricks-The Advocate, and the Huffington Post, Wisconsin State Journal.

One honest woman, a paralegal Sheila Berry, listened to her daughter who read about this outrage in The Advocate. "You should do something," Berry's daughter said.

Berry wrote a book, Who Killed Sarah? This reporting is momentous, and one hopes can save a life.

Shelia Berry is modern-day Émile Zola, a Sidney Powell, a pro-liberty human being who says innocents do not belong in prison, not ever.

By now, many readers have seen or heard of Making a Murderer, the tale of vengeful law enforcement hicks from Manitowoc County Wisconsin preying on an intellectually challenged juvenile and framing a man suing Manitowoc County for $36 million in a civil lawsuit for a wrongful conviction.

While shocking to some, the capacity and inclination of law enforcement to harass, arrest, prosecute and convict is axiomatic to most criminal defense attorneys, intellectually honest scholars and certainly those citizens on the receiving end of the blunt instrument known as law enforcement by the "Sovereign," the "state in all its power and glory," as described to me by federal appellate attorney, Sidney Powell, a former Asst. U.S. Attorney.

The victims of Manitowoc County, (a region in east-central Wisconsin from which I hail), are a victims, a disgrace wrought by law enforcement.

But the progressive fountain of Dane County Wisconsin (Madison) is arguably worse than Manty County in the criminal justice realm.

Folks, we live in a police-prosecutor-prison state, (and its existence is a compelling argument for a coalition of the American libertarian right and left)

I present to you one Penny Brummer, an out lesbian who joined the military right of River Valley High School in Spring Green, Wisconsin and served honorably in the Air Force for five years before returning home and then moving to Madison in the early 1990s.

In her mid-20s, Penny fell in and out of love, drank beer and bar-hopped, rode motorcycles, living her life in a similar fashion to most young 20-somethings in Madison, Wisconsin.

In the early to late 1990s, Madison was not a welcoming place for the LGBTQ community by Madison law enforcement, whatever you may have heard about Madison being an progressive oasis with an enlightened police force.

Police harassment and hostility were tolerated by progressives and to this day, for example, the former Club 3054 on East Washington Street, the main drag in Madison, is recalled for targeting by the cops by former patrons.

So it was one March 15, 1994, after Penny broke up with her girlfriend, and looking for company called friends and co-workers to "go out" on a Monday night. Sarah Gonstead said, yes, and Ms. Gonstead and Penny happily bar-hopped before Penny dropped Gonstead off at a frequented short-cut to her ex’s place, where Penny saw Gonstead strike up a conversation with some guys next to a line of motorcycles, one of the men with long hair and slight build.

No one saw Sarah Gonstead alive again.

Gonstead’s body was found on April 9 outside of Madison.

Madison police and the Dane County Sheriff’s detectives decided Penny, 24-years-old, was the perpetrator.

No physical evidence, no weapon, no motive, no determined crime scene, just a half-baked theory about lesbians being violent—police "tunnel vision," disregarding all exculpatory facts and evidence that would not support or disconfirm the theory.

For example,as recounted by Sheila Berry in her book, Who Killed Sarah:

David Zoromski, who reported seeing a suspicious man standing by the open passenger door of a parked pickup truck exactly where Sarah’s body was later found, was told by a Dane County Sheriff’s Deputy, ‘What you saw is all very interesting, but we have a suspect and it doesn’t fit.’ The man seen by Mr. Zoromski matched the description of the person Penny said she saw Sarah talking to near the Taco Bell at East Washington Avenue and North Oak Street in Madison, [by the short-cut], after she dropped her off that night. Police identified him and knew he was a convicted felon with a long history of violence toward women — but they never followed up on this lead.

A new trial for Penny Brummer is demanded by advocates. They also offer a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the death of Sarah Gonstead, and an 800 number for tips at 800 407-1178.

Brummer today sits in prison serving her 50-year sentence.

Prof. Keith Findley of the Wisconsin Innocence Project concludes in a column in the Washington Post after Making a Murderer hit the public consciousness: "We must make the system more responsive to post-conviction claims of injustice and less bound by blind obedience to finality."

Blind obedience is the norm in American society.

No jurist, journalist, or Brummer family member believes the kangaroo trial of 1994 could happen today, 23 years later at a time when we want to believe bigotry trumps an unthinking police state that could allow the Brummer persecution to occur.

The police investigation was replete with anti-lesbian bigotry playing a big part in Penny's conviction, and is a case study of confirmation bias.

Several jurors, a full nine members, expressed disapproval of lesbian and gay relationships in jury questionnaires.

Police investigators questioned Penny's co-workers about her body language, 'how she carried herself at work;' her persona apparently appearing unladylike behavior in an atavistic conception of gender types.

From 2015:

Madison, Wisconsin media—WISC-TV (Madison), WKOW-TV(Madison)—and advocates for Brummer heavily covered the news of the $10,000 reward as a private investigator, Rikki Glen, continues an ongoing investigation

Rikki Glen, Penny's mother, Nancy Brummer, and John Pray of the Wisconsin Innocence Project held a press conference yesterday, (December 2015), in front of the Dane County Courthouse.

