Wisconsin's DoJ Probe on Tony Robinson Killing Offers Blind Faith

David S. Matthews, Administrator of
the Division of Criminal Investigation is
leading the investigation of the killing of
Tony Robinson, 19-years-old

Update II: See Madland: The criminal justice system is broken and black men pay the price (Talaga, Isthmus)

Update: WISC News: "The Dane County Medical Examiner says 19-year-old Tony Robinson suffered firearm trauma to his head, torso and right arm."

Just had to shoot this young man to death, right? White police shooting young, black men to death, a common occurrence in the United States, provokes outrage but not surprise.
 ---
Updated: The Wisconsin Attorney General is Republican Brad Schimel, former district attorney of Waukesha County (R-White People) and a dedicated partisan who was elected last year on a campaign devoid of civil rights activists and criminal justice reformists.

Schimel leads the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

During Schimel's predecessor's tenure the DoJ became so deeply immersed in partisan activity any semblance of trust in its objectivity was destroyed.

In the investigation into the police killing of Tony Robinson under 2013 Wisconsin Act 348, Brad Schimel's election changes nothing.

Former attorney general J.B. Van Hollen is gone, replaced by Schimel earlier this year.

No organization headed by a Wisconsin Republican these days, especially the DoJ, brings to Wisconsin citizens cause for trust.

Heading up the investigation into the police killing of Tony Robinson is not a civil rights activist, a turgid UW-Madison law professor, investigators from the Innocence Project, or an investigative counsel like a modern-day John Doar, Bill Dixon or Hillary Clinton.

The man in charge of providing answers to the Robinson family, friends and Wisconsin is: David S. Matthews, Administrator of the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI).

Matthews was appointed to his current position by Van Hollen in 2012.

Matthews is an Air Force veteran, does not have a law degree or from looking at his public profile any experience in civil rights work or much interest in the liberal arts.

The DCI, charged with investigating the killing, is described by Anne E. Schwartz, Director of Communications and Public Affairs of the Wisconsin Department of Justice as a "division of full-time, sworn, professional, veteran law enforcement investigators," in an email.

Veteran law enforcement investigators investigating a killing by a veteran law enforcement officer. The whole point of Act 348 is to have objective, external investigations into police-involved shootings.

Trust is all the Wisconsin people have to go on in this matter, and if truth be the objective, trust in these matters in Wisconsin is for fools.

Black Lives Matter, in Wisconsin not so much

Culture in Local Police States Begs Direction for Ungrateful Populations

Family of slain Madison, Wisconsin, resident,
Tony Robinson, remains unappreciative of glory of
his sacrifice and the valor of Robinson's killer,
Matt Kenny of the Madison police department
- Image is a self-portrait by Kathe Kollwitz,
(1867-1945), an anti-fascist artist who endured
 personal tragedy captured in her work (NYT)

Police killing in man-just-asking-for-it case shows worst of American municipal populations rejecting unity and greater good of community

Madison, Wisconsin—Citizen reaction to the $3.35 Million federal civil action settlement with the family of a police victim killed in 2015 is revealing of a growing citizens' culture steeped in civil liberties and human rights.

This culture should be cleansed.

An unarmed, black nineteen-year-old Tony Robinson of Madison, Wisconsin, was shot seven times by veteran killer cop, Matt Kenny of the Madison Police Department. Kenny successfully shot and killed two people in his 14-year police career (CNN).

Wisconsin's corporate press typically offers compelling news accounts of the spectacular displays of systemic police violence and killings of domestic populations by municipal police departments, as in the Robinson case (Democracy Now).

In police killing-us-for-us incidents, local press often reports news-worthy developments, for example, profiles of the idealism and nobility of law enforcement—traits typically not acknowledged by ungrateful populations remaining unappreciative of the dedication, skill, sacrifice and commitment police employ when they kill people.

The Tony Robinson family of Madison are ingrates of a particularly virulent strain as word among young Madison human rights activists is the Robinson family has not contacted and thanked Officer Kenny in the some two years since he skillfully gunned down the young Tony.

City officials are all on message supporting the work of the City insurance carrier negotiating and paying the record $3.35 Million settlement, following a different local record settlement for a different police killing in August 2015 (Treleven, Wisconsin State Journal).

But let's not mix up righteous killings of our fellow citizens when the Robinson family so shamelessly perches on the wilderness of clean Madison society and takes pot shots at the helpless police working to make America great again.

"Attorneys representing the family of a man killed by a Madison police officer say the city’s mayor should not lie about how a federal lawsuit was settled," reports WMTV (Madison, Wisconsin).

Robinson's attorneys made their provocative reply comments following the statement by Mayor Soglin asserting neither the City Attorney nor the Mayor's office influenced in any manner the multi-million dollar settlement:

Mayor Paul Soglin stresses that the decision to settle the lawsuit was made by attorneys hired by the city’s insurance carrier.

