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.

Trump's 'Make America Great Again' Call Is Normalized

DeForest, Wisconsin 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.

Donald Trump's work against American society alarms most everybody outside the Republican Party coalition as this lunatic has united the right under a call for the restoration of America.

The GOP's agitprop operation lends coherence and inspiring myths for generations of American whites who have divined anew the alleged evils of alien forces — the universities, the cities, enclaves of immigrants and Muslims, the lying press-fake news and identifiable blackish folks carrying on in public as they breathe and laugh.

A racist DeForest, Wisconsin, (a few miles north of Madison), Police Chief Daniel Furseth mocked and ridiculed a group of young black folks who simply gathered together to dine at a local Steak ‘N Shake restaurant.

A police intern came in possession of the video, (made in 2007), and bore witness to the vile, casual racism of DeForest, Wisconsin.

The racist cop Furseth spoke in a mocking accent on the video, mimicking the young group in what is supposed to be a faux, black English vernacular:

'Ok, we is out on our dates. We got the bitches, we gonna get them, and we gonna give them food. I got my cane, I’ve gots (sic) my suit,. 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. ...

Furseth is typical of white cops in Wisconsin, and a plurality of white Wisconsinites who voted Trump into office.

Furseth accepted a severance package from DeForest in late June, (Phillips, Wisconsin State Journal), but the racist culture remains. Furseth rose through the ranks of the DeForest Police Dept not in spite of his racism, but because of his racism.

Wonder how a Evangelical troll like Scott Walker gets elected. Walker, like former Gov. Tommy Thompson, appeals to racism and that's an imposing base in Wisconsin.

To Wisconsin whites, the mere sight of black people in public is per force a problem requiring an armed response and constant police vigilance.

Trump's racist tropes trace directly back to the propaganda of 20th-century totalitarian terror states.

• The Soviet Union, the reactionary dungeon state that targeted, for example, everything from Noam Chomsky's cognitive psychology to anything American or libertarian, including any thinker who dared propose liberty, peace and humanity as the basis for a society vis a vis the USSR, (IndyMedia, CIA)
• NAZI Germany promising a return to traditional values and law and order against alien influences, (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Trump's Make America Great Again appeals enjoy only a plurality of support among the population.

Ruling with minority support is a strategic project of the Republican Party. There is no apparent bottom to what Trump and the Republican Party will do to destroy political opposition to Trump by the American people.

For starters, the United States Senate should be shut down next week unless Sen. McConnell agrees to deferring the Supreme Court hearing and vote until the next Congress in 2019.

Disgraced Wisconsin District Attorney Wants NYT v. Sullivan 'Overturned' Following Legal Defeat for Cop

Goya Here Comes the Bogeyman,
plate three from Los Caprichos.
Bogeyman do not like criticism
from citizens.

Crooked Cops Fly Together

Commentary

Madison, Wisconsin — Disgraced Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz resigned in 2010 following allegations Kratz sexually harassed several women, including a sexual assault claim alleging Kratz "had forcible sex with an emotionally vulnerable woman after previously prosecuting the woman," (Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation v. Kratz (In re Disciplinary Proceedings Against Kratz)).

Kratz is also notorious for his crooked prosecutions of less than two years earlier from Kratz' harassment and assault, a time during which Kratz corruptly prosecuted two innocents featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer (Netflix) docuseries. Kratz termed himself a "dick" for the assaults, not for the crooked prosecutions.

The "dick" blamed his narcissistic personality disorder and multiple drug addictions, after being driven from the district attorney's office after the allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault came to light, after which he was driven from the Wisconsin legal profession altogether in 2019.

Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of first-degree homicide by Kratz for the 2005 murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach. Both men are serving life sentences in spectacular miscarriages of justice, supported by Wisconsin Democrats, the better to look tough on crime.

Now, a retired cop, Andrew Colborn, whom Wisconsin citizens say helped frame Steven Avery just lost a civil suit for defamation against Netflix. The case is Andrew L  Colborn v. Netflix, Inc,, et al,, case No. 19-cv-0484-bhl); and the case was dismissed on summary judgement.

The crooked prosecutor Ken Kratz has raised his head again after being driven from office, the law profession and the state of Wisconsin.

Kratz wants the landmark First Amendment case, New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) overturned.

"Shifting the burden to the defamed person to prove he didn’t plant evidence is, of course, an impossible standard. Courts continue to protect big media against any accountability for outrageous claims made in the name of entertainment. It’s time to overturn the NY Times vs Sullivan’s actual malice hurdle and recognize that real people, and their reputations, are being crushed in the process," the Wisconsin Law Journal quoted Kratz last week.

Kratz' statement follows plaintiff Andrew Colborn request to gut NYT v. Sullivan in a legal filing in 2019, a maneuver widely seen as Hail Mary call.

The core holdings of Sullivan protect rights of people in communities to criticize and hold accountable crooked public office holders Kratz and cops in east-central Wisconsin who routinely view with suspicion those citizens who fervently object to their conduct.

Colborn and Kratz are crazy.

