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Police

The Dangerous Paramilitary Direction

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I am a blogger from Whitewater, Wisconsin, a small town of fourteen thousand in America’s Dairyland. There is, thankfully, no large and organized local threat against our city, or thousands of other cities in rural America.

We are far from America’s fanatical foreign enemies. Richland County, South Carolina is far away, too. It’s not so far, though, that the Richland County sheriff’s Department felt it could do without….an armored personnel carrier.

Radley Balko of Reason notes that the vehicle has “a belt-fed, .50-cal turreted machine gun” [that] Sheriff Leon Lott praises because of its intimidating presence.

Balko observes that this is “a caliber of ammunition that even the U.S. military is reluctant to use against human targets (it’s generally reserved for use against armored vehicles.”

These military weapons are lethal toys in the hands of these domestic police agencies.

For anyone who doubts as much, see the photo accompanying the Reason post, in which the members of the department pose with their new military vehicle.

Enforcement of local police matters, including narcotics offenses, can and should be conducted without military weapons.

Sheriff Lott has reduced his county to the unwise and embarrassing. America should leave military weapons and tactics to professional, full-time soldiers.

The post is available at

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/128482.html

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: September 2, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

The National Weather Service predicts a sunny day with a high of 92. The Farmers’ Almanac forecasts that our weather will be wet then fair. They may both be wrong; both cannot be right.

There will be a meeting of the Whitewater Common Council tonight at 6:30 p.m. The agenda for that meeting is available as a pdf document at the City of Whitewater’s website.

School begins today for our public school students, and classes resume on campus. Best wishes for a happy and successful year.

The 2nd annual Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® for Walworth County will be held on Saturday, September 20, 2008 at Library Park in Lake Geneva.

In Wisconsin history on this date, in 1862, the Wisconsin Historical Society reports that residents of the Manitowoc area panicked over a false report of an Indian attack:

Manitowoc settlers were awakened to the cry of “Indians are coming.” Messengers on horseback arrived from the Rapids, Branch, Kellnersville, and other nearby communities, announcing that Indians were burning everything in their path …. Fire and church bells gave warning to frightened residents. Over the next few days, people from the surrounding areas fled to Manitowoc and other city centers. Ox carts were loaded with women and children carrying their most valuable belongings…. a company of recruits from the Wisconsin 26th Regiment formed themselves into two scouting units, both of which returned to report that there was no threat of an Indian attack.

Fear of this false Indian attack took place at a time when there was a genuine, deadly threat from millions of Americans committed to secession and slavery.

On this date in American history, in 1945, representatives of Japan formally surrendered aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.


Libertarians

Teasing on a Pro-Obama Music Video

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Many have likely seen the pro-Obama music video, “American Prayer,” but libertarian Reason.tv takes a satirical look at the video in light of Obama’s oft-professed desire to transform the American economy and preserve American jobs.


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Uncategorized

Wisconsin State Journal: “Probe Secret Deal for Deputy.”

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I posted earlier this week on a news report that Columbia County D.A. Jane Kohlwey signed a secret deal with a criminal defendant (a deputy) so that the defendant could avoid a felony conviction.  The Wisconsin State Journal carried the story, originally from the Baraboo News Republic. 

Here are remarks from today’s State Journal editorial:

The state Office of Lawyer Regulation should investigate the galling actions of a Columbia County prosecutor. 
 
District Attorney Jane Kohlwey signed a secret deal last year allowing a former Sauk County sheriff’s deputy to escape a felony conviction for hit and run, the Baraboo News Republic reported this week. Kohlwey also agreed to destroy the deputy’s deferred-prosecution agreement if he abided by its conditions.

The Office of Lawyer Regulation needs to get to the bottom of this troubling episode and make sure other prosecutors across the state aren’t pulling similar stunts behind closed doors.

Trust in Wisconsin’s court system is at stake.

The editorial notes that “Kohlwey is admitting the obvious — she screwed up big time. She also says she didn’t destroyed the document, though an original can’t be found.”  Perhaps Kohlwey thinks that losing a document is better than destroying it, but it’s implausible that copies are not available somewhere, as there were at least two parties to the deal.   