'Neither our office nor the City Attorney were involved in the settlement,' writes Soglin in a statement. 'Let me be clear in asserting that the City of Madison, who was not a party to the case, had no standing and no ability to influence the court or the parties in approving a settlement. Any statement to the contrary is false.' (Potter, Isthmus)

[This writer does not believe Soglin's statement of no influence to be true. Soglin and City Atty Michael May appear to be brilliant politicians working behind the scenes for their conception of what civil libertarian types call 'police reform,' but this asserted long-game strategy is a different story with no direct evidentiary support, just a wild hunch.]

The traumatized Robinson family should be forgiven its collective transgressions against our community.

What is beyond dispute is the American police will kill some 1,000 people in 2017, (Killed by police), (Washington Post), following a better-than-average killing year in 2016 that saw some 1,155 people killed (Killed by police, 2016).

Methodologies used in compiling a killing statistic differ, so those tracking killings by police arrive at slightly different figures.

Is is as well incontrovertible that Madison police are courageous killers.

Madison Police Chief Mike Koval offers his latest analysis continuing Koval's expert, never-met-a-Madison-Police-killing-I-didn't-like commentary. This work should be adopted into a Hollywood movie, and everyone from Chuck Norris to Steven Seagal can rejoice in the Chief's prose.

Cleansing the culture and educating the citizenry are projects that should never conclude. We must be vigilant, as President Trump has said, powered by our love.

Chief Koval, Madison Police Lose Credibility, In Full CYA Mode

Madison Police - "Professional, Cordial, and
Respectful," says Koval. Knees on the head on
this young man's head show respect? If this
is professional, cordial and respectful, one
must question the police standards in this
regard. Perhaps shooting Tony Robinson
to death in March is cordial.

Madison Police hit the PR circuit hard yesterday.

Police Chief Mike Koval now says the police violence captured on video shows no police violence, and anyone who says differently loses his/her "credibility." (Savidge, Wisconsin State Journal)

At right is a shot from the video by Leslie Amsterdam of the Madison Police acting "very professionally, cordially and respectfully," as described by Koval, with protestors at a peaceful demonstration on Tuesday.

It would appear Koval and the cops are subject matter experts on what constitutes peace and violence.

And perhaps Tony Robinson really wasn't really shot to death. Right.

"Preliminary autopsy results released [in mid-March] show Tony Robinson was shot multiple times by a Madison police officer. Robinson, 19, died from firearm-related trauma to the head, torso and right upper extremity, according to the Dane County medical examiner's office. The exact number of gunshot wounds was not released, though friends and family have said he was shot five times in the chest." (Luthern, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Shot Five times. Wonder why police held that fact back. Clear now is why Tony Robinson's family said they have lost faith in the "investigation" last week. (Schneider, The Capital Times)

Anyone expecting candor from Koval and the Madison Police will be disappointed very soon.

Below is Leslie Amsterdam's video.

Professional, cordial and respectful?

This is what criminal law experts and law enforcement reformists call bullshit.

The State Journal ran a video this morning omitting nearly five minutes of another video featured on the YGB Ferguson To Madison site (Facebook) as Madison police up its propaganda efforts as the decision on whether to prosecute the killer cop approaches.

From YGB Ferguson To Madison on Tuesday, April 14, 2015:

The culmination of a national day of action against police brutality was met, some might say ironically, with a further escalation of police violence when peaceful protesters were arrested on East Washington Avenue in front of East High School. If you pay attention to who they target first, you can see how the police set this up. What comes after is just people reacting to unprovoked police violence and then getting arrested. #Justice4Tony #BlackLivesMatter
Posted by YGB Ferguson To Madison on Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Law Calls for Tony Robinson Investigation Records to be Made Public

Madison Police Officer Matt Kenny
killed unarmed, young black man

Updated - Amid the citizen demand to stop the police killings (Kang, NYT) is the police involuntary response to cover its collective ass.

It is in this atmosphere that Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne will announce on Tuesday his office's decision on filing charges against Madison police officer Matt Kenny for shooting the unarmed 19-year-old Tony Robinson (Facebook) to death on March 6.

The Wisconsin DoJ Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) was tasked with the investigation of Madison Police Officer Matt Kenny's shooting, per 2013 Wisconsin Act 348, and delivering a complete report of the investigation to the District Attorney.

The results of the investigation should be made public and Act 348 demands precisely that: Section 1, 5(b) "If the district attorney determines there is no basis to prosecute the law enforcement officer involved in the officer-involved death, the investigators conducting the investigation under sub. (3) (a) shall release the report."