Kratz lies whenever he speaks. He lost his career & reputation long before MaM, when he sexually harassed victims in cases he prosecuted & 15 women came forward. MaM just revealed his true character & his wrongful prosecution of innocent BD & SA. #Ibelieve15women #MakingAMurderer https://t.co/e7tGSnFJw6

— Jerome Buting (@JButing) March 16, 2023

New York Times v. Sullivan

In 1964, the New York Times and civil rights workers prevailed over tyrannical Montgomery police and its odious City officials at the United States Supreme Court, New York Times v. Sullivan .

Justice William Brennan writing for a unanimous court authored a defense of the liberty of the people against government tyrants, a principle that today stands as both an inspiring statement for liberty and a landmark declaration of the power of citizens over public officials.

Writes Brennan:

The First Amendment, said Judge Learned Hand,

presupposes that right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues than through any kind of authoritative selection. To many, this is, and always will be, folly, but we have staked upon it our all. United States v. Associated Press, 52 F.Supp. 362, 372 (D.C.S.D.N.Y. 1943).

Mr. Justice Brandeis, in his concurring opinion in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 375-376, gave the principle its classic formulation:

Those who won our independence believed . . . that public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government. ... Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law -- the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.

Thus, we consider this case [New York Times v. Sullivan] against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials. (New York Times v. Sullivan).

Parable of Racist Police

To understand the power of Sullivan today, consider a recent example of racist Wisconsin police in which the DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Daniel Furseth was caught on video surveilling and mocking a group of black teenagers dressed for their high school prom, and stopping by an area restaurant, as was reported by a former police intern on YouTube in June 2018.

DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Daniel Furseth is a racist
cop who surveiled and mocked five young black men
in some faux black slang with a demeaning, racist and
derogatory narrative caught on video. Furseth was widely
criticized, resigning under fire before joining like-minded police
at the Town, not the City, of Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to
the holdings in New York Times v Sullivan (1964), public
officials like the Furseth could prevail in libel actions, pleading
libel per se against those such as the police intern who
published the video on YouTube. Wrties the whistle-
blower: "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."

Observing the youths and commenting in mocking accent, Furseth said: "Okay, we is out on our dates. We got the bitches, we gonna get them, and we gonna give them food. I got my cane, I’ve gots (sic) my suit. Oh baby … Okay, boys, let’s go in. This is the fanciest restaurant we ever been to and it’s called the Steak ‘N Shake. (Laughter) Unbelievable."

A reader should listen to the 36-second clip on YouTube to get a full accounting of the malice and racism that most small-town Wisconsin cops know to keep under wraps. Furseth and his all-white police force really do not like black people.

In August 2018 came reports of four new counts of misconduct by Furseth, (WISC-TV).

Chased out of office, the racist Daniel Furseth was never heard from again, right? Wrong.

Furseth was quickly hired by the town of Madison, not the City, in October 2018.

An official with the town of Madison police department, not the City, confirmed by phone on August 14, 2019 that Furseth is still employed with the Town police, locally notorious for racism, harassment, bogus citations and misconduct.

Pre-New York Times v Sullivan (1964), or had American jurisprudence taken another direction, the Town, DeForest and Furseth may have enjoyed cause for civil action for my opining that Daniel Furseth and Town and Village officials are racist, ignorant pig-fuckers who should have their teeth kicked out.

The former police intern who blew the whistle on YouTube similarly might not enjoy protections for his commentary about the character of the DeForest, Wisconsin Police Dept in which Furseth rose through the all-white ranks to become chief in 2015.

The judiciary over the last 60 years has risen to become a refuge for civil pleadings from social movements working for those persecuted by the State — often the repository of lurid souls like Daniel Furseth and L.B. Sullivan who, one may believe, should be anomalous is a classical liberal society.

Liberties Prevail

The United States Supreme Court of the 1950s, 60s and 70s in significant areas made it appear individual rights prevailing were a dynamic as inevitable as the triumph of reason over racism and liberation over atavistic taboo.

Landmark legal rulings after rulings were won and each victory seemed a fulfillment of long-denied liberties as the civil rights and peace movement flourished.

Brown v Board of Education (1954), New York Times v Sullivan (1964), Loving v Virgina (1967), Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) and United States v. United States District Court (1972) and dozens more Court holdings promised to buttress citizens against routine incursions of liberty by State actors and law enforcement.

Sullivan under Attack
 
Many today fear an epic backlash, and the challenges to Sullivan are emblematic.

 There are now at least three cases in three different appellate circuits — Second, Sixth and Seventh — in which rightwing plaintiffs appear intent on revisiting New York Times v. Sullivan.

• Sixth Circuit - Nicholas Sandmann v. WP Company LLC, d/b/a [doing business as] The Washington Post (2:19-cv-00019). Plaintiff says he will appeal the dismissal decided in jUly 2019.
• Seventh Circuit - Andrew Colborn v. Netflix, Inc (1:19-cv-00484). Likely to be dismissed in a  Dec 19, 2019 hearing in District court. An appeal is possible.
• Second Circuit - Sarah Palin v New York Times Co, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 17-3801. Case will be heard on the merits in U.S. District Court.

 Political rightwingers and disgraced cops. Yuck.