"The evidence [in the Brummer case] was beyond, beyond thin," said Ms. Glen at the press conference.

The reward for the 21-year old conviction in Brummer v. Wisconsin comes as Dane County has made strides in combating LGBTQ bigotry, and after the win-convictions-for-reason-of-advancing-careers dynamic in the legal community in Wisconsin and Dane County resulted in incarcerations that shamed the criminal justice system.

"Today, we are a more enlightened community than 20 years ago, and Nancy Brummer, and advocates are optimistic that champions for truth will come forward and our community, police and prosecutors will stand up for truth and free Penny Brummer," said Glen.

Said John Pray of the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the press conference: 

It's been over 20 years since Penny Brummer has been convicted of the murder of Sarah Gonstead. It's a very long time and it's been a very difficult 20 years for Penny, for the family, and for her friends and many supporters. In 1994 when Penny was convicted this country was at the beginning of a revolution in the criminal justice system. This revolution was brought about by the first uses of DNA which led to the formation of the Innocence movement. At that time, for the first time, we all became very aware of the indisputable fact that it is possible to convict people of serious crimes—murder, sex assaults—and be completely innocent. We've also learned that this happens a lot more than we are comfortable with and a lot more than we ever thought was possible. In the years since then, we've seen 100s of examples where DNA evidence has proved beyond any doubt the system has grievously erred and that the wrong person was in prison. A number of those people are from Wisconsin. Wisconsin is not immune from that. Some of those people served decades in prison before they were proved innocent. In many of those cases DNA led not only to the release of the innocent person but to the arrest and conviction of the actual murderer or the actual perpetrator who have, by the way, gone on to commit other serious crimes because they have been let free.

We learn from these exonerations what went wrong with the system. And for the most part it isn't because there are evil police and prosecutors who are trying to get it wrong. They're generally good people, they're trying to solve crimes and serve justice. But even when people are acting in good faith there are still many ways that things can go tragically wrong: Eyewitness identification is often unreliable. Witnesses' memories are prone to mistakes. Investigators can prematurely arrive at conclusions that are incorrect and then focus on information that supports those plots and conclusions and disregard other information that comes in that does not support those conclusions. That's a process called 'tunnel vision.' And it can and it does lead to conviction of the innocent. Penny's case features many of these same features.

Below is the statement on Penny Brummer read by private investigator, Rikki Glen at the press conference held yesterday:

I'm Rikki Glen, a Wisconsin licensed private investigator retained by advocates challenging the wrongful conviction of Penny Brummer.

I am going to read a short statement about why we are here today, followed by statements from Penny's mother, Nancy and John Pray from the UW Innocence Project.

If you have questions we will be glad to try and answer them after we have finished.

Twenty years ago, Penny Brummer was convicted of killing Sarah Gonstead despite no weapon, no forensic evidence, no motive, and no evidence of any kind tying Brummer to the undetermined crime scene. It has long been asserted that anti-lesbian bias played a large part in Penny's conviction.

When I was asked to help with this case, earlier this year, I had a vague recollection of what transpired. As I was reading through the police reports I was shocked and bothered by some of the things that I read.

For instance, there was an alternate suspect. After Penny dropped off Sarah she saw her talking with some people. Penny remembered seeing an old gray van with distinctive bug eye windows. A few days later, Penny was looking for the van when she spotted it not far from the 3054 Club and Taco Bell. Penny gave the license number to her friend's mother, who turned it over to police. The license traced back to a person who had a long record of felonies against women. He admitted he frequented the area where Penny saw him talking to Sarah, and he said that he was the only one who ever drove his vehicle. His driver's license was revoked at the time, so it was a crime for him to drive, but police didn't seem to notice that. He was interviewed briefly, told them he wasn't at that location on March 14th, and that ended the interview.

Police clearly had 'tunnel vision' in building a case against Penny, another common feature in wrongful convictions.

Another example a witness came forward and reported seeing a suspicious man standing by the open passenger door of a parked pickup truck exactly where Sarah's body was later found. This suspicious man matched the description of the person Penny said she saw Sarah talking to near the Taco Bell at East Washington Avenue and North Oak Street in Madison. He also noticed what looked to him to be a pink duffle bag on the ground next to the truck. Sarah was wearing a pink jacket when she disappeared. The police told the witness 'This is all very interesting, but we already have a suspect, and this doesn't fit.'

Today, I announce that a $10,000 reward has been established for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer of Sarah Gonstead. Advocates have set up a new toll-free number, (800) 407-1178, for tipsters seeking the $10,000 reward.

A decent and honest district attorney's office, we believe, will not defend this prosecution, because today we are a more enlightened community than 20 years ago, and Nancy Brummer, and advocates are optimistic that champions for truth will come forward and our community, police and prosecutors will stand up for truth and free Penny Brummer.

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast," said Alexander Pope in his An Essay on Man (1734). Hope for decency.

Video of GOP Regime: Blocks State Rep. Cullen from entering the State Capitol

Via Todd Milewski at the Capital Times:

"State Rep. David Cullen (D-Milwaukee) tries to enter the State Capitol Thursday morning at the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard entrance, but is turned away."