The Wisconsin DoJ is tainted as a Republican Party-led outfit and should not be accorded credibility based on partisan past action, none of which has been repudiated by the current attorney general.

The point of Act 348 is to have external investigations into police-involved shootings as a means of getting to the truth. I would have more faith in academics and civil rights activists rather than law enforcement officers conducting investigations into fellow law enforcement officers, as Act 348 calls for.

DA Ozanne should offer his reasoning online as well his decision as a means of repairing community trust destroyed by decades of police destruction of such trust.

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

Erik Ljung has a video with the Times piece with compelling footage of community outrage against such recent police killings in Wisconsin of Paul Heenan (Schenider, The Capital Times (2013)) (killed by Madison Police Officer Stephen Heimsness who resigned in June 2013 (Erickson, Wisconsin State Journal), Tony Terrell Robinson Jr. in Madison (Dean, The Capital Times), Michael Bell in Kenosha (2004), and Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee (Luthern, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Mal Contends). Too many victims to list.

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

Adam Gerol, president of the Wisconsin District Attorney’s Association, testified in December 2013 he thinks the law [Act 348] "will not create greater scrutiny of police officer-involved killings or more effective prosecutions." (Schneider, The Capital Times)

We need an engaged community for that, using the abundant analytical resources Dane County and Wisconsin has at its disposal.

Unfortunately for our community and the Robinson family, Ozanne only gets to use the evidence he is given in the report by the DCI as a basis on which to make a decision.

Whatever the action by Ozanne tomorrow, don't blame him or his office as he has no discretion in this matter.

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin addresses protesters on Martin Luther King Blvd
during a community action against the police killing of Tony Robinson in March

Police and the Myth of Honor

Dane County Deputy Sheriff Andrew P. Steele
(ret), the face of Justice in Dane County

Update III: See Wisconsin: The Worst State for African Americans (Brown, The Progressive). For Wisconsin police forces steeped in anti-intellectualism, Brown writes "The first step to addressing racial inequality is recognizing that it exists." But you will not find many social justice activists in the self-selecting members of law enforcement, nor too many intellectuals.

Update II: Capitol protest draws 1,500 in Tony Robinson killing. (Wisconsin State Journal)

Updated - Testilying is the common practice of police testifying in court after prosecutors typically overcharge and put decades of a criminal defendant's life in the hands of easily persuadable juries.

That police in America routinely commit perjury is not a fact widely known outside of the principals of the bastardization of the criminal justice system.

That police routinely cook police reports is another fact.

That police will harass individuals fighting even a civil citation is another fact not widely known, corrupting a system with no apparent shame.

Most judges look to hang onto their six-figure, taxpayer-financed job, a good gig if you can get it; justice is not their objective.

What's the check on this system? There isn't any currently, and the conveyor belt of the police and the criminal judicial system moves on carrying as many victims as can be held.

In Madison, Police Chief Michael C. Koval ought to consider these issues at his next listening sessions, though the corrupt and insidious practice is widespread enough now (and has been for decades) that contemplation before action is not needed.

We need a Conviction Integrity Unit in Dane County, and it ought to be publicly funded. The Dane County Board of Supervisors has the responsibility on this for authoring and implementing this system.

Why isn't there a widespread call that former Dane County deputy sheriff Andrew Steele's work all be called into question after he murdered two people while still receiving public monies for medical leave?

Every case in which Steele's work was central should be suspect.

Tony Robinson, Killed by Madison, Wisconsin Police March 2015

But truth and justice are not the objectives of the criminal justice system and digging up old cases is a hassle.

Steele pleaded insanity late last month to two charges of First-Degree Intentional Homicide, a fitting plea for an insane criminal justice system by a deputy sheriff whom Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney called an "exemplary employee" last year.

In the meantime, the young among us are pointing the way forward, see Stocker, The Capital Times as they grieve the killing of 19-year-old Tony Robinson by Madison Police.

Will the killings of young, black men ever stop?

Will incarcerating more and more innocent Americans ever stop?

I guarantee a result if the people do nothing, and retreat into passive compliance and lethargy.

Donald Trump, Scott Walker, Madison, Wisc Police Chief Hit NFL Players' Human Rights Stand

The face of hate in Madison, Wisconsin wears military blue
and black and has a home in the Madison Police Department.
Above are two killer cops.

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin—The lust for reenactment of mythic ritual is strong in the fascist mind.

Stronger still is the rage against open demonstration mocking such insipid ritual. Stronger still is the urge to kill.

Witness the National Football League and the NFL Players Association's support of players who protest police killing people, racism and brutality in the land of the free and home of the brave.

Many NFL players protest by taking a knee during the National Anthem at football games.

No surprise that Donald Trump "has stepped up the pressure on the National Football League over protests by its players during the national anthem by launching a petition and asking his supporters to show their patriotism by backing it," (Reuters).

