May 13, 2015

"Madison police have begun arresting protesters angry about a prosecutor's decision not to charge a white police officer for shooting an unarmed biracial man."

"Officers converged on about 20 protesters who refused to leave an intersection near the Capitol building on Wednesday."
The protesters linked arms as they were detained, and some of them cried. Some onlookers shouted insults, including racial epithets, at the officers....

About 150 to 200 protesters marched through the streets of Wisconsin's capital city on Wednesday before gathering outside of the Dane County Courthouse to stage the fake trial. The crowd cheered when actors said they would charge Officer Matt Kenny in the March killing of 19-year-old Tony Robinson....

The crowd blocked an intersection for about five minutes...
ADDED: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Mary Spicuzza is tweeting pictures of the protests. Example:



The pictures look very sedate to me. I think things have been completely peaceful (if disruptive). Meade and I drove through the relevant parts of town today and saw nothing disorderly.

60 comments:

MadisonMan said...

In other Madison protests, yesterday I walked past an anti-circumcision protest, complete with men wearing white jeans with bloody crotch stains.

This was at Park and University. I just kept walking.

At least they weren't blocking traffic, just looking ridiculous. Red Dick ulous.

Big Mike said...

@MadMan, that's the pun-iest comment I've seen in years.

Ann Althouse said...

"In other Madison protests, yesterday I walked past an anti-circumcision protest, complete with men wearing white jeans with bloody crotch stains."

I would have taken that to be a showing of male solidarity with menstruating females.

Danno said...

The pic of people blocking the street at the link look like the Solidarity Singers. Or any other libtard faction that you run across in Madison pretty much daily.

steve uhr said...

After seeing the video of the shooting just made public I think just maybe it wasn't justified. Looks like the cop could have run away; though he may have reasonably believed that someone else in the house was in danger.

Tough case though and the DA prob thought he would have lost so why try and end up looking bad after all that work. And an acquittal at trial would almost certainly have resulted in violence.

steve uhr said...

Correction -- Cop should not run away from a violent criminal. But the video looks like maybe he could have given Robinson a chance to give up before being shot. But hard to tell.

bleh said...

- white police officer

- unarmed biracial man

Wince said...

Sounds like an Amtrak driver took a few hundred railroad passengers on a "Rough Ride".

Should there be 2nd degree murder charges?

No Justice, No Peace.

sane_voter said...

If people can watch a video of the incident, calm, cool and safe at a computer monitor and not be sure about the decision, how is it fair to second guess the cop there in the moment with his life on the line?

I always go back to that black activist in Arizona who volunteered to take the police use-of-force training scenarios, and the guy totally changed his tune afterwards.

traditionalguy said...

Madison is all bi-racialist this and bi-racialist that. Doesn't' any one hate others anymore?

mikee said...

What? Where are the Crips and Bloods to direct the high school youth, who should be out of schools closed for the duration of the protests, to Asian or White owned businesses, to loot and burn them?

Where are the locals who are ready to ransack the corner check cashing stores and mini marts for money and beer?

Does Baltimore need to send some community organizers to Madison to show you extremely pallorous persons how to hold a rioting protest week?

Michael K said...

The fake trial is a touch that, perhaps, only Madison could pull off with a straight face.

amielalune said...

How sad that, for these people, this is the most exciting, important thing they can do.

I would pity them if I could bring myself to care.

chickelit said...

In other Madison protests, yesterday I walked past an anti-circumcision protest, complete with men wearing white jeans with bloody crotch stains.

Performance artists looking for tips.

Paul Ciotti said...

EDH, I bet that Amtrak engineer was (1) texting at the time of the accident, (2) had marijuana in his system and (3) will argue in his defense that they made him work a double shift and he hadn't slept in 22 hours.

Fandor said...

Police around the country, in solidarity, should go on strike for a day, to protest their mistreatment by the political elite, the press and the protestors who constantly berate them for doing their best to keep the peace.
Let's see how communities fare without their presence for 24 hours.

