Academy-award nominated filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering have a new film now in limited-release, entitled, The Hunting Ground, about campus sexual assault. The film addresses violence, institutional cover-ups, and the damage done to victims & families from both assault and subsequent, institutional misconduct. The official trailer for the film is embedded above. (The same…
Crime
Assault Awareness & Prevention, City, Crime, Law, Open Government, University
Former Coach Fader Vindicated Five Times Over
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s been over nine months since Chancellor Richard Telfer suspended former UW-Whitewater wrestling coach Tim Fader, and later effectively fired him (Fader’s contract was not renewed). In April 2014, a woman alleged that a wrestling recruit assaulted her, and Fader has consistently said that he contacted the Whitewater Police Department about the incident, and that…
Crime, District Attorney, Law, Misconduct, Sheriff, Walworth County
Seventeen Questions: Injustice in Walworth County Wrongly Sends a Fourteen-Year-Old to Jail
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, I posted about an appellate court decision that reversed a juvenile’s conviction and remanded the case for a new trial. See, Injustice in Walworth County Wrongly Sends a Fourteen-Year-Old to Jail. Today I’ll post several questions concerning the decision and two published accounts about of it. The appellate decision (“Appellate Decision”) is online at…
Crime, Law, Misconduct, Official Misconduct
Injustice in Walworth County Wrongly Sends a Fourteen-Year-Old to Jail
by JOHN ADAMS •
On February 11, 2015, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District II, reversed an order of the Walworth County Circuit Court, and ordered a new trial for a minor child, identified as Charles C.S. Jr., aged fourteen at the time of his conviction. See, State v. Charles C. S., Jr., No. 2014AP1045, unpublished (Wis. Ct. App.…
Crime
Updated: Student who allegedly made social media school threat is located at Delavan High School
by JOHN ADAMS •
9:36 AM: UPDATE: The phone used and person who sent the threat have been located at Delavan High School, according to Delavan Police Chief Tim O’Neill. O’Neill said it was a male student and he is in custody at Delavan High School. Officials said Delavan High School was on full lock-down for about 20 minutes…
Crime, Open Government, University
Support the Campus Accountability and Safety Act
by JOHN ADAMS •
Discussion is better than silence; knowledge trumps ignorance. Thousands of universities receive federal funds, including our own campus. Under the law, those universities are required, since the Clery Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1092(f), 34 C.F.R. 668.46 to record and report instances of crime on and near their campuses. (UW-System schools publish that information in compliance…
Crime, Law, University
The Dean’s Drug-War Equality Argument
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’m sorry I didn’t get to this sooner, but one of UW-Whitewater Dean of Students Mary Beth Mackin’s remarks about drug busts on campus deserves a reply. She’s offered an argument for equality of treatment on and off campus. Her argument implies that she either misunderstands the underlying justification for equality arguments, or that she…
City, Crime
An Evening Not Worth Having
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s video online from a security camera of two people stepping into the Birge Fountain, climbing on the statue, tugging on it until a piece comes off, and (presumably) stealing that piece. (For prior FW posts against vandalism, see The Crude Illegitimacy of Vandalism and Update: Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity.) Watching the video, it…
Crime
Update: Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, I posted about a lack of information on April vandalism amounting to about fifty-thousand dollars in damage at the Spring Creek Golf Center. (See, Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity.) Today, fortuitously, there’s a story at the DU with an update about the investigation: Seven Whitewater juveniles eyed in Cold Spring golf course vandalism. Here’s…
Crime, Free Markets
Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity
by JOHN ADAMS •
Not long ago, at a nearby golf course, vandals caused tens of thousands in property damage. A newspaper account reported the damage at about $50,000, and included photos of the scene. I’m not a patron of the course, and don’t know the owners. I have, though, cycled past it many times. The course has always…
Crime, Health, Walworth County
The Long, Hard Roads
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at the Gazette, there’s a story entitled, Walworth County officials hope drug court for heroin addicts will start in June (subscription required). The story, from reporter Andrea Anderson, is about a hoped-for program of rehabilitation for heroin addicts. The program would apply to Walworth County residents, addicted to, and charged with possession of, heroin. If…
Crime, Elkhorn, Health, Law, Laws/Regulations, Liberty, Police, Walworth County
The End of the Beginning
by JOHN ADAMS •
Crime, Daily Adams, Local Government, Official Misconduct, Photography, Police, Technology
Local Policing and Point-of-View Cameras
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a story about my town’s (Whitewater, Wisconsin’s) decision to equip its on-patrol officers with point-of-view cameras. A small video camera will record officer interactions with residents. Reportedly, all interactions will be recorded, and at the end of each shift, officers [will] download all videos into a general file that would get deleted automatically after…
Crime, Government Spending, Local Government, Planning
Is This What Janesville’s Leaders Really Meant by ‘Regionalization’?
by JOHN ADAMS •
About two months ago, Janesville’s City Manager, Eric Levitt, came to Whitewater asking for money to support a public transit bus to benefit Generac (and anyone else Janesville’s transportation director will undoubtedly throw into the mix to justify ten thousand from Whitewater and hundreds of thousands from taxpayers in total). During his appearance before Whitewater’s…