No surprise that Gov. Scott Walker opines, "It is time for players in the NFL to stop their protests during the anthem ...," (The Capital Times).

Both craven politicians are hostile to military veterans, human rights and civil liberties. Both pols never served in the military, Peace Corp, even as a poll worker, or have volunteered for any civic duty.

In Madison, Wisconsin, it gets worse.

Madison's leading fascist municipal office holder, the Chief of Police Mike Koval, has now joined the cynical chorus of voices condemning protests for human rights at football games, (WISC-TV).

In Koval's mind, protesting cops killing people, racism and brutality is a "self-absorbed ... diatribe."

Koval need not look far for examples of cops killing people, racism and brutality now under NFL players' protest. Killer cops are allowed and defended in the Madison Police Department.

Koval never protests against cops killing people, racism and brutality. In Madison, Koval always, 100 percent of the time, cheers on his killer cops.

Last year faced Koval 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 Koval, killing is a ritualistic act, worthy of defense. Consider:

• Ashley DiPiazza, gunned down by Madison Police in 2014, resulting a record $7 Million verdict against Madison. A new record.
• 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.
  

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

It may help Koval to understand our community's objection to his killer cops by considering when players take a knee for victims, local victims of Madison Police such as Ashley DiPiazza, Tony Robinson, and Paul Heenan are honored.

Nationally, this year promises to be a good year for killer cops. 2017 is ahead of the 2016 in successful killings by police: As of Oct. 19, 2017, 958 people were killed by cops. On Oct. 19, 2016, that figure was 939 people killed by cops.

This killer-cop phenomenon should be studied, challenged and reversed.

But for craven politicians like Trump, Walker and Koval, failure to partake in ridiculous ritual is a worse offense.

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

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

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

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

Writes Gottinger:

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

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

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

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

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

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

The reason is murderous police would not stand a chance.

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

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

No, no faith.

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

There won't be a prosecution.

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

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

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

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

The Police Killed Him

Updated - "Last week I was in Madison, Wisconsin, where I was informed of the killing of Tony Robinson by a police officer. Robinson was high on mushrooms. The police were summoned after he chased a car. The police killed him. A month earlier, I'd been thinking a lot about Anthony Hill, who was mentally ill. One day last month, Hill stripped off his clothes and started jumping off of his balcony. The police were called. They killed him. I can't see the image of Tamir Rice aimlessly kicking snow outside the Cleveland projects and think of how little we invest in occupying the minds of children. A bored Tamir Rice decided to occupy his time with a airsoft gun. He was killed."

So notes Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic in a piece in mid-April, commenting on the already 100s of killings by police in 2015. [Update: New day, new police killing: See Sherman, Kaltenbach and Campbell, the Baltimore Sun with video: "What we know is that while in police custody for committing no crime — for which they had no justification for making the arrest except he was a black man running — his spine was virtually severed, 80 percent severed, in the neck area," attorney Murphy said. He called Freddie Gray's injuries "catastrophic."] Cops broke a 25-year-old man's spine virtually into two, he was killed.

Madison police chief Mike Koval ought to consider what police killing is the next time Koval opens his mouth.

Asks Coates: "[I]n this time of heightened concern around the policing, a more essential question might be, 'Were we justified in sending them?' At some point, Americans decided that the best answer to every social ill lay in the power of the criminal-justice system. Vexing social problems—homelessness, drug use, the inability to support one's children, mental illness—are presently solved by sending in men and women who specialize in inspiring fear and ensuring compliance. Fear and compliance have their place, but it can't be every place."

I would not look to police for answers. As an institution, police tend to be anti-intellectual, careerist and authoritarian in their psychology. And duplicitous and tribal.

This is because police departments are self-selecting, attracting someone capable and inclined to kill people.

This does NOT appear be lost on the folks who knew Tony Robinson.

Unfortunately, for Madison this fact does escape the police chief branding himself as reformist, now openly attacking a protesting community objecting to the police killing Robinson.

Tony Evers' Cold-blooded Response to Police Attempted Murder of Jacob Blake

If police shot your friend seven times in an attempt to murder him in front of his three children, would you send a sympathy card reading: 'I offer you my empathy following police engaging with you. I hope earnestly you will not succumb to your injuries. Hope action follows my empathy.'

If you did, anyone reading the card would ask, what in the hell is wrong with you?

This is Gov Tony Evers' reaction to the latest police attempt to kill a black man.

Kenohsa police followed a man, Jacob Blake, walking to his car Sunday night and then shot him seven times in the back. The attempted murder is caught on video.

The reaction of the Wisconsin Democrat to this latest police outrage is causing that skin-crawling sensation one gets when encountering a psychopath, someone incapable of empathy and the realization that human beings are inherently worthy.