Hagar said...

What is with this "bi-racial" stuff here?

Is Obama being demoted to our first bi-racial president?

machine said...

It's hard to believe that it has been 505 years since the last protest...

Tim said...

Thank you Barack Obama and Eric Holder.

Quaestor said...

I notice the elderly flower child in her "the Eagle has landed" super-duper power chair has traces of vermilion tint in her gray mop. This internal youth obsession of the Woodstock generation is getting downright embarrassing for all concerned.

rhhardin said...

Protesters point out how stupid the protesters are.

The size of the protest gives you a reading on the intelligence of the population in the vicinity.

David Begley said...

Just don't disrupt the farmers' market on Saturday.

Drago said...

machine: "It's hard to believe that it has been 505 years since the last protest.."

Do not get on your high horse.

Titus said...

Madison is so boring.

Drago said...

Titus: "Madison is so boring"

Not as boring as all those Sears and Penney's stores in the Boston area.

Moneyrunner said...

Meanwhile 50 people have been shot in Baltimore since the riots. Blacklivesmatter not so much. But the solidarity in Madison is touching. I get choked up every time .

Moneyrunner said...

When you're a superannuated hippy in a motorized wheel chair this is the way to prove you've still got it.

Moneyrunner said...

Florida is God's waiting room. Madison is the holding pen for the opposition party.

Etienne said...

The police should join the protest, and refuse to work for 72 hours.

Sal said...

The new civil rights movement: Black people should be able to physically assault others while high on 'shrooms.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

A childish tantrum over not getting what they wanted. They should keep in mind: Justice isn't about getting what you want. It's about getting what you deserve, and who wants that?

Quaestor said...

(Repost with typo correction) I notice the elderly flower child in her "the Eagle has landed" super-duper power chair has traces of vermilion tint in her gray mop. This eternal youth obsession of the Woodstock generation is getting downright embarrassing for all concerned.

eternal auto-corrected to internal... I have this love/hate thing with technology.

alan markus said...

All those linked Twitter pics - anyone know in which ones you will find Garage Mahal?

alan markus said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Todd Roberson said...

One piece of advice I would offer to the "racial protest" movement in general:

You really have to start being being a little more choosy in your poster-victims. You'd really add much more to your cause.

There are certainly (?) real hard-working, upstanding citizens of color who are brutalized by police. Why hang your flag on Wilson, Robinson. Garner, or whoever that numb-nuts in Baltimore was. There might be some fatigue developing over this.

Michael The Magnificent said...

One piece of advice I would offer to the "racial protest" movement in general: You really have to start being being a little more choosy in your poster-victims. You'd really add much more to your cause.

Indeed! They don't need to be saints, but why does the left hang their hats on such obviously provable shitheads?

What is this, a movement for a new civil right, for criminally violent shitheads to assault authority figures with impunity?

Sorry lefty assholes, but that thin blue line that you so detest is what separates civilization from the anarchy you so desire.

chickelit said...

Indeed! They don't need to be saints, but why does the left hang their hats on such obviously provable shitheads?

You wage culture/street war with the army you have---not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.

chickelit said...

I think Soglin deserves a lot of credit for diffusing much of the anger. That and the scale of the problem vs. say in Baltimore or Ferguson.

Anonymous said...

How does dinnertime conversation go at a journalist's house?

"What did you do today, honey?"

"I took pictures of people sitting in the street. They had an important message to send--black lives matter. It was just like a lunch counter sit it."

"Yes, I see. And I bet no one served them lunch in the street and cops arrested them, right? I see their point. I have never seen lunch served in the street. I can't wait for the day when our society treats everyone the same and serves lunch in the street. Then we will know this is really a great country."

furious_a said...

British police have learned that adding soap to their water cannon disperses lefty protests more quickly than,water alone.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

They're holding the multiracial label hostage.

