The Ferguson demonstrations last year were the largest at the University of Wisconsin since the Civil Rights movement, and the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition is looking to carry that momentum into the new year.
The group recently issued an open letter to Madison Police Department Chief Mike Koval calling for more self-governing among the black community, arguing that a decrease in policing will not increase crime rates in the city.
“Our targeting of the police department relates to the violence that Black people have faced at the hands of police … but it also relates to the violence of heavy policing and arrest rate disparities in Madison,” the letter stated.
Nino Rodriguez, a volunteer with the Moses Jail Taskforce, outlined the coalition’s main demands at a Jan. 15 news conference.
The coalition does not want new jail facilities or renovations in Dane County, wants to decrease the number of incarcerated people by 350 and wants an end to solitary confinement, Rodriguez said.
“The Madison Police Department is on the front lines of criminal legal system,” Rodriguez said. “[They] need to use this discretion to actively work against the dispersed system of racism, classism, or else their policing of our communities will only perpetuate these historic systems.”
Rodriguez said Koval needs to lead the charge in looking at how MPD has added to racial disparities in arrests in Madison. The MPD needs to join forces with the 26 other law enforcement agencies throughout Dane County to ensure a decrease in racial disparity and arrest rates, Rodriguez said.
The numbers and facts about racial disparity are correct and no one can dispute that, Koval said in an interview with The Badger Herald. However, he said the demands cited in the letter are out of MPD’s jurisdiction.
“I have an open mind, except to the extent that I am certainly not going to allow a significant segment of my population base, mainly some neighborhoods, to go without what they have earned, and that is police protection and safeguard,” Koval said.
Everett Mitchell, pastor of Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church and a coalition member, said MPD has the capability to build trusting relations with the black community through supporting protests and attending meetings to hear the wants and needs of different neighborhoods.
However, Mitchell said there seems to be a disconnect between how the MPD is reacting and how it should be making a change.
“Young, Gifted and Black has knocked on doors, listened and heard from many black community members that the relationship desired with the police is similar to that of our white middle class brothers and sisters,” Mitchell said.
Cecilia Gehred, a UW student, participated in a few of the coalition’s events and said she felt unified with her fellow attendees and classmates.
Although it is good to participate in events and rallies, the real issue is for people to know what will happen next, Gehred said, emphasizing that participants need to learn and grow from these experiences.
