June 7, 2016

That Madison City Council is about to vote to spend $350,000 to hire another expert to study racial disparities in local policing.

And Madison Police Chief Mike Koval is opposed to this new expenditure. As the Wisconsin State Journal is putting it:
Koval’s long blog post — posted on Sunday afternoon and written in a tone that was often sarcastic, frustrated and incredulous — reiterated that he didn’t fear the review, while making it clear he thought its expanded price tag was a waste....

Ald. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, the lead sponsor of the resolution...  took particular issue with Koval’s assertion that the review was being funded to cater to a small but vocal group of “perpetually offended” Madisonians.

“You have to be tone deaf in this community to think that, in this community and nationally, the issue of trust with law enforcement is an issue of a few people. It is not,” Bidar-Sielaff said. “There is not a room you can walk into in this community — specifically in communities of color — where that is not a conversation.”
Bidar-Sielaff seems to be addressing the question whether the "perpetually offended" are a small group, not whether she's catering to the perpetually offended. Koval accused Bidar-Sielaff, et al., "currying favor with a small group of people who protest/blog/criticize the MPD at every turn." He said this "small group" has an "incredible grip on this City" and can "dictate agendas" because "no one dares to raise a voice lest they be marginalized in the PC world of Madison."

Bidar-Sielaff, of course, doesn't speak of herself as accepting dictation from people she's afraid of. She speaks of listening to "conversation," and her response to Koval is couched in terms of his failure to proceed conversationally:
“If Chief Koval would like to have a conversation, I am certainly open to it. I think all my colleagues are open to it,” [Bidar-Sielaff] said. “I don’t think anybody can have productive conversations by firing blogs on Sunday afternoons with the kind of adversarial language that he uses.”
How awful to expect people to be ready to respond on a Sunday afternoon! How would a man in charge of the police get such an idea?

Oh, I'm being sarcastic. I think Koval probably didn't expect Bidar-Sielaff, et al., to interrupt their Sunday afternoon to take government spending and police work seriously. In fact, Sunday afternoon is a good time to post things that you want to be discussed when the work week begins on Monday morning. And the vote is scheduled for Tuesday. It seems to me that Koval picked an appropriate time. The real objection seems to be that Koval is fighting hard for respect for his police department, which is getting blamed for racial disparities that he believes are not caused by the police.

Here's a paragraph from his blog post that isn't quoted in the newspaper article:
[Madison Police Department] is intent on creating, supporting, and supplementing the kinds of programs and partnerships that attempt to drill down on societal problems that can manifest on our streets as desperate acts by desperate individuals.  Policing IS a form of social work and we are eager to expand our outreach and engagement activities.  But at the end of the day, the police are ill-equipped to be the primary source of parenting and educating our kids, job creation, providing affordable housing, dealing with issues of homelessness or drug abuse.  Certainly, we will do our level best to complement (not replace) families, schools, churches, neighborhoods, not-for-profits, and social service providers in meeting the challenges that lay before our City; but if nothing changes on these various fronts, I dare say that a pristine, "model" police department trying to do everything within our statutory power(s), will STILL have statistics that reflect racial disparities.
UPDATE: The Council voted, 19-1, to spend the money.

59 comments:

Peter said...

Perhaps Madison can get a price break on the study if it provides detail on exactly what it is supposed to say?

David Begley said...

Attention Madisonians! Stop committing crimes and you won't have to worry about the police. Policemen are your friends. They keep order. They help people in trouble. Be nice to the police. They do a difficult job well.

tola'at sfarim said...

So are they hinting that the whiteness of the cops causes the disparities?

Michael K said...

How else does the chief expect graduates of AfroAmerican Studies programd to make a living ?

What else are they qualified to do ?

Does he expect all of them to be working as barristas ?

Carol said...

God I feel sorry for that guy. They can't fix everything...what miserable indirection by people who won't be accountable for their own.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Hammond's advice to Chief Koval: look for a job in another State.

Hagar said...

Once you start down that road, the $350,000 will be just the beginning.

Mike Sylwester said...

One racial disparity is that Blacks try to evade or resist arrest much more than other races. That's why Blacks disproportionately are shot by police officers.