Predictably, D.A. Kohlwey whines that she’s a victim: “The latest twist is Kohlwey complaining that it was unfair for her reprimand to become public.  Clearly Kohlwey needs a refresher course in open government — and quite possibly stiff punishment from the Office of Lawyer Regulation.”
 
How many secret deals are there like this in Wisconsin, where elected prosecutors hide pacts from the public, to avoid their own embarrassment?  

The editorial is available at

http://www.madison.com/
wsj/home/opinion/302700

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: August 29, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

The National Weather Service predicts a sunny day with a high of 80. The Farmers’ Almanac continues a multi-day prediction with a forecast for pleasant and fair weather in the Great Lakes region. A match.

There are no public meetings scheduled for Whitewater on the last day of the week — the weekend begins on a private sector note.

Uncategorized

Abuse of Protesters at the Democratic National Convention

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One would think, and hope, that if an American citizen could protest peacefully anywhere, then he or she would be able to protest outside a political convention hall. 

Officials in Denver may have decided that a political convention means fewer rights for nearby citizens. 
 
News website Raw Story reports that police and municipal officials may have committed numerous violations of basic American freedoms. 
 
Among the allegations are claims that “police refused those arrested access to attorneys. Police did not let detainees use phones unless they posted their own bonds, and even failed to provide shoes, in one case marching a protester into court in bare feet and leg shackles.”  

Additionally, officials may have “tricked protesters into pleading guilty, by giving them the impression they had to plead guilty in order to post bond. This meant that no one was allowed to make a phone call unless they plead guilty, thus making it impossible for arrestees to even call a lawyer until admitting guilt.”
 
There’s a sad irony that people may not be able to lawfully protest outside of a convention for a political party that takes the name Democratic, but perhaps that irony escapes Denver’s officials.   

Here’s the link to the story:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/
Protesters_denied_access
_to_attorneys_
forced_0828.html

Here’s a link to a letter outlining concerns:
 
http://rawstory.com/images/other/aclu82708.pdf

City, Development, Economy, Free Markets, University

Student Housing in Whitewater: Our Mistaken and Repetitive Approach

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There are two stories from yesterday’s Janesville Gazette that describe the pressures of student housing:
Students Spread Out in Whitewater
City, School Address Housing Concerns.

The stories ably describe arguments that residents of Whitewater have have made against student housing for years with no change in demand.

I certainly don’t believe that demand for student housing is the single biggest challenge facing the city. For an affected homeowner, though, it might seem that way. (I’d easily say municipal leadership and administration of justice is a far greater challenge.)

It’s typical of Whitewater’s anti-market impulses that the way out of these challenges seems to be more “aggressive enforcement.”

It’s a futile option. There’s a conflict because there’s an unwillingness to meet demand for student housing. Attempts to restrict supply through ordinance enforcement will prove intrusive and ineffectual.

The answer to demand for housing would be to permit construction of several off campus multi-unit student apartment buildings with typical amenities.

I would guess, however, that Dane Checolinski, a UW-Whitewater student
and member of our Housing Task force has it right:

These people don’t want students living in their neighborhood, but they have no suggestions for where students should live,” he said. “They want the university to house every single student.”

(This observation applies only to the most obstinate critics of student housing; others are more accommodating.)

Unwillingness to accept a few significant off campus student apartments leaves Whitewater locked in a perpetual war with a large student population that will not go away.

It says all one needs to know about our city administration that after years of debate, and a Housing Task Force, the administration has no standards to measure progress:

City Manager Kevin Brunner said…. “We’ve made a lot of inroads,” he said. “How do we measure that? I don’t know.”

The solution to demand is off campus supply, but that’s the last solution that this admintration will take. All the pamphlets in the world won’t create new rental space.

Until that happens, we’ll have this same discussion every year.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: August 28, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

The National Weather Service predicts a day of thunderstorms and a high of 79. The Farmers’ Almanac begins a new multi-day prediction with a forecast for pleasant and fair weather in the Great Lakes region. They won’t both be right.

There are no public meetings scheduled for Whitewater today.

On this date in Wisconsin history, in 1928, the Wisconsin Historical Society reports that Babe Ruth “hit a towering game-winning home run in the ninth inning to give his team a 5-4 victory in a baseball exhibition at Borchert Field in Milwaukee. Lou Gehrig also played at this event.”