New York Times v Sullivan Faces Challenge amid Changing Judiciary, Emboldened Racists

Manitowoc County Sheriff Lt. Andrew Colborn (ret)
has included an argument in his federal defamation
suit against the creators and distributors of Making a
Murderer that seeks to eviscerate First Amendment
protections exemplified in the First Amendment
case, New York Times v Sullivan.

Update: Trump calls for new accusers of Justice Kavanaugh to file suit for libel, and for U.S. Justice Dept to "rescue" embattled judge, (Newsweek).
 --
Madison, Wisconsin — "One of the things I'm going to do if I win, ... I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they [the press] write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We're going to open up those libel laws," blustered Donald Trump in February 2016, (The Politico).

Trump repeated his views on modern libel law doctrine after taking office because apparently he was not informed there are no federal libel laws that he can "open up."

Further, holdings of the landmark Supreme Court case, New York Times v Sullivan (1964), prevent an aggrieved government official from winning "lots of money" and prevailing in a civil action against citizens expressing opinions deemed caustic, unorthodox or irreverent, for example, toward our 'leaders.'

So, why worry? Trump is a lunatic, and whatever fantasies he manages are tempered by the reality of long-won legal victories holding malicious public officials in check.

The First Amendment freedoms of the press, speech and expression with which Trump is actually quarreling offer the most powerful protection in the world to people voicing thought at variance with  public officials' assessment of their character and performance, (ACLU, Jan 2018; NYT, Feb 2019).

Trump's desire to litigate against the authors and publishers of prose written at Trump's expense seems little more than the wish of a half-wit pining for the 21rst century equivalent of the Sedition Act that criminalized writings thrusting government officials into disrepute.

Today, the Federalist Society, Republican senators and Donald Trump work assiduously to transform the federal judiciary into an adjunct arm of the Republican Party, white Evangelicals and corporate special interests, a la the corrupt Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Challenges to foundational cases codifiying American liberties are bubbling up through the federal judiciary.

And, Trump has "appointed nearly one in four of the nation's federal appeals court judges and one in seven of its district court judges," all activist ideologues vetted for their fidelity to an authoritarian and ahistorical jurisprudence, reports Carrie Johnson at National Public Radio.

Further, two of nine Trump-appointed justices serve on the Untied States Supreme Court forming a five-four majority of hyper-activist judges working for the interest of the Republican Party.

It is in this milieu that we ought to be concerned about Republicans on the United States Supreme Court hollowing out our liberties generally.

The Trumpist hostility against the press has escalated into a political assault against the journalists themselves. Reports the New York Times: "A loose network of conservative operatives allied with the White House is pursuing what they say will be an aggressive operation to discredit news organizations deemed hostile to President Trump by publicizing damaging information about journalists. ... [Poiltical] operatives have compiled dossiers and research that is "said to extend to members of journalists’ families who are active in politics, as well as liberal activists and other political opponents of the president."

Specifically, current efforts to ultimately convince the United States Supreme Court to revisit New York Times v Sullivan should be considered in light of the struggle between those who see human beings as instruments and often enemies of the State, and those who see the State as an instrument of human beings.

Crazy, crazy. It's rightwingers.

Cases in three different regional appellate circuits — Second, Sixth and Seventh — feature rightwing plaintiffs intent on revisiting Sullivan, the eloquently written opinion codifying First Amendment rights of the press, speech and expression by citizens voicing thought regarding public officials. [Sullivan protections were subsequently expanded to include other classes of public figures, somewhat more controversially.]

Though the three challenges do not appear to be well-organized, well-considered and linked, we would be fools to not be concerned.

New York Times v Sullivan

L.B. Sullivan, a Montgomery, Alabama Commissioner of Public Affairs filed a libel suit against "Negroes," clergymen and the New York Times Company for a full-page ad, entitled "Heed Their Rising Voices," run in the Times on March 29, 1960 in which the defendants call for human dignity, guarantees of the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and defense of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, (p 257, New York Times v Sullivan).

The ad was signed at the bottom of the page by the "Committee to Defend Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Freedom in the South."

L.B. Sullivan was not mentioned by name in the ad, but the ad condemned actions of the Montgomery police, and Sullivan reasoned he was implicitly criticized and libeled because of his authority as a supervisor of City police, (p 258, New York Times v Sullivan). 

A jury in the Montgomery County Circuit Court awarded Sullivan $500,000.

American Court victories won for liberty usually come after indescribable costs in blood and lives — state-perpetrated genocide, slavery, terror, massacres, murder, frame-ups, incarcerations, character assassination, trauma, intimidation, hate, racism and harassment, continuing today.

The New York Times and civil rights workers prevailed over the tyrannical Montgomery police and its odious City officials at the United States Supreme Court.

Justice William Brennan writing for a unanimous court authored a defense of the liberty of the people against government tyrants, a principle that today stands as both an inspiring statement for liberty and a landmark declaration of the power of citizens over public officials.

Writes Brennan:

The First Amendment, said Judge Learned Hand,

presupposes that right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues than through any kind of authoritative selection. To many, this is, and always will be, folly, but we have staked upon it our all. United States v. Associated Press, 52 F.Supp. 362, 372 (D.C.S.D.N.Y. 1943).