I suggest that the Madison government spend the $350,000 instead on classes to teach local Blacks not to try to evade or resist arrest.

http://people-who-did-not-see.blogspot.com/2016/03/blacks-are-more-likely-to-be-shot-by.html

Abdul Abulbul Amir said...

You miss the whole point of lefty government. That $350K will be paid to another hardcore lefty. Everything else is just window dressing.

Prediction: The report will call for a department of hardcore leftys to monitor the police.

SteveR said...

The Grievance Industry only exists with other people's money. Bend over, its time for another look.

David Begley said...

I had to Google Shiva Bidar-Sielaff. She is a prime beneficiary of the diversity agenda. She heads up language interpretation at UW hospital.
We have so many foreigners in this country who are unassimilated that the hospital has to add overhead to serve customers. She benefits from Babel.

Attention UW hospital. You can outsource this with Language Line. Way cheaper.

When did we vote on allowing all of these people into this country; legally or illegally.

Etienne said...

$400k would buy a lot of Mad Dog 20-20 and cigarettes to be handed out in the hoods.

rhhardin said...

Good character is not welcome on the left.

Birkel said...

Other people's money can buy a lot of social signaling.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

What Abdul Abulbul Amir said.

That $350,000 is going to pay people who majored in some grievance study and have no actual job skills.

I don't think that Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition originated this kind of scam, but they perfected it.

The police chief thinks that $350,000 should be spent productively. What a funny, funny guy.

Tank said...

Mike Sylwester said...

One racial disparity is that Blacks try to evade or resist arrest much more than other races. That's why Blacks disproportionately are shot by police officers.


No they are not.

Don't get caught up in their BS.

Carol said...

Funny how this seems to happen wherever there is diversity.

Laslo Spatula said...

Mr. Jones, Diversity Seminar Instructor...

"Yeah, I know: no one wants to be in here on a Tuesday morning for Diversity Training: you got REAL Police Work to do -- I get it.

The problem is, in your Police Work you arrest too many minorities. I get this, too: you see a young black brother aimless on the streets and you think "what crimes has this guy committed?" I mean, you can practically smell it on him...

Now, you may indeed be right about his criminal activity, but you are wrong in how you are determining that: your Instinct doesn't fly anymore. This is where it gets tricky, friends. If you had hassled a half-dozen white boys first you could put that in your daily report: I hassled eight people today, one of which was black. And I arrested one of them, can't remember which...

Now this may seem a waste of time, but you gotta do what you gotta do, and that is: you gotta be hassling a LOT more White People. You see them everywhere -- go ahead and give them a quick pat-down, ask some questions. Now, you're not used to asking White People random questions, so here's a few to get started.

Start simple:

"Nice watch: you have a receipt for that?"

"Nice jacket: let me guess -- it was a 'gift', right?"

"Nice car: you can afford a car like this? What, are you a Pimp?"

Then you can move to the good stuff:

"This woman you're with: is she one of your 'baby mamas'?"

"This woman you're with: is she one of your bitches?"

"This woman you're with: how much you get paid for her sucking cocks?"

And of course the tried-and-true:

"What are you doing in this neighborhood?"

See? This won't be that hard. Let the White people know you are just Doing Your Job...


I am Laslo.

Fernandinande said...

Wiki Madison: "The racial makeup of the city was ...
7.3% African American, ...
7.4% Asian, "

http://www.dailycardinal.com/article/2016/03/total-madison-police-arrests-fall-while-disparities-rise-over-the-last-decade ->
Arrest Data by Race according to MPD Annual Reports 2005-14

Taking 7.3% as "close enough for government work" to 7.4%:
Black/Asian adult arrest rate = 3250/110 = 29.5
Black/Asian juvie arrest rate = 955/23 = 41.5

Curious George said...

"...to a small but vocal group of “perpetually offended” Madisonians."

Wrong Chief. The majority of Madisonians are “perpetually offended.”

Anonymous said...

David Begley said...
I had to Google Shiva Bidar-Sielaff. She is a prime beneficiary of the diversity agenda. She heads up language interpretation at UW hospital.


a department, whose budget went from $60K, e.g. one person, to $7.5 Million under her leadership. That's a lot of healthcare forgone...Or a lot of activists with jobs.

