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…
Police
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…
City, Local Government, Police
Common Council, 10.1.19: A Reminder about Reminders
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Whitewater Common Council met in regular session on Tuesday, October 1st. One wonders: what does it profit a leader to speak another language if he’s ineffectual in the face of injuries to speakers of that language? In the video above, one hears from Whitewater’s city government (beginning at 9:10 on the video): A reminder…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Crime, Disinformation, Fact Checking, Marketing, Mendacity, Misconduct, Police, Press Release, University
UW-Whitewater’s Administration Covers Crap with Catsup
by JOHN ADAMS •
For months, UW-Whitewater has publicized on its website a sham study from a burglar-alarm company as confirmation that Whitewater has the safest campus in Wisconsin. The study is a shabby fraud, with a methodology so far below proper academic standards that it taints the serious work of faculty and students at the school, in the UW…
City, Crime, Cruelty, Education, Ethnicity, Immigration, Local Government, Mendacity, Migrants, Police, Race, University, UW System
‘Do Deportations Lower Crime? Not According to the Data’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Anna Flagg writes Do Deportations Lower Crime? Not According to the Data: In one of Donald J. Trump’s earliest moves as president, days after his inauguration, he revived the deportation program known as Secure Communities. Proponents argue that it helps prevent crime and also increases the police’s ability to solve crime through collaboration with federal…
City, Culture, Demographics, Ethnicity, Police
Accreditation in Context
by JOHN ADAMS •
There is a liturgical tradition in which parishioners reflect on what they have done and what they have left undone. A secular equivalent for Whitewater would ask a policymaker to consider not merely what has been done so many times before, but what might – and should have been – done, years ago and now.…
City, Local Government, Police
Accreditation: What Would Anyone Have Done Differently?
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads that Whitewater’s police force has received accreditation from an association for meeting a checklist of items related to policing. Former chiefs Coan and Otterbacher were big on accreditation, especially Coan. And yet, and yet, even if there were no accreditation agency, what would anyone have done differently? Has anyone – past or present –…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, CDA, Charity and Mercy, City, Corporate Welfare, Culture, Dogs, Economy, Education, Federal Government, Foxconn, Free Markets, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Police, Politics, School District, State Capitalism, State Government, University, UW System, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Broad Outlines of 2019
by JOHN ADAMS •
For many years, I would begin the year with predictions for the twelve months ahead. Events since 2016 have made predictions harder, but one can still discern some short-term developments for the city. These prospects, of course, form an online of topics to ponder, and about which to write (often requiring that one return to the…
Courts, Crime, Law, Litigation, Police, Walworth County
‘Family of Milwaukee man killed by Walworth deputy in botched drug sting files federal lawsuit’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Bruce Vielmetti reports Family of Milwaukee man killed by Walworth deputy in botched drug sting files federal lawsuit: The family of a 21-year-old Milwaukee man killed by a Walworth County sheriff’s deputy during a botched drug sting has sued the county, two municipal governments and several officers, who the family suspects destroyed dashcam video of…