Mr. Justice Brandeis, in his concurring opinion in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 375-376, gave the principle its classic formulation:

Those who won our independence believed . . . that public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government. ... Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law -- the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.

Thus, we consider this case [New York Times v. Sullivan] against the background of a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials. (New York Times v. Sullivan).

Parable of Racist Police

To understand the power of Sullivan today, consider a recent example of racist Wisconsin police in which the DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Daniel Furseth was caught on video surveiling and mocking a group of black teenagers dressed for their high school prom, and stopping by an area restaurant, as was reported by a former police intern on YouTube in June 2018.

DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Daniel Furseth is a racist
cop who surveiled and mocked five young black men
in some faux black slang with a demeaning, racist and
derogatory narrative caught on video. Furseth was widely
criticized, resigning under fire before joining like-minded police
at the Town, not the City, of Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to
the holdings in New York Times v Sullivan (1964), public
officials like the Furseth could prevail in libel actions, pleading
libel per se against those such as the police intern who
published the video on YouTube. Wrties the whistle-
blower: "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."

Observing the youths and commenting in mocking accent, Furseth said: "Okay, we is out on our dates. We got the bitches, we gonna get them, and we gonna give them food. I got my cane, I’ve gots (sic) my suit. Oh baby … Okay, boys, let’s go in. This is the fanciest restaurant we ever been to and it’s called the Steak ‘N Shake. (Laughter) Unbelievable."

A reader should listen to the 36-second clip on YouTube to get a full accounting of the malice and racism that most small-town Wisconsin cops know to keep under wraps. Furseth and his all-white police force really do not like black people.

In August 2018 came reports of four new counts of misconduct by Furseth, (WISC-TV).

Chased out of office, the racist Daniel Furseth was never heard from again, right? Wrong.

Furseth was quickly hired by the town of Madison, not the City, in October 2018.

An official with the town of Madison police department, not the City, confirmed by phone on August 14, 2019 that Furseth is still employed with the Town police, locally notorious for racism, harassment, bogus citations and misconduct.

Pre-New York Times v Sullivan (1964), or had American jurisprudence taken another direction, the Town, DeForest and Furseth may have enjoyed cause for civil action for my opining that Daniel Furseth and Town and Village officials are racist, ignorant pig-fuckers who should have their teeth kicked out.

The former police intern who blew the whistle on YouTube similarly might not enjoy protections for his commentary about the character of the DeForest, Wisconsin Police Dept in which Furseth rose through the all-white ranks to become chief in 2015.

The judiciary over the last 60 years has risen to become a refuge for civil pleadings from social movements working for those persecuted by the State — often the repository of lurid souls like Daniel Furseth and L.B. Sullivan who, one may believe, should be anomalous is a classical liberal society.

Liberties Prevail

The United States Supreme Court of the 1950s, 60s and 70s in significant areas made it appear individual rights prevailing were a dynamic as inevitable as the triumph of reason over racism and liberation over atavistic taboo.

Landmark legal rulings after rulings were won and each victory seemed a fulfillment of long-denied liberties as the civil rights and peace movement flourished.

Brown v Board of Education (1954), New York Times v Sullivan (1964), Loving v Virgina (1967), Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) and United States v. United States District Court (1972) and dozens more Court holdings promised to buttress citizens against routine incursions of liberty by State actors and law enforcement.

Sullivan under Attack
 
Many today fear an epic backlash, and the challenges to Sullivan are emblematic.

 There are now at least three cases in three different appellate circuits — Second, Sixth and Seventh — in which rightwing plaintiffs appear intent on revisiting New York Times v. Sullivan.

• Sixth Circuit - Nicholas Sandmann v. WP Company LLC, d/b/a [doing business as] The Washington Post (2:19-cv-00019). Plaintiff says he will appeal the dismissal decided in jUly 2019.
• Seventh Circuit - Andrew Colborn v. Netflix, Inc (1:19-cv-00484). Likely to be dismissed in a  Dec 19, 2019 hearing in District court. An appeal is possible.
• Second Circuit - Sarah Palin v New York Times Co, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 17-3801. Case will be heard on the merits in U.S. District Court.

All three plaintiffs above are political rightwingers.

Sandmann and Palin are demonstrable racists.

All three cases appear more the result of isolated rightwing angst at the liberal press, and, in Colborn's case, astonishment that analysis and commentary dare accuse a law enforcement officer of criminal misconduct.

So, Google-alert the cases and keep your eyes out.

Smirk Seen Around the World Didn't Come out of Nowhere

Parents must be proud. Video of
Trump-supporting, young racists
sends chills across the world.
YouTube

Madison, Wisconsin—Video of a young, white man harassing Native American elder and Vietnam Veteran, Nathan Phillips, has defied description, so zealous is this face of white-power consciousness adorned in a red Make America Great Again cap (Schilling, Indian Country).

Phillips holds an annual ceremony honoring Native American veterans every year at Arlington National Cemetery. Phillips is a keeper of the sacred pipe on the hallowed ground.