When you encounter a mal-formed human being such as a psychopath or a child molester, you want to slap the freak, and tell him to get the hell out of here.

Who witnesses cold-blood attempted murder and then writes a statement, 'I offer you my empathy. I hope earnestly you will not succumb to your injuries. Hope action follows my empathy.'

This is the low-life Evers trying to impersonate a human being.

Tony Evers. Wisconsin is now ground zero in the social justice movement and we are treated to this lunatic who is pathetically out-of-touch with the concerns of human beings.

Watch the next days, Wisconsin Democrats will not criticize Evers.

Evers' full statement sent on Twitter last night is reproduced below:

While we do not have all of the details yet, what we know for certain is that he is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country.

— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) August 24, 2020

We stand with all those who have and continue to demand justice, equity, and accountability for Black lives in our country—lives like those of George Floyd, of Breonna Taylor, Tony Robinson, Dontre Hamilton, Ernest Lacy, and Sylville Smith.

— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) August 24, 2020

And we stand against excessive use of force and immediate escalation when engaging with Black Wisconsinites.

— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) August 24, 2020

I have said all along that although we must offer our empathy, equally important is our action. In the coming days, we will demand just that of elected officials in our state who have failed to recognize the racism in our state and our country for far too long.

— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) August 24, 2020

 Video of the would-be police execution is below. Don't look away,

Wow. This Black man was shot several times in the back by @KenoshaPolice today. He was getting into his car after apparently breaking up a fight between two women. He’s in critical condition now. We demand JUSTICE! #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/I1reDEp4nw

— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) August 24, 2020

We must presume innocence! (Unless you're a Black man and a cop wants to shoot you in the back seven times in front of your children; then it's carte blanche.)

— Stephen Schaller (@cambiodoble) August 24, 2020

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.

Violent Arrests by Madison Police

Anyone expecting justice and peace from the City of Madison is deluding herself.

Clearly, peace and justice are not why the police are in business.

As for Chief Mike Koval, just another careerist with a gun.

This is a shame, and the conclusion is inescapable that this is a betrayal to the community.

From YGB From Ferguson to Madison

Violent Police Arrest Peaceful Protestors

April 14, 2015 – Madison, WI

Between 6:30 and 7:30 pm on Tuesday April 14th, Madison Police officers at the intersection of East Washington and 4th Street arrested more than ten peaceful protestors.

Roughly 35 people, mostly youth remained in the intersection after a day-long protest, for which residents shut down East Washington for several hours to demand justice for Tony Robinson and as a part of a national action against police violence and mass incarceration.

As the young people continued to sit in the intersection, 30-40 officers approached the group from the west, spanning both sides of East Washington. The officers approached the youth telling them they had 5 minutes to leave before they would be arrested. While the youth deliberated as to whether they would take arrests, the police ambushed the group. Officers arrested three people initially, Jivonte Lee Davis, Mary Jo Walters and another protestor. They subsequently approached Leslie Amsterdam (Peterson), a member of the media, who was recording the arrests. They told her to move, and when she revealed herself as a member of the media, they destroyed her camera and forcibly arrested her. The remaining youth then decided that since they could not be in the street without being arrested, they would march legally in the crosswalks across East Washington during the light changes.

After roughly an hour, they were caught in the median during a light change. Two adults, Adeyemi Balogun and Brandi Grayson attempted to protect the youth from the police. “They grabbed Brandi and dragged her, so I grabbed her,” reported Balogun. “Then they jumped on me. They came up behind me and grabbed my neck. Then another cop grabbed me and they had me wrapped up. They just kept saying ‘stop resisting, stop resisting!’ But I wasn’t doing anything.”

Grayson was violently thrown to the ground and then drug along the ground before she was arrested. Balogun along with approximately six more people, including youth, were arrested at that time. Marnie Schroeder, another arrested person described the scene: “He [CJ Terrell] wasn’t talking, wasn’t doing anything and they slammed him to the ground. They had their knee on his neck and his face in the dirt. I tried to put my hand under his face to protect it, but then they arrested me.”

Community members are outraged but unsurprised by this gross display of state power by MPD. “This is a clear example of the state violence we have been talking about for months,” said Grayson. “They brutalized me, and they arrested our babies who were mourning and protesting against the police violence that led to the murder of their friend, Tony Robinson.” For more information, visit www.facebook.com/fergusontomadison or ygbcoalition.org.

A Call to Boycott Wisconsin Democrats — Party Is over for Nihilistic Gang Defending Wrongful Convictions

"I hate injustice. I guess that's about the only thing I really do hate."
— Ben Shahn, anti-fascist artist (1898–1969)

Madison, Wisconsin — This is a call for withholding all political and electoral support for Wisconsin Democrats at all levels of government.

