Part 3, “The Sergeant’s Intelligence Operation.”
(For earlier parts of this series, please click this link: Witch-Hunting a Blogger in Whitewater, Wisconsin.)
From the public records, in early August 2007, Police Detective Sergeant Tina Winger learns (from a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater police officer named Pieper) about FREE WHITEWATER, and alerts Chief Coan. Coan replies to Winger the same day. The exchange appears below in black font, followed by the actual PDF documents I obtained, and then my commentary in blue font.
The exchange:
From: Pieper, Samuel J [mailto:piepers@uww.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 9:50 AM
To: Tina L. Winger
Subject: freewhitewater.com
Tina,
Take a look at this site if you havn’t [sic] already.
freewhitewater.com
Sam
******
From: Tina L. Winger
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 9:46 AM
To: James Coan
Subject: FW: freewhitewater.com
Chief,
I don’t know if you have ever visited this web site, but I think it is someone we want to keep an eye on. Do you know who John Adams is? Seems like an anti-government radical to me. I’m going to dig a little more to try and get more intelligence on this goof.
Tina
******
From: James Coan
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 2:08 PM
To: Tina L. Winger
Subject: RE: freewhitewater.com
Tina,
Thanks for the heads-up, but I have been well aware of the website for sometime now. Although I have a few suspects, I do not know who “John Adams” is (yet). I agree with your assessment of the guy. He has been taking plenty of “shots” at me, our Department, and City Government in general (including DPW and the Fire Department).
It is certainly someone who actually writes pretty well, but who is obviously very arrogant, very liberal, and very condescending in what he writes. Please check with Ryan as I passed on to him some information that might be helpful in identifying who this might be. Thanks!
JC
The files: I have made the PDF files confirming this exchange available here — 2008-1 (2).
My comments:
1. Public employes, public time, public resources. Thursday, during the work day.
2. Sergeant Winger. Tina Winger is a police sergeant, since her promotion this spring, I believe, to detective sergeant. She is no new patrol officer — she’s a more seasoned veteran, and she, like Coan, commits public resources in our small town to tracking political speech.
3. Coan’s Pejoratives. Look at how Coan describes me, and you’ll see how he thinks. He says three things in succession: “very arrogant, very liberal, and very condescending .” They’re — all three — apparently pejoratives to him — arrogant, liberal, and condescending. I am a libertarian, and not a liberal, but you see the point, of course — liberal in Coan’s world is just another flaw, like arrogant or condescending.
If you voted for Gore, or Nader, Kerry, Clinton, or Obama (and many in our town did), you might want to ask Coan if being liberal or progressive is just another insult between the bookends of arrogant and condescending?
4. Actually Writing Pretty Well. Well, I’d say thanks, but you can see how begrudging Coan’s praise is. In fact, it suggests his surprise, to my mind. It must be hard for him to see that a critic of his leadership can write well. We can. We can tie our own shoes, and cut our own food, too!
5. An Intelligence Operation. Sergeant Winger writes Coan an ingratiating email that I am an “anti-government radical” on whom she will “get more intelligence.” I’m only radical if you think that men like Goldwater and Reagan were radical. If you think that they were, fine. They’re my heroes, and I am happy to identify with men like that.
Winger writes that she’ll get more “intelligence” on me. Where does she think that she works? We’re a small town, not a field of military operations. It’s the language of a Rambo movie. Does she talk about reconnaissance, or “recon,” too? Here’s my suggestion — less combat rhetoric, and more constitutional theory.
6. Condescending and Arrogant. Coan writes that I am condescending and arrogant. He’s entitled to his opinion. I would ask readers to consider, though, to whom I supposedly condescend, and to whom I am supposedly arrogant. In the case of Winger and Coan, if the shoe fits…
Next Up on Monday, March 3rd at 1 PM CST: Part 4, “The List of Suspects.”