The young racist is from Covington Catholic High School of Kentucky. The racist was in town to attend the March for Life, an annual anti-choice rally for misogynists and the religious right.

Surveying reactions to several videos, it seems describing this unabashed hate is beyond the ability of commentators to characterize. The visage of hate and ignorance is surreal.

The spectacle seems indescribable, but we all know this young racist, very well if you live in Wisconsin.

The racist grows up to be chief of police in Deforest, Wisconsin— Daniel Furseth. The racist is welcomed to serve in the town, (not city), of Madison, Wisconsin Police Dept.

He gives a Nazi salute in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

He joins the police force in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

He thrives in the Fitchburg, Wisconsin Police Dept. and in Wauwatosa, the Fox Valley, and Iron County.

He joins the Republican Party of Wisconsin. He can become president or a Supreme Court justice.

This unidentified white malice of Trump country did not come out of nowhere.

He's hiding in plain sight amid an intolerable herd of sheep blind to underground movements that are  mobilized and enthralled.

Says Mark Harris:

One reason that video is cutting so deep today: The smug, fixed, chilly smile. That's not a teenager out of control. It's the familiar gleam of a zealot. Never in the history of this country has that look portended anything but bad news.

— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) January 20, 2019

We know the smirking racist.

Know Nathan Phillips.

HERO

Nathan Phillips
Omaha Elder
Vietnam Veteran
Former director of the Native Youth Alliance
Keeper of a sacred pipe
Honoring Native American Veterans at Arlington National Cemetery
Water Protector at Standing Rock ND

KNOW HIM

RETWEET THIS! pic.twitter.com/X5wxpwaA3L

— StanceGrounded (@_SJPeace_) January 20, 2019

Republican Party Base Is Racist, Anti-Semitic and Fundamentalist

Baraboo, Wisconsin youth offers display of community pride

Updated: See also Jonah Raskin: A California Jew in a Time of Anti-Semitism, in CounterPunch.

Madison, Wisconsin — News out of Baraboo High School that students gave a NAZI salute posing for a Prom picture should surprise noone.

The same racist minds can be found in DeForest, Wisconsin with a police force stacked with bigots.

Or, in Fitchburg, Wisconsin with City Hall similarly full of white malignant bureaucrats and too-many corrupt, racist cops.

They vote Republican. They're white and proud of it. And racists are everywhere here. See S. Ani Mukherji in the Boston Review.

Small-town Wisconsin and rural USA are the vanguard for the White Party, the Republican Party, and criminal, hateful and violent conduct is given a free pass.

If you are a racist, Christian fundamentalist who works against Jews, Muslims and atheists, Trump and the White Party have a home for you.

You can be attorney general.

Where America is going is unclear:

Matthew Whitaker said that non-Christians should not be judges?
That concept was embodied in Germany’s “Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” Law of 1933.
Whitaker needs to go — now!https://t.co/uwWEQh0F7n via @HolocaustMuseum

— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) November 13, 2018

Time to speak out.

Notes ThinkProgress this morning:

In the United States as in other countries, those old demons include Nazis and other variations of white nationalists, modern iterations of whom strongly support nationalist leaders like Trump and whom Trump has praised in return. When white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville last year, for instance — one of them even murdering a counter-protester by driving into a crowd with his car — Trump insisted there were 'very fine people' on both sides of the demonstration. 

We know where Baraboo, Wisconsin stands, where the Republican Party stands.
---
A book to read for the Hitler youth of small-town America:

Milton Mayer's They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 (University of Chicago Press. ©1955).

Mayer, an American Jewish writer who had gone to Germany in the 1930s, made friends with 10 people, all of whom were members of the NAZI Party. He found them courteous, funny, genuine human beings whom he called "friends."

They were also fools and certainly were guilty.
---
From Milton Mayer:

But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

"You will understand me when I say that my Middle High German was my life. It was all I cared about. I was a scholar, a specialist. Then, suddenly, I was plunged into all the new activity, as the university was drawn into the new situation; meetings, conferences, interviews, ceremonies, and, above all, papers to be filled out, reports, bibliographies, lists, questionnaires. And on top of that were the demands in the community, the things in which one had to, was ‘expected to’ participate that had not been there or had not been important before. It was all rigmarole, of course, but it consumed all one’s energies, coming on top of the work one really wanted to do. You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things. One had no time." ...

Police Are the Problem

Update: "On Sunday afternoon, a veto-proof majority of Minneapolis City Council members will announce their commitment to disbanding the city’s embattled police department, which has endured relentless criticism in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, on May 25." - The Appeal  


Madison, Wisconsin — "You can’t tell me when that man had his knee on my brother’s neck, taking his life away, with his hand in his pocket, that smirk on his face didn’t say, 'I’m protected,'" said Stephen Jackson, retired NBA player and friend of George Floyd, (Gay, Wall Street Journal).

The police entitlement on a personal level is the belief — internalized perhaps — that I have a right to kill you, to inflict harm, torture, assault, harass, defame and assassinate your character because I am the police, you are not. 

And, I don't like your black hair, your dark skin, or your politics; and if you're white, I still might not like you, and I am God.