Bidar-Sielaff soon found a job opening at UW Hospital in a brand-new position as director of interpreter services, a $60,000 department that has grown to $7.5 million in the past 14 years under her watch.

Michael K said...

Police departments have spent the last 30 years, maybe 50 years, trying to hire and promote black officers. The problem is that not enough blacks want to be police. Many have some criminal record by the time they get to be 21. The rest have been so conditioned to see the police as the enemy that they are not interested.

I am curious to learn if the number of blacks in the military has changed the past 40 years. Fifty years ago it was the most colorblind part of American society. I just wonder about now with the slow shift of blacks from integration to segregation.

Greg Hlatky said...

Once you start paying the Danegeld you never get rid of the Dane [County].

Michael The Magnificent said...

"My favorite part about the Obama era is all the racial healing." -- Jon Gabriel link

damikesc said...

Just put a bunch of poor mixed-race folks and place them in the middle of a rich part of Wisconsin. It's got to be at least 100 or so.

Then they might see the issue.

Remember, though, you idiots want these bigoted, racist, evil cops as the only ones with guns. So, your fear of them seems REALLY stupid.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, my wife (former Democrat, with emphasis on the "former") looked at the headline as I scrolled down to this post and angrily demanded to know whether the City Council realized that people work hard for that money they are throwing around. That's a very good question IMO.

Michael said...

It seems to me that Bidar-Sielaff is simply outing herself as a prime example of the issue to which Koval is referring. And that her idea of "conversation" (not unlike Obama's) is for her to talk and everyone else to shut up and nod their heads.

Not that there aren't bad cops, or that we shouldn't get rid of them - but that would mean confronting the police unions, who are on the Progressive team.

Anonymous said...

Michael K said...
I am curious to learn if the number of blacks in the military has changed the past 40 years


1. Blacks make up 17% of the active Military
2. Army Black enlisted 23%, officer 12%
3. Reserve is a bit whiter (rural small towns and all that)
4. Blacks tend to choose support forces (e.g. a trade)
5. Whites tend to choose combat arms (e.g. Adrenalin)
6. Army is a bit more rural and Southern
7. SOF is whiter yet.
8. multi-generational military service on the increase (separate caste) I suspect even more so for Blacks. (see Ms USA)


I think you knew all that already :)

Owen said...

Fernandinande: "...Black/Asian adult arrest rate = 3250/110 = 29.5
Black/Asian juvie arrest rate = 955/23 = 41.5"

That was a bad thing you did there, trying to get all factual.

This is about feelings! Angry feelings!

And money.

Anonymous said...

PS:

http://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2014-Demographics-Report.pdf

Sal said...

The city decided to not put cameras on police officers based on a recommendation of some citizen committee. I highly suspect this 'citizen committee' is disproportionately black, and want to maintain their Black Lies Matter standing in Madison.

David Begley said...

Big Mike

Your wife needs to understand that it is very easy to spend other people's money. Shiva knows this as she sits on top of a $6 million empire that should not exist and should be outsourced to Language Line. Some one needs to alert the elected Regents/ Trustees at UW of this wasteful spending.

Shiva is a Babel hustler.

Bill R said...

In the nineties, I lived in beautiful New Orleans.

Every day, in the obituaries section, there would be the picture of a young black man. "Died, of gunshot wounds". This was never on the front page. A young black man murdered was not news.

Some days there were no obits and on others, three or four. At the time, there were about 500 murders per year, almost all of them young black men.

Being of a mathematical turn of mind, I looked up the census data. In 1990 there were 55,000 black males in New Orleans between the ages of 15 and 35. These are the prime years for gunshot wounds.

So at the peak of the murder wave, about 1% of the young black men in the city would be shot to death. Per year.

In their 20 years of "eligibility" then, they had a 1 in 5 chance of being murdered. Think about that. Imagine a 1st grade class of 20 boys. Four of them will eventually wind up murdered.

And it's worse than that. Most shootings aren't fatal. If four of the boys are eventually killed, another eight or will be wounded (It's very common to see young black men in wheelchairs in New Orleans).