I wonder if a subset of the population really perceive other people as colored clumps of cells. Perhaps a vestigial behavior from antiquity.

#SomeLivesMatter

Mark said...

The footage of the shooting makes it quite clear that the officer just waited 20 seconds he could have had backup (and policy wise then tried a taser).

Shame he didn't bother to and thus left himself with only a gun as backup.

That all said, his friends left him alone in a manic tripping state and called 911 on him. Now they decry the fact that police vs. young black man encounters end up with the black kid dead too often. Now they bitch about the system they called in themselves.

Bad Lieutenant said...

That fat one in the chair...and they're always fat...just think how much she (I assume) is sucking out of the system. Such a burden to society keeping her alive, and think of all the good she could do for others as Soylent Green! You can imagine how much life she brings to parties, too. I wonder what Laslo could get for her.

There must be a rhetorical term for the tactic of putting such pity-party people up front and center in protests...human shields, yes, but with the nuns-and-orphans vibe added.

As for the white jeans crowd, maybe they're the ones on the rag. Don't discriminate, haters!

I do thank Mr Robinson for making such an ass of himself, giving the police cover to shoot him. While I would prefer Katyn-style executions of such street trash, with the thumbs triced behind the back, this will do to level the peaks in the Augean stable, it's just slower.

JCC said...

@ Mark -

"...Shame he didn't bother...(to wait)"

If indeed, the screaming from within the apartment had been someone in need of help, and not the "shrooms" working on the 6'4" Robinson, I suspect that person would not have been in favor of the cop waiting for reinforcements. The cop, not knowing the source of the yelling and thinking someone inside was in danger, ran inside without waiting, typically placing himself in potential jeopardy in order to render assistance to an unknown stranger, the kind of thing cops do every day, everywhere. Usually, nothing much happens and guys like Robinson don't get shot, so the media doesn't notice. No big deal. But when there is risk to civilians, firefighters and cops don't get to, you know, hang out, wait for help. There is no 911 for first responders.

Bobber Fleck said...

The protesters linked arms as they were detained, and some of them cried.

This is embarrassing, but my sympathy gland seems to be malfunctioning.

Lewis Wetzel said...

What the protesters want, in Florida, Ferguson, Baltimore, and Madison, is for your local cops to be placed under the control of the feds, specifically the liberal civil rights lawyers at the JD. The JD can't do anything about what makes so many young black and Hispanic men become criminals, but it can prevent the cops from arresting them. This is what the protesters want, they do not want democracy, they want the local police to be run by the most distant, least democratic level of government because they know that only this can give them what they want.
Hell, when they couldn't get the feds to step in, they went to the UN for God's sake. The UN is most undemocratic, corrupt pseudo government on the planet. The protesters went to the UN because they want injustice, not justice. The want criminals freed and honest cops put in jail.

Mark said...

JCC there was one voice yelling. How did he ascertain multiple people were inside?

He would have had to wait 20 seconds for backup. They were parking their cars when he decided to go it alone. Sorry, but that was a stupid decision.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Mark, it was a BRAVE decision, and it was the RIGHT decision. He was first on the scene, and many would be calling him a coward if he'd waited, especially if there was someone else in the building who was in danger (you don't know there wasn't, and Kenny had no way to know at the time). Anyway, it's pathetic that SJW are making a martyr of the armed robber, strangler, and gay rapist Anthony Robinson.

Michael The Magnificent said...

JCC there was one voice yelling. How did he ascertain multiple people were inside?

From NO CHARGES AGAINST OFFICER:

When he arrived at the home, Kenny said, he heard a disturbance coming from the upstairs apartment, including noises that sounded “like a fist hitting something” and a person yelling, “What are you going to do now, bitch?”

Hearing that, I'd surmise that was one person beating on and yelling at another. And not hearing any other voices doesn't tell you anything - the other person could be unconscious from the beating. Remember, multiple 911 callers reported Kenny beating on multiple random people. Given all of Kenny's acts that evening, beating on someone in that upstairs apartment fit his pattern.

