It’s a distress call.
It means the enemy is right here.
Our position has been overrun.
It is also a command.
Broken Arrow.
Our situation is critical. We are the coordinates. Bring it now.
Broken Arrow.
If what happened in Madison a few days ago had happened in Madison a few decades ago, the police officers who subdued an armed criminal suspect in response to calls for help from the public would have been commended for performance of their duty.
Broken Arrow.
The man had a knife. He fled apprehension. He resisted arrest. He had a long record of convictions including violence against police officers of various jurisdictions and he used the knife to wound Madison police officers as they fought to restrain him. They did not fight to kill him. They fought to restrain him, but when he used his knife to cut them one of the police officers shot him dead.
Broken Arrow.
That’s front page news. People reading their newspapers decades ago might have seen a picture of the police officer who fired his weapon with the officer’s name and a statement of his current medical condition as he recovered from his wounds.
Broken Arrow.
Today what happened on the streets of Madison is called murder by some, execution by others and some even carry signs advocating the death of police officers in return. They demand justice for a man who over the course of twenty years and dozens of pages documenting court appearances and convictions and threats against police did in fact have justice abundantly bestowed upon him. Yet when again set free to make the same decisions every law abiding citizen makes, he made the decision yet again rather than abide the law to gamble his life against it.
Broken Arrow.
Meanwhile, the police officers involved are kept incognito on administrative leave. Their identities are kept secret for fear of retribution and the possibility of harm against them or their families. City streets are barricaded illegally, obstructing commerce, traffic and access by emergency vehicles, even city trash pickup, preventing delivery vehicles or bus service and the fallen assailant is heralded as a hero, a martyr, a saint, a victim in his own right whose rights under the United States Constitution have been violated. A monument in his honor has been erected on the site and a street sign placed aloft bearing his name.
Broken Arrow.
In a predictably heartfelt expression of profound grief and loss, those most closely associated with the deceased retain the services of a prominent attorney within hours for the avowed purpose of achieving truth and justice and just maybe a few dollars along the way.
Broken Arrow.
Public events are interrupted. Public events are cancelled. Businesses face economic hardship or ruin. The Madison Police Department cancels its own participation in National Night Out, a nationwide event specifically designed to improve relations between police departments, first responders and the communities they serve.
Broken Arrow.
The City of Madison completely fails to provide citizens and those investigating this incident or any other with incontrovertible proof otherwise obtained if the City of Madison had approved and funded body worn cameras for its police officers. The Madison Police Department repeatedly requested and has been for years repeatedly denied this equipment. The City of Madison does not give law enforcement what it needs, but the City of Madison does get exactly what it wants: room to practice the politics of appeasement and maneuver between those who demand control of public safety in their own image as opposed to those who risk their lives daily to preserve and protect the safety of the general public as a sworn duty.
Broken Arrow.
Candy Land journalism reports The Best of Madison and confines investigative reporting to popular opinion.
Broken Arrow.
It’s a distress call.
Broken Arrow.
It’s a command.
Broken Arrow.
In the City of Madison which is the Capital of the State of Wisconsin it is also a prayer.