This collective malignant narcissism thrives in police culture, and the community here, and of course not just here, knows it.

A city of Madison cop told me a couple of years back that there was a substantial rush of early retirements from non-killing cops who were fed-up with being becoming social outcasts, virtual untouchables in the community.

Police psychology has never been well-explained despite worthy effort in  social psychology during the 1950s-70s that tried to find out how NAZI Germany and other fascistic states could have happened, how people could have jettisoned their own sense of morality and followed the anti-human directives of sick institutions and states.

Police tend to be anti-intellectual, careerist, hostile and authoritarian in their psychology. And duplicitous and tribal. Assholes.

Below is video from this weekend in Minneapolis of police passing peaceful citizens and shooting pepper balls at the human beings. Assholes. How many police will object? How about sexually assaulting women in LA. Cops did it, it's funny, right?

MINNEAPOLIS: Several MPD police cruisers drive by peaceful demonstrators and pepper spray them from moving vehicles for no reason. #BLUEFALLpic.twitter.com/aQQMbyYD17

— Chad Loder (@chadloder) June 5, 2020

A few years back, we don't know exactly why Madison police saw it necessary to beat up, taze and punch out a young woman, [a "bitch" as termed by a cop] who had phoned police filing a complaint that her phone had been stolen. The then Madison chief of Police, Mike Koval, termed the assault a "transaction."

Koval, by the way, expressed astonishment in 2017 that condemning police at football game protests for brutalizing black people is "self-absorbed ... diatribe," (WISC-TV). One wonders if Koval understands now.

There were quite a few Koval-approved transactions around here in previous years.

In 2016, Koval, exemplifying police, faced widespread condemnation for verbally assaulting a black grandmother whose young grandson, Tony Robinson, was gunned down in cold blood by Madison Police killer cop, Matt Kenny.

For police, killing is a ritualistic act, always worthy of defense against protesters. Consider, as we work to join the the freedom fighters for George Floyd:

• 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. Another short-lived record
  

The city of Madison disputed and criticized every settlement.

For victims of killer cops, inflicted trauma is never healed. Not ever.

But cops like to fuck with people, and not just kill them. Ask any black or brown person, how he feels when he sees a cop in a car coming near him, or saddling in behind him.

Cops are out to fuck with you.

Consider the parable of DeForest, Wisconsin Police Chief Daniel Furseth.

Furseth was caught on video mocking in a pathetic, racist and skin-crawling hostile narrative a group of young black youths out for something to eat.

The racist Furseth on video was too much even for white Wisconsin.

But no worries.

Furseth was quickly hired by the town of Madison, not the City, in October 2018.

An official with the town of Madison police department, not the City, confirmed by phone with me on August 14, 2019 that Furseth is still employed with the Town police, locally notorious for racism, harassment, bogus citations and misconduct.

Furseth and cops feel entitled to terrorize and belittle what the rest of us recognize as human beings.

And Ferseth is the perfect cop because we are not people, and we do not matter, not to cops.

Two Veterans Awarded Wisconsin Peacemakers of the Year

Two Wisconsin veterans will be among those awarded "for their lifetimes of activism on Oct. 3 by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ), a statewide network of 170 organizations working for social change."

Vietnam War veteran Will Williams of DeForest, Wisconsin (at right) and Iraq War veteran Jason Moon of Milwaukee are well-known in the peace and justice community for their tireless efforts in support of peace.

Jason Moon, 35, is a leader in Milwaukee’s chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Veterans for Peace (VFP) and the board of VFP’s Homeless Veterans Initiative to find and assist homeless veterans in the Milwaukee area. He testified at the national Winter Soldier hearings in 2008, at which Iraq and Afghanistan veterans told of their experiences.

Will Williams, 65, a member of Madison’s Veterans for Peace chapter, uses his own experience in Vietnam to speak and counsel young people about the realities of military service and challenge promises of recruiters. He has spoken across the state, linking peace, prison reform, and immigrant rights.

Iraq Invasion veteran Jason Moon of Milwaukee said his service in Iraq from July 2003until Aug. 2004 left him bitterly opposed to the Iraq war that most Americans regard as a lie sold to the American people.

From the Fond du lac Reporter:

Moon said the soldiers deployed in the summer of 2003 were ordered to run over children if they ran into the road, take the lives of civilians in terms he disagreed with and were ordered to not give food or water to civilians along the roadside.

'I told my superiors I wouldn't kill anyone,' Moon said. 'I entertained the troops with singing and playing my guitar. I taught Korean soldiers English and did whatever I could to remain useful on base. They understood I wasn't going to shoot anyone, so they gave me jobs. I tried to become a conscientious objector while I was over there, but they told me if I did that I would still be in Iraq after my unit came home.'

For more information, see Peacemakers honored for lifetimes of work.

Wisconsin Rep Attacks Citizen Groups, Says Spreading "Misinformation"

Clean water activists in Saratoga, Wisconsin fight for
water and oppose the siting of a proposed factory farm

An impressive feat the last six years during Wisconsin's lost decade is the organization of citizen groups around the state to defend clean and abundant water.

The citizens' worst enemy are the state representatives who should be working for citizens.

