Madison citizens have Chief Koval’s back

Someone tapped Mayor Soglin on the shoulder and said Madison’s elected leaders are sending out a very strong message that it’s okay to resist a police arrest.

Now, how would anyone think that after an alderman (Marsha Rummel) proposes a Tony T. Robinson day in honor of the drug-abusing felon who attacked the police officer sent to subdue him?

How would anyone think that after activists demonstrate on behalf of a young woman who threatened to knife someone and resisted arrest like a wildcat?

How would anyone think that except that for the last 15 months Madison police have been pilloried as being racist thugs with nary a dissent from the city’s elected leaders, except for one alderman? Or subjected to a $400,000 review of “practices and procedures” for signs of that societal Higgs Boson, white privilege?

How would anyone think that resisting arrest is permissible after the weekly Isthmus publication calls for the chief’s firing? After the Progressive Dane political party demands the chief be brought up on charges? After the browbeating from The Capital Times? After Ald. Samba Baldeh accuses the chief of wanting to shoot him in the back during a Common Council meeting.

Someone, perhaps Chief Koval, told the mayor that city leaders were putting his uniformed men and women in physical danger by not countering the dominant anti-police narrative. These same city “leaders” (extra-snotty quotation marks) are also putting the people with whom they come in contact in danger by their silent acquiescence to the hate mongers.

Hizzoner finally said late last week what the gray beards here at the Stately Manor have been saying for Lo, these many years:

There is no right to resist arrest. It is unsafe for everyone concerned.

Real citizens — not the usual suspects who make a living protesting — are taking notice. Midvale neighborhood association activist Paula Fitzsimmons has begun on on-line petition that, as of Independence Day, had attracted over 1,500 signatures — 90% of them from city residents. It reads, in part:

We support Police Chief Mike Koval and the professional men and women of the Madison Police Department.  …. the bulk of the common council, mayor, and other critics have found it necessary to publicly disparage this elite force. Their actions are causing divisions within the city, adding to mistrust of the police, encouraging unacceptable behavior, and thus endangering the safety of its citizens.

If you’re a city of Madison resident, sign the petition here.

The chosen ones

So who did the Orchard Ridge neighborhood association choose as its the grand marshals for their annual Independence Day parade? Chief Mike Koval, along with neighborhood police liaison Joe Buccellato. They were roundly applauded. Along the way, they saw plenty of yard signs. No, not campaign yard signs. These signs say “We Support Our Madison Police.” Some 220 yard signs went up over Independence Day weekend, primarily here on the southwest side.

Some streets are clogged with them. Police officers are saying the signs are providing a needed lift in morale after the steady drumbeat of vitriol. One police officer, mother of two young children, told Your Humble Scribe that children on her beat come up to her taunting, “Are you going to shoot me?”

If you’d like a yard sign, e-mail dave2847@charter.net (btw: that’s not me).

Meadowood community leader Dave Glomp told me that people are taking cookies to the police at the West District station on McKenna Blvd. The citizens of Madison don’t think police are the problem, just their elected representatives.

One other observation: didn’t see our alderman (Maurice Cheeks) at our July 4 parade. Never do.

About that poor fellow with a pitchfork

After he was shot dead after invading a home near Lake Monona, a wit posted this at the Isthmus on-line forum: "Where's [former PD chief] David Couper now, preaching about how he would have de-escalated the situation by engaging the man in a conversation on the history of farm implements while waiting for back-up from an officer with a background in hay baling?”

Don’t know how many tines on the guy’s pitchfork but no one needs more than three. Any more should be illegal.