Why would you assume he was alone? Who, then, is the "bitch" he is yelling at?

One more data point for you. Police officers can and are fired for cowardice. Had the officer waited for backup, and had someone gotten injured during that delay, that officer would be out of a job.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Michael, that was a magnificent takedown of the sniveling, racist SJW left-turds who run this town!

JCC said...

@ Mark -

If you were in an apartment, facing some dangerous attacker, would you care if only one person was yelling, and a cop used that as an excuse to wait? Or that the cop said "Back-up was parking thier cars. I waited." Or "I didn't know what was happening, so I waited." Or "I wanted to be smart, and not have to face a dangerous, high, large guy alone, so I waited." Or just about anything that ends with "I waited." when you or someone you care about was inside needing assistance.

I'd say "...that was a stupid decision..." is a masterpiece of hindsight, and a classically stupid thing to say, replacing your smug superiority for the cop's bravery in making - of necessity - an instantaneous decision.

Robinson is dead because he voluntarily took drugs and then acted with violence toward a number of people, including an armed police officer. Actions have consequences, including those of violence toward civil authority.

Fen said...

If only Favre hadn't thrown that pass to the flat. What a stupid call. I know, because I played high school football for 2 years, most of which was resting my ass on the bench.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

You people (I hope that doesn't seem racist) are being too tough on Granny Gravy. Don't you know she was the first person to say "far out" in it's slang meaning, and was the first white woman to (voluntarily) give it up to Eldridge Cleaver?

JCC said...

Am I showing my age by observing that the female office in the twitter photo looks to me to be about 16 years old?

But I'm glad she decided to become a law enforcement officer and experience real life, rather than sit on the sidelines and criticize.

Mark said...

funny how the cop remembers all the details of what he heard or said on entry, but cannot recount how he got down the stairs nor was he at the time able to recount how many times he shot him.

Convenient.

21 seconds for backup to be there. He had two choices, risk being called a coward for 15 seconds or risking killing someone by going it alone.

Thats one hell of a risk for just seconds. Hell, he could have announced himself from the bottom of the stairs during that 20 second time frame to see if the yelling stopped.

There are a lot of people who made stupid decisions that night. Tony. His friends. The cop. If you don't see ways they all failed I think you have blinders on.

Lewis Wetzel said...

The guy who took drugs and began assaulting people AND the cop who shot him both made mistakes! See! They are equal offenders! That's really stupid, Mark!

JCC said...

@ Mark -

"...risk being called a coward..."

I'm quite certain that never crossed his mind.

"...risking killing someone..."

You mean " risking someone getting killed."

"...he could have announced himself from the bottom of the stairs during that 20 second time frame to see if the yelling stopped."

Sorry, but you're an idiot if you think this is a good idea. (I think someone is getting assaulted upstairs, so I'll announce my presence, and then wait awhile, so the suspect can finish the job - the shouting stopped- then perhaps prepare for my arrival in the stairwell where I'm really vulnerable)

Good. Very good.

Jim said...

I find it interesting that the police act almost immediately to shut down a protest about police actions. Meanwhile, they let the political protesters do much worse for weeks on end. And Althouse doesn't even note the significance of that? Also interesting.

chickelit said...

Jim notes with interest...
...that the police act almost immediately to shut down a protest about police actions. Meanwhile, they let the political protesters do much worse for weeks on end. And Althouse doesn't even note the significance of that? Also interesting.

Not really. The Capitol protest centered on the Capitol. Blocking it didn't really impede much except Government. The bozo (boza?) in a wheelchair tried to impede the traffic flow of a city, irregardless of anyone's need to get from place to place.

Soglin was right--blocking arterial access in a city is intolerable and Madison has unique traffic flow problems/vulnerabilities. Of course that's exactly why the protestors attempt to shut cities down. They are vandals wishing to destroy rather than to build--just a step up from the thugs in Baltimore.