In the wake of recurrent violence in and around State Street’s Peace Park, various civic and community groups have stepped up to voice their opinions on the future of the park and its regular visitors.
The park, which recently was the site of a violent episode that resulted in three stabbings, has become the center of a debate involving a diverse group of local civic and business leaders. Predictably and unfortunately, that debate has not featured the voice of the student population, the group most likely to suffer innocently from a violent confrontation on State Street.
According to police reports and reports from those on the scene, a 41-year-old man entered Peace Park and began shouting racial slurs Monday, Aug. 20, at about 9 p.m. The as-yet-unidentified suspect pulled out two knives after being confronted and stabbed another man in the face and stomach.
The suspect continued down State Street toward West Gilman Street where he was again confronted and stabbed a third man in the leg. When the suspect backed off and put his knife down, a reportedly aggressive group from the park rushed him and subdued him by force. The suspect sustained severe head injuries.
Is this Madison? A mob-sized melee rolling down State Street and ending in multiple stabbings? Luckily, the incident occurred before the beginning of the school, when that block would have been choked with innocent students heading out for a night with their friends.
One would expect outspoken opinion and support from traditional student advocates. That support, however, has been lacking – even from those who owe their positions to student votes. Alderman Todd Jarrell, District 8, elected almost exclusively with student support, has proved himself to be one of the more serious disappointments. Jarrell has gone on the record saying the Peace Park incident should dismay students and those that share their basic concerns for health and safety.
Jarrell was quoted in The Capital Times as saying, “A stranger came into the community to cause trouble. The youths who hang out there stopped it from becoming a more serious incident.”
Jarrell’s contention that the suspect was an isolated outsider is consistent with other reports from the scene, but the notion that anyone prevented further violence is not. According to all reports, the regulars at Peace Park encouraged further violence by repeatedly confronting the suspect after the initial stabbing and physically subdued him with their own force, even after the suspect had retreated.
Presumably, Jarrell would prefer that the police, rather than himself, handle matters like these, but this isn’t even the beginning of his betrayal.
“This incident could have been in any bar in Madison,” Jarrell said. “It just happened to be in the park.” Words like these seem ridiculously negligent. When was the last time multiple stabbings broke out among students in a bar on State Street? The participants in this altercation were all wildly out of control, and for Jarrell to associate flagrantly violent criminal behavior with what goes on in the bars of State Street is anti-student and harms the reputation of students.
The fact is that Jarrell, in his advertised liberal style, is doing his best to stick up for the culture Peace Park has attracted in past years, a culture that faces displacement by the city after continued conflicts with local businesses and a frequent need for police intervention. Police have been called to Peace Park 191 times in the past 12 months. That amounts to one call every other day – far more than any student bar. It appeals to all our liberal sensibilities to see Jarrell stick up for the underdog, but there is clearly something about the culture of Peace Park’s regular visitors that consistently causes problems. Jarrell would have done better to stick up for the real underdog – his under-represented student constituents, who are most likely to be innocently harmed when violence breaks out on State Street.
In the political climate of a city that has yet to reconcile its relationship with its students, we need the full strength and advocacy of our city representatives. The inevitable crackdown on underage drinking that rings in every new school year will continue to divert police presence that, as the Peace Park incident has shown, is too sparse even in well-known problem areas.
Students need leaders who will ensure an allocation of MPD assets that will ensure their safety. The future of the park and the impact of its regular visitors is an issue for the whole downtown community to decide. When student civic representatives are so rare, Todd Jarrell should be the first to ensure his student constituents are well represented in that decision.