This action starts with opposing Gov Tony Evers (D), Attorney General Joshua Kaul (D), U.S. Rep Mark Pocan (D), and all Democrats down to any  state, county and municipal candidates who are silent on the wrongful convictions of Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, and so many others languishing behind bars, ruining and preventing their lives.

The game, this charade, is over, people. 

The Democratic Party is imprisoning innocents and killing black and brown people in broad daylight, then defending these crimes in their elected offices of public trust. Kenosha and Jacob Blake are the norm.

Tony Robinson is the norm. Paul Heenan is the norm. Ashley DiPiazza is the norm. That's just Madison, the civilized place. Look, killer cops cannot operate for long without the support of the Democratic Party. This is the truth staring everyone in the face, and yet we look away.

In Wisconsin, supporters of black and brown folks, and Brendan Dassey and Steven Avery, it's time to pursue opposition to Wisconsin Democrats at all levels of government. This injustice system cannot go on unless we support Evers and Kaul in the political system.

Corrupt Wisconsin police targeted the innocent to tragic
consequence in cases of  Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.
Image from Kathe Kollwitz, (1867-1945). Kollwitz
is a major anti-fascist artist who lived in Germany, and never
recovered from the death of her son in World War I.
Image depicts German state enlisting her son, shortly before
he was killed in a senseless and ridiculous war.

Evers and Kaul know the facts of these innocents in prison, especially Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey.

What escapes bums like Evers and Kaul is no individual life is worth the Democratic Party, especially this Democratic Party.

Over time, we can quickly raise the costs of Party opposition to freeing innocent men and women. 

Even a marginal raising of electoral costs will quickly degrade the Party in Wisconsin. No more support for Democrats, people. We want Brendan and Steven free?

The political system is the pressure point. This is the prominent way in which we pursue change and protect our very lives and liberty, yet many working for the freedom of innocents eschew the political and electoral systems as a means of freeing people who do not belong behind bars.

Most folks in Wisconsin, my state, had they resided in Germany in the 1930s would have made superlative NAZIs, worse -- by-standers. No more.
---

"I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me."

All the NAZIs required of the population is a "mood of passive compliance" as Hitler’s Holocaust and armies coursed through Europe as he promised a return to "traditional values" and security for good German families. -- Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1970). Cited by Noam Chomsky, The Culture of Terrorism (1988).
--
Has anyone been watching the Derek Chauvin trial on Court TV?

Every witness at the Chauvin trial struggles with the question, 'should they have done more to save George Floyd?' The sadistic pig-cop Chauvin and his buddies did not struggle with any moral question. They viciously terrorized and killed a man.

Watch the sadist Chauvin driving his knee as he looks around and preens on a terrified George Floyd's neck, as he arrogantly flaunts his status as a cop among Minnesota-Nice society. What we do in Wisconsin's Democratic Party is worse, and this sick game must be over now.

Wisconsin Dems Block Exoneration Seekers

Image is by Otto Dix, German anti-fascist artist
whose work was confiscated by the NAZIs and
displayed as degenerate art. "The Nazis labeled Dix a
'degenerate,' but the term is better applied to the society
he depicted—cannibalizing itself and hurtling toward
destruction," writes Alina Cohen in The Guardian.
Wisconsin today has veered into fascism, and literally no
elected official challenges the police-prison state which
sends innocents to their doom.

Justice Delayed in Making a Murderer Cases

MADISON, WIS — In a legal spectacle this Spring, Thomas Sowinski of Manitowoc swore in a statement that he saw the prosecution's key trial witness plant the murder victim's RAV4 vehicle on the property of the man convicted of homicide in 2007.

In other words, a credible resident swears he caught conspirators red-handed in a frame-up scheme in Wisconsin's infamous murder case drawing headlines in state post-conviction litigation.

Sowinski appears the stuff of movies — maybe, some mused, in response Wisconsin's new attorney general would seek to vacate two murder convictions, amid a vow to clean up law enforcement in east-central Wisconsin.

Movies are not political reality in Wisconsin.

The case is State of Wisconsin v Steven Avery, featured in the Emmy-winning Making a Murderer docuseries.

Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, were convicted of first-degree homicide for the 2005 murder of a young photographer, Teresa Halbach. Both men are serving life sentences.

Most see the spectacle as revenge prosecutions of innocents in Manitowoc and Calumet counties, an insular region of the state known for small-town justice — injustice.

DOJ delay strategy

The Wisconsin Dept of Justice quickly responded on April 16 to the Sowinski statement, filed by Avery attorney Kathleen Zellner.

The DOJ filing includes unfounded accusations challenging attorney Zellner's ethics, and a bizarre statement complaining about the fact that Avery spotlights more prosecutorial misconduct for allegedly withholding exculpatory evidence — a Brady violation.