And it's even worse than that. For every person shot, there's a shooter. So even more young men were involved in shootings on one side of the gun or another. It's hard to say how many. There are overlaps in the categories. A person may shoot several people before he's shot himself. Or a person may be shot several times. The hospital staffs had a phrase for this. They called such people "frequent fliers".

It was astonishing. It was insane. It's less bad now. I think the current murder rate is is about half what it was in the nineties. But that is still astonishing, still insane.

I'm sure Madison isn't as bad. But they can hire as many consultants as they want and the back seats of patrol cars are going to have a "disproportionate" number of young black men.

David Begley said...

Here's a story the MSM will never write. How much does it cost us as a society to turn into Babel? We know it is at least $6m at UW hospital.

traditionalguy said...

The Trump Effect is sprouting up everywhere. Even in a College town.

Another man has shown the courage to speak the truth in public. What will become of the carefully nurtured narative of lies that support the Academia make work of today?

He will be fired for... Racism, of course.

Birkel said...

Bill R:

Over those 20 years the number of blacks in that age range would be higher (double?), I think, even though I agree with your overall point.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

He said this "small group" has an "incredible grip on this City" and can "dictate agendas" because "no one dares to raise a voice lest they be marginalized in the PC world of Madison."

*Cough cough* Transgender student/public school "rights" *cough cough*

HoodlumDoodlum said...

By the way, gotta love how "pay me or my allies $350k" is couched/put in a framework of "just having a conversation."

Can I demand money and call you racist if you don't pay...and consider that "a conversation?" Oh, don't worry too much, it's not YOUR money I want, it's only the government's money. Be a dear and pay up, now..we wouldn't want things to get "ugly."

madAsHell said...

$350,000??

What do you want the report to say?
The only wrong answer is the one praising the police.

effinayright said...

$350,000???

Isn't that what Moochelle got for that no-show job in a Chicago hospital?

I bet Shiva glommed onto the figure real quick when she began her "negotiations" with Madison.

That's what passes among the progs as referring to a "role model".

J. Farmer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David Begley said...

Shiva has some friends at UW and they want $350,000; which is $90k more than the cost to Madison for the 2012 Obama rally.

And as noted above, the study will recommend a full time police auditor who will come from UW. Another $100k per year.

That's how the Left plays the game.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

“I don’t think anybody can have productive conversations by firing blogs on Sunday afternoons with the kind of adversarial language that he uses.”

How can they have a conversation if he communicates his side of it?

virgil xenophon said...

The Drill Sgt@9:57am/

An Army DI is quoted as once having said: "There are only three kinds of people in this man's Army: Southern whites, Southern Blacks--and everybody else." LOL.

n.n said...

More baby trials. Not even progressive enclaves are spared.

Real American said...

blacks have something like a 72% illegitimacy rate. Not sure what it is in Madison, but it's probably still too high. This family breakdown causes drug use and high crime and teenage pregnancy and all sorts of other ills. Until that is reversed, blacks will commit more crimes and end up jail more. The complaint shouldn't be that blacks are arrested or jailed at higher rates but that they commit crimes at higher rates. But I suppose that doesn't get you $350,000 to "study" the obvious.

West Texas Intermediate Crude said...

Recommendation for the Police Chief:
Offer to take the $350K to be budgeted for the "Study" and instead hire 5 or 6 Police Officers of Color. Designate one to be Transgendered, or otherwise Marginalized. Promise that all of them will be assigned to the Madison Communities of Color, and equip them with rubber bullets for their guns, and hybrid Police Cars.
Stand back, buy Popcorn.

Anonymous said...

virgil xenophon said...

Wasn't my quote, but I will say that all Drill Sergeants converse with their charges in "Southern". Cursing and Cadence are best in that tongue :)

Michael The Magnificent said...

"There is not a room you can walk into in this community — specifically in communities of color — where that is not a conversation."

Here's a little tip for all of you progressives.

Racists or not, the police don't have time to drive around and arrest random, innocent "people of color" they run across on the street. When a typical cop clocks in, there's already a backlog of calls for service, so much so that the dispatches have to be prioritized.

