Madison got its 30 extra police, a $1.5 million expenditure out of a $224.5 million budget that was heavily begrudged by the Common Council's Far Left, which shall be recorded as Alds. Julia Kerr, Brian Solomon, Eli Judge, Marsha Rummel, Brenda Konkel, Satya Rhodes-Conway and Robbie Webber -- the last four of whom are Progressive Dane members.
After their vote to delay 12 of the requested additional 30 police until 2009 when various "studies" would be done, they made a kamikaze attempt to jettison six officers straight up and to hell with the studies. Same 13-7 defeat.
Who would have thought the Madison City Council would be more responsible than the Dane County Board, which wants to clear out its jail ASAP instead of planning for the 60,000 additional residents Dane County will add in the next 25 years, according to the state Department of Administration?
PD seems determined to continue its retreat into the political badlands; whereas three years ago they were poised to take outright control of the 20-member Council, they are now down to six members. (Mike Verveer should quit again. Tim Gruber, come on over!)
Ald. Rhodes-Conway would be well advised to enjoy her remaining year on the Council after her narrow win last April in the 12 District, a northside neighborhood heavily impacted by crime.
On November 7th at 6:10 p.m. Madison police were dispatched to the Lakeview Library (2845 North Sherman Avenue) in the Sherman Plaza. A 14-year-old girl reports that she had run back to the library after two men tried to get her into a car. The victim says she was walking home from the library and was on Elka Lane when an older grayish white, four door vehicle with two black males inside stopped by her. The girl says one of the men told her to get in the car. She started running back to Sherman Plaza and says the car backed up and started following her. She returned to the library and police were called.
But don't count out the Left yet. Their supporters are active, angry at the world, march to different drummers, knock on doors, drop literature and still dominate the print and web pages of Madison's dialogue.
Where the elected pols are usually more news media-savvy about their antipathy to policing safe neighborhoods, couching their opposition in terms of "studies" and even "fiscal responsibility," their nutbase dives into the shallow shoals headfirst and nekkid as a jaybird.
An ornithology of nuthatches
A fellow by the name of John E. Peck unintentionally satirizes the PD platform on crime. Quoting from this week's print Isthmus:
Yes, there are many "quality of life" issues in our city, but these are not due to lack of local police or state power. They are due to more systemic underlying issues: entrenched white-upper-class privilege, economic oppression, xenophobia and discrimination, an anemic sense of community identity, and way too many superficial gestures of public charity seeking to substitute for meaningful solidarity and empowerment. -- John E. Peck
Thank you, Master Peck for the multi-count indictment of sociology as the fraud science. Thank you for the farrago of excusing the inexcusable. Thank you for the withering attack on people who play by the rules -- of all colors and ethnic groups, in favor of their tormentors.
Thank you for pulling the bell tower rope to help sound the death knell of Madison liberalism. Because it is this issue that can tip the political balance in the Emerald City. Even Dave Cieslewicz recognizes as much.
Please provide:
- Time line for fixing "entrenched white, upper-class privilege."
- The approximate year you expect the end of "economic oppression?"
- How many more hundreds of millions of dollars need to be spent in Dane County every year on social programs before they cease to be "superficial gestures?"
- What are the residents of the southwest and north sides and points in-between supposed to do in the meantime?
"White-upper-class privilege?" I guarantee you: there is no one in the Meadowood or Prairie Hills neighborhoods who remotely fits that description.
As for "meaningful solidarity" -- try more bran in your diet.
But the grand prizewinner is this blithe spirit who is chewing his granola mixed with psychotropic betel leaves:
Notice to Metro Narc Squad: liberal jogger blogging
I get this from Madison.com:
MakeMadGreen says:
What hat did they pull the "30 officer" number out of? They will not tell us how they arrived at this number. Police don't prevent crime, a beautiful healthy vibrant place to live does. Very few crimes are committed because the person committing the crime spent the afternoon in a delightful park, (to) which he or she walked or rode their bike. The loss of community leads to crime. People do not feel like they belong. No matter how hard they work they will never afford a 5000 square foot house on the far west side and a new car.