In central Wisconsin, local representatives run political interference for Big Ag which pollutes and depletes ground and surface waters. [State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa), threatened this site with a libel suit in 2014 when I noted Krug running this "political interference," a threat Krug dropped after I advised him truth is an absolute defense against defamation actions, among other defects in Krug's threat with respect to libel law, (Mal Contends), (Capital Times), (Crooks and Liars).]

Defiling Wisconsin's waters has the political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa) and State Sen. Patrick Testin, (R-Stevens Point) who represent the gerrymandered districts drawn to elect Republicans. These legislators also lend their support to the proposed Wysocki factory farm. 

Wysocki and his family bankrolled State Sen. Testin with $10,000 in contributions for his successful 2016 run. Krug's 2016 campaign received heavy funding from Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Ron Vos Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican interests aligned with Big Ag, (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign),

After Krug and Testin helped ram through the Big Ag-supported Senate Bill 76 last week, Krug complained in his current constituent newsletter that, "The misinformation campaign by several area groups make this sound like a massively different bill than it is. I am happy to sit down with anyone and walk through the actual bill."

The groups Krug complains about include: Rome-Saratoga Friendly, Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors, Central Sands Water Action Coalition, Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network, and the Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Senate Bill 76 "is good only for the handful of really large growers, [Big Ag], who have as much concern for their fellow farmers as they have for others who need access to clean and abundant water - none!," notes Saratoga (Wisconsin), Concerned last year, (Facebook).

Scott Walker will sign Big Ag's Senate Bill 76 soon.

Of note is the fact clean and safe water groups increasingly work in concert statewide. As noted by Criste Greening in the Green Bay Progressive in late April, clean water citizen groups include the following:

Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin
Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network
Wild Rivers Chapter Trout Unlimited
Friends of the Central Sands
Frac Sand Mining Awareness
Crawford Stewardship Project
Protect Wood County & Its Neighbors
Save The Hills Alliance
Kewaunee CARES
People Empowered Protect the Land (PEPL) of Rosendale
Green County Defending Our Farmland
Central Wisconsin Nature Foundation
Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative
Facing Forward Vernon Our Wisconsin Revolution
Inland Sea Society
From the Earth
Indivisible Fond du Lac
Protect Our Water
Friends of the Kinni
Concerned Rome Citizens
Rome Saratoga Friendly
Indivisible Winnebago
Central Sands Water Action Coalition
Forward Kenosha
Rinehart Lake Association
Farms Not Factories
Spirit Creek Water Protectors
Indivisible Milwaukee ~ South Side
Bad River Watershed Association
Frac Sand Sentinels
Indivisible Solon Springs
Indivisible DeForest
Concerned Citizens of Princeton
Citizens for a Better Environment Lake Mills
Emerald Clean Water For All
Penokee Hills Education Project
Penokee Hills Light Brigade
Water Protectors of Milwaukee
Friends of the Eau Claire Lakes Area
Citizens for Environmental Stewardship
Indivisible Ashland
Heartland Land Creations
League of Women Voters of Ashland and Bayfield Counties
LCO/Sawyer County Dems
Preserve Waupaca County
League of Women Voters Upper Mississippi RIver Region
Crystal Lake Club
Friends of the Tomorrow /Waupaca River
Waupaca Commoners Caucus
Constituents Only
Defending Our Ixonia Countryside
Vernon County Democratic Party
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
Gaia Coalition
Concerned Citizens of Easton
League of Women Voters/Greater Chippewa Valley
Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin
Organic Consumers Association
Blue Jean Nation
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Echo Valley Hope
Madison Action for Mining Alternatives
Reedsburg Area Concerned Citizens

Wisconsin Clean Water Supporters Score First Major Electoral Victory

Communities in central Wisconsin await the decision of
the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a case that would
effectually halt a massive factory farm from beginning
operations with the consequences being economic
devastation for an entire Wisconsin region. Clean
water activists fear the decision will be corruptly
decided by five Republican-linked judges on the
seven-member court.

Madison, Wisconsin — Families and communities fighting for fresh water have scored their first electoral victory over Republicans and the industrial polluters for whom the GOP is transforming Wisconsin statutory and administrative law to make it easier to poison water without accountability.

Water is necessary for human life, but the Republican Party dismissive of this fact has not faced an electoral reckoning to this point, (Ecological Economics, Principles and Applications, Water, Mayo Clinic).

A special state senate election from northwestern Wisconsin signals a change that sent political newcomer State Senator-elect Patty Schachtner, (D-Somerset, Wisconsin) into the gerrymandered state legislature this week.

Notes Matthew DeFour this morning in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Some [political observers and environmental activists] ... said voters were tuned into local issues and angered by [defeated the Republican] Jarchow’s sponsorship of bills that have reduced environmental protections and local zoning control.

'We absolutely believe local issues motivated people in this race. All of our communications were very positive about Patty and the impact she can have on the local environment. We heard a lot from our members about Jarchow’s anti-conservation background,' said Staush Gruszynski, political director for the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters.

