Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 31. Sunrise is 7:09 AM and sunset 5:07 PM for 9h 58m 21s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 0.7% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM. On this day in 1846, after the Milwaukee…
Police
City, Daily Bread, Police
Daily Bread for 12.4.21: Whitewater’s Police Chief Placed on Administrative Leave
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 38. Sunrise is 7:09 AM and sunset 4:21 PM for 9h 11m 04s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.1% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1875, the notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison; he is…
Daily Bread, Government Spending, Police, Politics
Daily Bread for 8.22.21: ‘Defund the Police’ Was a Molehill
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:10 AM and sunset 7:44 PM, for 13h 34m 45s of daytime. The moon is full with 100% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1963, X-15 Flight 91 reaches the highest altitude of the X-15 program (67.08 mi).…
Daily Bread, Ethics, Free Markets, Law, Medicine, Misconduct, Police
Daily Bread for 8.21.21: Hundreds of Wisconsin Police Officers Back on the Job after Being Fired or Forced Out
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning. Saturday in Whitewater will be variably cloudy with scattered thunderstorms and a high of 81. Sunrise is 6:08 AM and sunset 7:46 PM, for 13h 37m 26s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.9% of its visible disk illuminated. On this day in 1911, the Mona Lisa is stolen by Vincenzo…
City, Housing, Local Government, Police, Press
Broken Policymaking Over a Voucher Program
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater has a local government that taxes and legislates, and that hires officials who exercise authority over the city’s residents, in a nine-square-mile area. Our local government has its own municipal building, in which it holds regular public meetings, and in which officials can talk to each other and residents in person, by email, text,…
Charity and Mercy, City, Culture, Local Government, Newspapers, Police, Politics, Poverty
‘Communicate, Communicate, Communicate’ Isn’t So Easy in a Fractured Town
by JOHN ADAMS •
Some years ago, an administrator (no longer with the school district) told others that a good practice for leaders was to ‘communicate, communicate, communicate’ with the community. The concept makes sense: craft a message and then make sure it’s heard by repeating it. In a small town, how hard could that be? As it turns…
Kenosha, Never Trump, Police, Protests, Race, Trump, Trumpism, Unfit
The Advantage for His Opponents in Trump’s Visit to Kenosha
by JOHN ADAMS •
Despite the requests of Wisconsin’s governor and Kenosha’s mayor, Trump is set on visiting Kenosha tomorrow. There’s no power to stop him from attending, however recklessly disruptive the visit may prove to be. There is, however, an advantage for Trump’s opponents in his visiting Kenosha on September 1st. With two months to go until November…
Babbittry, Boosterism, CDA, City, Culture, Economy, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Police, Press Release, School District
Built Against Substantive Change
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over time, no matter how small the city, national conditions and trends make their way to the edge of town. Some towns will address these conditions, but others will be resistant to substantive change. For those towns in the latter category, business as usual and rhetorical feints suffice in response to powerful forces to which…
America, Police, Protests, Race, Trump
Why Now?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Social historians, looking at the many protests against police violence (protests taking place across America and in other countries) will be able (if imprecisely) to assess the motivations of these recent events. Of two things one can be confident, without being a historian: these protests are in response to specific acts of law-enforcement violence, with…
Babbittry, City, Corruption, Federal Government, Law, Local Government, Official Misconduct, Open Government, Police, Politics, State Government
Cameras, Not Committees
by JOHN ADAMS •
Recent protests across America against excessive and biased use of police force began after ordinary people in those communities recorded official (to the point of murderous) actions, and then shared their recordings with others. It was not government – local, state, or federal – that promptly shared these recordings of excessive force; it was ordinary…
Authoritarianism, Federal Government, Freedom of Speech, Police, Trump, Unfit, Violence, William Barr
Detailed Video Timeline of the Crackdown on Protesters Before Trump’s Photo Op
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Washington Post analyzed hours of video footage and obtained audio of police communications and other records to assemble the most complete account to date of the June 1 crackdown on protesters in Washington D.C.. Late in the day on June 1, demonstrators gathered near the White House, on the edge of Lafayette Square, to…
Coronavirus, Culture, Police, Public Health, Race
Frontline: Race, Police, and the Pandemic
by JOHN ADAMS •
As streets across America erupt into clashes over racism during the coronavirus pandemic, Jelani Cobb of The New Yorker examines a connection between George Floyd’s death and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 deaths among African Americans: “the thing that ties them together is empirical evidence of a phenomenon that had been dismissed otherwise.” Cobb describes how the relationship…
Horde, Law, Laws/Regulations, Police
The Horde
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images Over these many years, legitimate critics of law enforcement have been wrongly accused of radicalism. Defenders of the most mediocre – let alone wrongful – practices have insisted hysterically that their critics are extremists, fanatics, blacks, browns, ‘soft’ whites, liberals, members of the ACLU, libertarians, Rastafarians, whatever. In a place like…
City, Common Council, Diversity, Local Government, Police, Public Relations
Common Council, 10.15.19
by JOHN ADAMS •
?? The Whitewater Common Council met in regular session on Tuesday, October 15th. The meeting agenda is available online. Coffee. It’s not a bad idea to have coffee sessions with law enforcement (8:00 on the video), but it’s worth noting – because it’s true – that community policing depends on positive, routine contact between officers…