Consumerism leads to crime. We need to get our priorities straight. Think of all the conversations, community building which could take place on a trolley day in and day out. Neighborhoods coming together, joined in a majestic web of trolley routes bringing back the community and safety we all long for. Neighbors joining together to keep leaves out of the rainwater system and our lakes. Planting trees to create shade and reduce our need for water. Neighbors walking or riding about giving up their cars. Make parks, not parking. Add parks, not more police ready to throw the first hard-luck case they see on their shift into the system.
Sounds like Brett Hulsey at a Sierra Club survivalist camp. On the same website, this most excellent putdown followed:
Mr. Forward says:
I took the trolley to the park and was feeling real mellow but then I saw all those big houses around the Arboretum so when that lady jogger ran past I just had to take her I-pod. It's her fault, how you going to start a conversation with ear buds on?
Meanwhile, the evening Progressive Dane newspaper is, once again, pole-axed. Here is its pusillanimous editorial of this past Wednesday:
The mayor has proposed adding 30 officers in 2008. Thoughtful council members, led by Ald. Julia Kerr, have suggested the council should slow the addition of new officers until a staffing study can determine how many are really needed and a plan can be developed for how to pay for them after 2008. Such studies should address legitimate questions.
Blah, blah, blah! This is a newspaper that knows the train has already left the station but has to give cover to its Progressive Dane cohorts. ("I've got your back.") The giveaway word is "thoughtful." When the PD newspaper agrees with you, you are "thoughtful." When it agrees with your obstructionism, you have raised "legitimate" questions.
So the PD newspaper came out against 30 police without seeming to do so. Fools no one.
It's sad, the PD newspaper has no contribution to make to the major local issue of our day but hey, how's that Impeach Cheney thing going?
Brian Schimming made the call: liberals never get the crime issue right.
Blaska entertains his adoring fans
Enid, did Ald. Konkel have an appointment? Well, have her come in, anyway.
Brenda, welcome to my den of iniquity. Hope you don't mind the smell of sulfur. I know the flames in the fireplace are a little high but there is nothing, alas, I can do about it. [Sound of mad cackling.]
From Brenda Konkel on 11/17/07 at 11:30 am:
Mr. Blaska, I'll do the math for you. We spend $5M on community services and $54 million on the police and then . . . we call it balance. You might note that in that long list of things you noted, I signed on to remove funding for at least three of the items and voted to cut another one. I had over $1M of cuts to the budget, plus millions more in the Capital budget and I shared mine, unlike Brandon's magical list that he wouldn't show us unless we played his silly games.
Not to mention -- and you did not -- the needed police officers. Without safety, things like schooling, saving, work, civic involvement, and just taking the air on a pleasant evening's walk -- cannot occur. Neither for black, white, poor or not so poor. No charge for the lesson. Now, Ms. Konkel, put new batteries in your calculator, for it is lesson time.
Here is the equation, you do the math:
The City of Madison dips its little toe into the social services business to the tune of $5 million to make people like you feel that you have accomplished something. But, as with the rest of our fair state, it is county government that provides the bulk of services -- in Dane County, to the tune of $222 million, annually, well over half its total budget, for things like:
Children, youth and families services such as protective services for neglected and abused children, counseling & therapy, day care, and Joining Forces for Families. Things like alcohol and other drug abuse treatment, Children Come First, juvenile delinquency supervision, the Youth Commission, adult community services, jail diversion, economic assistance, housing and homeless support, and employment and job training. Throw in services for the elderly, developmentally disabled, mentally ill, physically disabled, and indigent.
City and County Human Services total = $227 million.
Admittedly, some of that goes to the one-half of Dane County that is not the city of Madison.
So let us add the county sheriff's department because it provides the hated jail that takes the bad guys off the streets, even though most of its patrol efforts take place outside the city. That's $56 million. Add the City of Madison police at $53 million.
City and County Police total = $109 million.
Brenda, your calculator is sparking. Here, try mine:
Total Policing: 32%; Total Social Services: 68%.
Enter Ruben Mamoulian, stage right
Ruben, would you show the lady out? And see if you can locate Lisa Subeck. She intrigues me. My sense is that she was a Prog Dane fellow traveler who had a Come to Jesus moment. I think she has a story to tell.
Find her, and give her safe passage. I'm counting on you. Ruben, are you listening?