No, the police go to calls for service. Someone in that "community of color" called 911 because they witnessed a crime being committed, or believed one was about to be committed.

If "communities of color" don't want the cops showing up in their communities and arresting criminals, then they need to stop calling 911 and just suffer through the crime. Problem solved. No six-figure "study" required. You are welcome.

Michael The Magnificent said...

Here's a little tip for the grievance mongers in the "communities of color."

A summer or two ago, there was a spate of disorderly conduct, fights, stabbings and shootings in Milwaukee County's parks located within "communities of color." Someone called 911, the cops showed up, and arrests were made.

Meanwhile, up here in Wonderbread-white Ozaukee County, I spent plenty of evenings and weekends in the local parks, listening to live music with neighbors, friends family and total strangers, where we shared drinks, food and conversation, and NOT ONE LOUD ARGUMENT, NOT ONE FIGHT, NOT ONE STABBING, AND NOT ONE SHOOTING. Thus, no calls to 911, no dispatches for service, and no arrests.

Right there is the cause for the "disparity" that "communities of color" we are told converse endlessly about. The "disparity" that you are so concerned about isn't because of the cops, but the behavior of the people living in the communities they police.

So, what do progressives suggest to erase this "disparity?"

If there are three arrests of minorities for fighting in a park, should a cop be dispached to a white-bread community and arrest the first three white people he/she/it comes across, just to even things out?

Or maybe you'd recommend we limit the number of arrests in "communities of color" to the same number of arrests that have been made in communities without color? "I'm sorry if you've been stabbed, sir, but to erase the racial disparity in arrests, we are going to have to reject your 911 call for service until a white person stabs another white person. Good luck!"

mikee said...

The chief ignores the primary purpose of such expensive and lengthy studies, which is to allow the people soliciting them to do what they intend to do without repercussions such as accountability.

Paul Ciotti said...

"perpetually offended Madisonians."

A perceptive description. You know that no matter what the study finds ("Madison is the most racially sensitive police force in the nation") the people who requested it will use it to justify yet still more demands.

Etienne said...

I didn't see where the study cost figure was arrived at. How can you spend that much money? Are they going to buy vehicles, computers, office space, etc?

It seems like the costs in support of the study would be the area where waste could be lowered.

In a college town, you could also ask for graduate students to volunteer their knowledge and hours.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Maybe the "expert" can try to figure out why Ozanne declined to prosecute one 21-year-old for "anti-racist" (translated from SJW -- the good kind of racist) graffiti because his brain is still (allegedly) developing, but considered three other 21-year-olds, who's allegedly racist graffiti (despite no evidence of it's racial content) to be mature enough for prosecution.

wildswan said...

One thing I hated about Wisconsin when I came was that to go outside you had to put on a hat, a scarf, a sweater, a coat, heavy socks and boots. And conversations about race are starting to resemble these preparations for the Wisconsin cold. No move is made without first bundling up to the point where all humanity disappears. As far as weather goes,everyone here prefers the summer flinging off their defensive bundling as soon as the slightest hint of warmth appears but race relations seem to have entered a period of permanent winter.
And for some citizens finding new heavy clothing to be worn for longer periods and in new places seems an attractive idea - they glow with happiness as they model the new heavy fashions to be worn indoors year round, even in the bathrooms. I tell myself it won't last.

Anthony said...

Until the police chief can say that his department arrests more blacks because blacks commit more crimes, without being fired, every "conversation"on the subject will be bullshit, and every "report"on the issue will be a waste of money.

Rusty said...

coupe said...
I didn't see where the study cost figure was arrived at. How can you spend that much money? Are they going to buy vehicles, computers, office space, etc?

It seems like the costs in support of the study would be the area where waste could be lowered.

In a college town, you could also ask for graduate students to volunteer their knowledge and hours.

You still don't understand how graft works?
This is a payoff.

JAORE said...

"...Black/Asian adult arrest rate = 3250/110 = 29.5
Black/Asian juvie arrest rate = 955/23 = 41.5"


Yellow privilege. No other possible explanation.

Herb said...

I didnt realize that Madison was that racially diverse to really think there could be an issue.