The DOJ asserted that the sheer multiplicity of alleged Brady violations in the record should be read against the defense.

Avery's attorney, Zellner, reacted with restrained outrage.

Zellner replied to the Court on April 22: "It is a supreme irony that in one of the most blatant examples of a wrongful conviction the State's only response is to falsely accuse Mr. Avery's lead counsel of nefarious conduct for discovering a 6th Brady violation. Rather than seeking justice, the State wants to 'slay the messenger' by putting forth more false allegations, a skill that it has mastered over the last 16 years. The State turns a blind eye towards its past actions of withholding exculpatory evidence."

The Democratic-led DOJ said nothing about the substance of Sowinski's sworn statement, or that the prosecution apparently failed to notify the defense about this witness after he contacted the Manitowoc Sheriff's department in 2005.

Dems stand with police

What is happening in Wisconsin?

Why is the Democratic-led DOJ defending the work of Kenneth R. Kratz, former Calumet County District Attorney, (1992-2010), who was forced to resign in disgrace in 2010 for outrageous conduct in 2009, just two years after prosecuting the Avery-Dassey cases?

Kratz is self-described as suffering from narcissistic personality disorder, sexual compulsion disorder and multiple drug addictions.

Kratz described himself a "dick" for his work as district attorney in which he claimed he could not help himself harassing crime victims because of his disorders for which he was undergoing professional treatment, amid an allegation he possibly assaulted a woman.

Wisconsin Democratic Party officials, Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Joshua Kaul, have made the political decision to work for law enforcement, even Kratz, against the wrongfully convicted.

This is political liberalism at its most vicious and irrational.

One month into his term in 2019, Kaul filed legal responses signaling the DOJ would stall Avery's  possible exoneration by filing procedural objections.

The strategy keeps Avery in prison and delays a hearing in County Circuit court, a move necessary before state appellate courts can rule.

In Wisconsin, January-February weather is colder than July-August, and the Democratic Party loves and supports its cops. It's the way it is.

This political climate is why cops feel free to frame Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey. 

It's why cops like Rusten Sheskey feels free to attempt to kill Jacob Blake; and why cops killed and gunned down Paul Heenan, Ashley DiPiazza, and Tony Robinson in Madison.

It's why the racist Wisconsin State Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) felt free to travel to Madison during the historic 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, pick a fight with protesters, fake a collapse, and then retaliate against marchers by pressing criminal charges against two women whom he knows to be innocent. Carpenter hates uppity women.

Carpenter told cops he was headed to the state Capitol around midnight on business before he encountered the Black Lives Matter protests.

Gov. Evers shoots down innocents

Gov. Evers joined Kaul in the delaying strategy with Brendan Dassey, convicted co-conspirator with Avery. Dassey petitioned for a commutation in 2019, after losing his Habeas petition 4-3 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in a lambasted 2017 decision.

Dassey claims in his 2019 executive clemency petition that Wisconsin's criminal justice system perpetuated an injustice in which the state can have no "confidence."

Reads the petition:

In 2006, Brendan Dassey was a sixteen-year-old Mishicot High School special education student with no criminal history, an IQ of 74, and speech-language functioning in the bottom percentile. After undergoing four police interrogations in 48 hours, he found himself charged with involvement in one of the highest-profile homicides in Wisconsin history – and, subsequently, sentenced to life in prison – based on a videotaped confession about which state and federal judges, national police authorities, prosecutorial groups, and psychological experts have since expressed the gravest doubts.

A member of Dassey's defense team, former U.S. Solicitor General, Seth Waxman, said in Oct 2019 in Madison, "I have never had a case that has troubled me more than this case, that has kept me awake at night, that makes me anxious and sad. And that's because I know that Brendan Dassey is innocent."

Gov. Evers sent Dassey a form letter denying his petition in Dec 2019, stating in part that since Dassey did not wait five years after serving his life sentence, Evers would not consider the plea.

While Oregon and Illinois passed bans this year on lying to juveniles during police interrogations, with some state legislators citing Wisconsin resident Brendan Dassey's ordeal, Evers refuses to consider a pardon for Dassey that looks at the merits of his case.

Tony Evers retains the power to pardon Dassey with the stroke of a pen.

Problem is a pardon or commutation would blow into a political scandal implicating Democratic sheriffs, Kaul's mother, former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager (2003-07) among other Democratic Party cops.

Dems and win-at-any costs cops

Democrat Kaul's DOJ team includes a who's who of dubious state DOJ attorneys — Mark Williams, Thomas J. Fallon, and Special Prosecutor Norman Gahn — all of whom have demonstrated misconduct in their work, either destroying evidence or lying about destroying evidence.