Jeff Smith, an organizer for liberal advocacy group Citizen Action of Wisconsin, said efforts to clean up the Red Cedar Watershed have been hampered by bills Jarchow has championed limiting local zoning control.

'There is a lot of angst toward Jarchow because of his anti-environment/pro-corporate stance,' Smith said.

Angst and anger because multi-generational families have children rushed to the hospital after bathing in water poisoned by factory farms vectoring manure into the environment. Consider this, children poisoned from bathing.

The Republican Party has become so pathologically removed from the health of families and communities that its office-holders are willing to see children poisoned in exchange for Big Ag's money.

Writes John Ikerd in Rural Communities of Necessity:

Rural America once had strong communities. It would have been very difficult for anyone who built a CAFO, (factory farm), in a rural area in earlier times. It wasn’t socially or morally acceptable for one person in the community to benefit at the expense of others.

A Wisconsin state senate district signals a return to the days when it mattered if you poisoned your neighbor.

From a piece here from May 2017 on the work of Wisconsin Republicans to methodically vector manure into rural communties, while depelting groundwater for the sole benefit of Big Ag:

Clean water activists in Saratoga, Wisconsin fight for
water and oppose the siting of a proposed factory farm

An impressive feat the last six years during Wisconsin's lost decade is the organization of citizen groups around the state to defend clean and abundant water.

The citizens' worst enemy are the state representatives who should be working for citizens.

In central Wisconsin, local representatives run political interference for Big Ag which pollutes and depletes ground and surface waters. [State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa), threatened this site with a libel suit in 2014 when I noted Krug running this "political interference," a threat Krug dropped after I advised him truth is an absolute defense against defamation actions, among other defects in Krug's threat with respect to libel law, (Mal Contends), (Capital Times), (Crooks and Liars).]

Defiling Wisconsin's waters has the political support of local State Rep. Scott Krug, (R-Nekoosa) and State Sen. Patrick Testin, (R-Stevens Point) who represent the gerrymandered districts drawn to elect Republicans. These legislators also lend their support to the proposed Wysocki factory farm. 

Wysocki and his family bankrolled State Sen. Testin with $10,000 in contributions for his successful 2016 run. Krug's 2016 campaign received heavy funding from Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Ron Vos Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican interests aligned with Big Ag, (Wisconsin Democracy Campaign),

After Krug and Testin helped ram through the Big Ag-supported Senate Bill 76 last week, Krug complained in his current constituent newsletter that, "The misinformation campaign by several area groups make this sound like a massively different bill than it is. I am happy to sit down with anyone and walk through the actual bill."

The groups Krug complains about include: Rome-Saratoga Friendly, Protect Wood County and Its Neighbors, Central Sands Water Action Coalition, Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network, and the Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Senate Bill 76 "is good only for the handful of really large growers, [Big Ag], who have as much concern for their fellow farmers as they have for others who need access to clean and abundant water - none!," notes Saratoga (Wisconsin), Concerned last year, (Facebook).

Of note is the fact clean and safe water groups increasingly work in concert statewide. As noted by Criste Greening in the Green Bay Progressive in late April, clean water citizen groups include the following:
Citizens' Water Coalition of Wisconsin
Sustain Rural Wisconsin Network
Wild Rivers Chapter Trout Unlimited
Friends of the Central Sands
Frac Sand Mining Awareness
Crawford Stewardship Project
Protect Wood County & Its Neighbors
Save The Hills Alliance
Kewaunee CARES
People Empowered Protect the Land (PEPL) of Rosendale
Green County Defending Our Farmland
Central Wisconsin Nature Foundation
Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative
Facing Forward Vernon Our Wisconsin Revolution
Inland Sea Society
From the Earth
Indivisible Fond du Lac
Protect Our Water
Friends of the Kinni
Concerned Rome Citizens
Rome Saratoga Friendly
Indivisible Winnebago
Central Sands Water Action Coalition
Forward Kenosha
Rinehart Lake Association
Farms Not Factories
Spirit Creek Water Protectors
Indivisible Milwaukee ~ South Side
Bad River Watershed Association
Frac Sand Sentinels
Indivisible Solon Springs
Indivisible DeForest
Concerned Citizens of Princeton
Citizens for a Better Environment Lake Mills
Emerald Clean Water For All
Penokee Hills Education Project
Penokee Hills Light Brigade
Water Protectors of Milwaukee
Friends of the Eau Claire Lakes Area
Citizens for Environmental Stewardship
Indivisible Ashland
Heartland Land Creations
League of Women Voters of Ashland and Bayfield Counties
LCO/Sawyer County Dems
Preserve Waupaca County
League of Women Voters Upper Mississippi RIver Region
Crystal Lake Club
Friends of the Tomorrow /Waupaca River
Waupaca Commoners Caucus
Constituents Only
Defending Our Ixonia Countryside
Vernon County Democratic Party
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger
Gaia Coalition
Concerned Citizens of Easton
League of Women Voters/Greater Chippewa Valley
Clean Water Action Council of Northeast Wisconsin
Organic Consumers Association
Blue Jean Nation
Wisconsin Resources Protection Council
Echo Valley Hope
Madison Action for Mining Alternatives
Reedsburg Area Concerned Citizens