Photo Courtesy Joe Brusky, Flickr CC
There were good reasons for the anger and skepticism of many of the 700-plus people packing a public hearing last week as the U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation into the policies and practices of the Milwaukee Police Department.
Black and brown people, who for decades have suffered violent and deadly treatment at the hands of police that would never be tolerated in white communities, are used to official investigations by official government agencies that change nothing.
The anger of the Black Lives Matter movement over continuing incidents of deadly racial injustice in Milwaukee and across the country is well justified.
It also serves a valuable public purpose by keeping pressure on the federal government to continue requiring police to change long-standing practices and attitudes that deny all citizens equal protection under the law.
Those reforms have been such a long time coming it’s easy to be cynical about whether real change is finally happening. But it really is.
Officers are being fired and prosecuted for crimes that once were accepted and defended as routine policing.
The Justice Department’s new federal initiative to improve police accountability is being led by former Madison Police Chief Noble Wray. That’s significant too. Wray’s father Jessie was a black community activist in 1970s Milwaukee who regularly battled the brazenly racist practices of Police Chief Harold Breier’s department.
Another obvious change came last week when the Milwaukee Common Council overwhelmingly approved a $5 million settlement of lawsuits brought by 74 African Americans subjected to illegal anal searches for drugs by police, often after minor traffic stops.
Those cases were rooted in the same lack of respect for the lives of black citizens as all those incidents involving police use of deadly force against racial minorities in Milwaukee and around the country.
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The humiliating anal searches by police often took place during daylight hours on public streets in full view of neighbors and other witnesses.
No white traffic violator has ever had to fear such a demeaning, invasive assault from police. Every decent human being should be outraged police would do it to anyone.
Borkowski’s Shameful Spectacle
Of course, not everyone is decent. Ald. Mark Borkowski made a spectacle of himself publicly by opposing the multi-million-dollar settlement, declaring without any actual evidence it would be paid to drug dealers.
Borkowski was disturbingly enthusiastic in his support for anal police searches. Forbidding such violent searches, Borkowski said, would encourage “wimpification of the police department.”
Hardly. Anal searches by police already violate department rules. They’re also against state law. Legal searches must be performed by a doctor, physician’s assistant or a registered nurse, not crudely and cruelly administered in the streets.
Michael Vagnini, the most brutal officer involved in many of those searches, faced accusations of planting drugs, not finding them. He pleaded no contest to four felonies and was sentenced to 26 months in prison. Three other officers were convicted of lesser crimes and forced to resign.
Ordinary citizens who commit such crimes often go to prison much longer for sexual assault and are identified by the state for the rest of their lives as sexual predators.
The real significance of Borkowski’s protest is that he was the only alderman spouting such public ignorance about policing using the vicious rhetoric of right-wing talk shows. Not very long ago, many more local pols would be fighting for the microphone to make such fools of themselves.
Borkowski’s embarrassing rant included another favorite complaint from right-wing radio—the failure of the Milwaukee Police Department to endanger the public and its own police officers by engaging in high speed chases of car thieves and traffic violators.
Milwaukee has a serious problem right now with young teenagers and pre-teens stealing cars for dangerous joy rides. Milwaukee’s intelligent policy is identifying and arresting those offenders later rather than chasing young people who barely know how to drive at reckless speeds and endangering far more lives. Enough of those kids already are killing themselves and others without police increasing the danger to the community.
That sensible change locally parallels a growing movement by departments nationally to end such deadly chases.
Intelligence is driving many other major changes in policing nationwide as widespread protests over racial inequities force cities to face the mounting cost of using aggressive, violent and deadly tactics in black and brown communities that have long been unacceptable in white neighborhoods.
Everyone who’s ever been upset by racial injustices involving Milwaukee police should stay angry for months to come as the Justice Department investigates, recommends reforms and works with the department to implement any changes needed to end racial disparities.
But the good news is the talk show demagoguery represented by Borkowski has become a publicly embarrassing, waning view. Real change is now politically possible.