After years of Republican Party rule in Wisconsin, people around the world who believe it's immoral to imprison innocents had waited for how the new Democratic attorney general and governor would handle Dassey and Avery's battle for exoneration in 2019.

Next steps

Today, Avery is awaiting the appellate court decision whether to send his case to County Circuit court to hear the Thomas Sowinski statement and other evidence, and the resolution of pending motions.

At a time when our country is questioning law enforcement, Wisconsin Democratic leadership is working against the people . . . for the police.

"We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation," writes Bryan Stevenson in Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.

The quality of mercy towards the innocent appears to be exhausted under the warrant of Wisconsin Democrats.

[Michael Leon has written for The Progressive, In These Times, CounterPunch and others. Leon is covering the Making a Murderer cases, and has advocated for the release of Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey.]

What Madison Can Learn from Baltimore

Undated family handout picture of Freddie Gray,
murdered by Baltimore Police (Baltimore Sun)

"Felony running" arrest of black man in Baltimore ends with near-severed spinal chord and death as noted by attorney Mary Koch, part of legal team representing the Freddie Gray family. I want know why"people think somehow it's not okay for a young man to run ... ." (Lawrence O'Donnell Show)

Baltimore — City officials suspended six police officers Monday as they investigate the death of a 25-year-old man who suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody.

Freddie Gray had been hospitalized since his April 12 arrest and, according to his attorney, was in a coma when he died Sunday. On Monday, the mayor and police commissioner publicly pleaded for calm and promised a full accounting — an effort to keep Baltimore from becoming the latest flash point in disintegrating relations between police and communities across the country. (Hermann and Bui, Washington Post) ...

"It ain’t about being mad," Adrian Muldrow, vice president of the Baltimore City chapter of the NAACP, yelled to fire up the crowd. "It is about asking for

Baltimore? This is Madison, Wisconsin, with
an enlightened police force that Chief Mike
Koval described as "cordial" last week. In the
shot above just a bit more force and this
non-violent young protester could be the
recipient of police-inflicted fractured vertebrae.
Quite sure that would be good for a few
chuckles from Madison's finest.
Photo: Reproduced from video by
Leslie Amsterdam at SSWIDTMS.

justice."

The first thing Madison can learn from Baltimore and the Freddie Gray murder pertains to police: Madison police should do their killing of our citizenry behind closed doors with no on-lookers with cell phones.

Madison police officer Matt Kenny knows this lesson well, which is why—in part—we can expect no charges in Kenny's killing the unarmed Tony Robinson with five shots. (Ferguson, AP, The Grio)

I would reiterate that the greater Madison community cannot with any justice blame Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne when Ozanne clears killer Kenny in the coming weeks.

Ozanne can not fabricate evidence, and the evidence his office has by statute was gathered by the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation led by an appointee of Republican Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, former district attorney of Waukesha County (R-White People). (Mal Contends)[Schimel was in the news again a couple of weeks ago for voting for an order banning the use of the words "climate change" in the offices of a Wisconsin state agency charged with state land management to the applause of a Scott Walker spokeswoman. (Roston, Bloomberg)]

As for the minority public anywhere, when you see the police: Take cover, run, and get near a trusted adult with a cell phone video. Mark Godsey posts other tips yesterday for innocent people to protect themselves from the police.

Godsey breaks down the non-legal, informal advice into six sections:

I. Have a Lawyer You Can Call

II. Don’t Talk to the Police

III. The Plea Bargain

IV. Be Ready for Trial

V. Shaken Baby/Child Abuse (Abusive Head Trauma)  [This requires special attention and treatment.]

VI. If You Are Wrongfully Convicted

As well, know the police have little to do with justice, though many police like to dispense their version of justice with deadly consequences, corrupt the judicial system, and for minor offenses determine a conviction. If you are harassed, consider yourself lucky. You were not killed.

In Tulsa, policing and killing blacks has become the new sport of wealthy campaign donors. (Love, The Grio)

That's the status of America, on a trajectory that ought to frighten every citizen.

Police lie on their reports, on the stand in the courtroom, and in dealings with the public. And police kill.

Hillary Gets Behind Brandi Grayson and We Win

Human beings

Hillary Clinton should champion minorities now

 Scott Walker has in his own words tried to "divide and conquer" the Wisconsin people.

Brandi Grayson of Young, Gifted and Black (Facebook) has a retort to Walker and the Republicans and their persistent message from our society: State violence and the attacks assaulting Ms. Grayson as less than human will be met with resistance.

Hillary Clinton listens to Grayson, and we all win.

Walker and the Republicans will continue to divide and try to conquer.

As for the police killing people, well more intellectuals and civil rights activists on the force would be a nice start.

Try love, put away your bullets.

Try peace, measure your success by the vacancies of jails and prisons.

Long live Tony Robinson.