James Wigderson: “If Tony Robinson was put away for the time armed robbery should get, he might be alive today.”

Found this on Twitter and thought I’d share, because I’m sure it will provoke a discussion.

Here’s what conservative blogger and Waukesha Freeman columnist James Wigderson had to say about the recent shooting death of unarmed teenager Tony Robinson at the hands of a Madison Police officer.

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23 thoughts on “James Wigderson: “If Tony Robinson was put away for the time armed robbery should get, he might be alive today.”

  1. Or…maybe he didn’t get time precisely because he didn’t have much to do with it except being in the wrong place and being around the wrong people. And I’m guessing his criminal proceeding might have gone a wee bit different if he was a middle-class white kid (as in not charged and/or convicted).

    That’s my instinct (why else wouldn’t have he done time?), but I admit I haven’t seen the particulars in the case and am just throwing things out there. That makes me no different than Fat Waukesha Windbag Wiggy, but unlike him, I’ll admit I’m just spitballing off the top of my head.

  2. Hate speech by so-called conservatives is nothing new. They are trying to cloud the issue. The current standard of allowing the police to investigate themselves is deeply flawed. In many cases the police investigation exonerates the officers involved even when civil courts find in favor of those injured by the police. Independent offices are needed to investigate allegations of police misconduct, with the power to discipline, fire, or prosecute when the evidence warrants. The use of deadly force against unarmed persons is always a failure by the police and rarely justifiable.
    Steve Nash
    Denver Copwatch

  3. Now that’s a new one – incarceration as a measure of protection for black men.
    That’s obviously why Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate for black men in the country. It’s because we care so much about them.

    1. Sue- Walker couldn’t have stated it better himself. Just like how keeping people from health care is being done because he cares so much about people becoming independent, and he wants them to be better off.

    2. Oh Sue… Yep all the black men that are behind bars are inocent. And Tony Robinson was just a random black dude that some racist cop blew away right… I’m so tired of hearing how gentle these people are after the fact. Maybe no one needed to die here. I say maybe because no one knows the particulars quite yet. But what we do know is he was involved in ARMED ROBBERY for which he pled guilty to and then police were called for yet another incident involving this young man who clearly didn’t learn anything from the leniency that was shown him..

      Jake I suppose all four of the individuals were in the wrong place and around the wrong people when the robbery occured. All of those young men were on their way to church or were buying chicken soup for a sick relative. NO WAY were they robbing a place with a long gun… NOPE, not those boys (you see everone calls criminals boys to make them sound less menacing) I’m sure they felt like men right up untill the time they got caught.

      I am so tired of the media interviewing family of the deceased and printing how gentle and loving and kind they were… Sureeeee

        1. Even more astounding is the fact that the incarceration rate of black men in Wisconsin continued to increase dramatically when Walker was County Exec 2004-2008. Hmmmm; racist, incompetent, just didn’t give a damn, too busy secretly campaigning for governor on county time, or all of the preceding?

          1. What does that mean Duane? Walker is racist becausee blacks conmmited crimes? How’s Milwaukee doing under leftie barret’s watch? How about Chicago under Rahm? Those racist lefties not doing enough. .. they must be lazy I guess. Matter of fact nearly every major metropolis is governed by lefties. .. I guess they all are lazy racist dummies to let this happen.

        2. Well as long as they are locking up people that have committed crimes. .. I suppose the leniency that was shown to this young man was brought about by the same policies enacted to keep more blacks out of jail and now he is dead. As far as I’m concerned, if you are white black brown or blue and you rob me or my family or my neighbor while carrying a gun i done want you back out on the street I want you in jail. Maybe you have a different view.

          And locking up more white people diabetes seem to lesson the crime rate among black people (Allthough I’m all for locking upwhitewhite

            1. jharp, why haven’t any of the Wall Street CEO’s even been indicted? Why isn’t Gov. Walker talking about that in his presidential campaign?

  4. I always find the concern many Republicans have for black lives so touching. Sort of similar to when they bring up gun violence statistics in Chicago.

    1. Oh Maseman get off of it. The only time black lives matter is if they are shot while committing crimes by white police officers.

      1. That may be true for you and Wiggly, but NOT for many other people continually working for social/economic justice, oh, since being jailed protesting the Vietnam war back in 1970. Thanks for being absolutely clear about your bigoted and racist views, we guessed, totally unnecessary to prove it. A lot of us are the beneficiaries of public school educations.

        Long day for you, eh? Failed on anything cogent to say about elimination of WI labor rights, failed on finding Democratic hypocrisy over Hillary emails, and now a third fail in a row on trying to pin institutional racism in WI on the Democrats. Sunday’s biggest loser, you win, hands down. As big an honor as you likely garnered since being selected the top of your class, home schooled in a family of three. What did your parents spend that money on?

        And for the bonus round, as pointed out on that other thread, you failed in current events about WI geography.

      2. jharp, since you brought up, “white,” do you consider Jews be “white?” What about the Irish? Judging by her actions against the Roman Catholic Irish in Northern Ireland, Margaret Thatcher didn’t consider them to be “white.” What about my Polish relatives? Hitler didn’t consider them “white,” do you? What about the Italians? Do they get to be “white?” If you let them in, don’t you have say that the Spanish, most of the Semitic peoples and Persians in the Middle East are “white?” Is there a court that decides how “white” someone has to be, before they’re officially “white?” Is Derek Jeter “white” enough for you? Should we all get DNA tests to confirm our ethnic purity? Thanks in advance.

        OT, have you read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case For Reparations”?

        http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

        He starts with the Old Testament and Hebrew law on slavery, then moves to John Locke (who had a profound impact on the Founding Fathers) on restitution, …. If you find anything in it that you consider inaccurate, incomplete, or wrong, I’d appreciate it if you’d note the page, and leave it in a comment. So far, I haven’t found anyone who can find any fault with his research.

  5. its interesting that wiggy know nothing about the case but that a black man was roaming the streets so he set down his Big Mac and took some time to pass judgement.

    The racism is impossible to suppress sometimes.

    We incarcerateore blk men than anyone and it’s still not enough for him.

    I wonder if he would have pleaded out guilty if he had two nationwide crominal defense firms advocating for him to the tune of two million dollars?

    Maybe if Kelly reindflesch had just been tossed in jail the first time we wouldn’t have had to deal with John Doe

    Heck maybe if mark block and his partner in crime for voter caging( I forget his name) would have spent the necessary time in prison then the state would be better off.

  6. Nice to read your thoughts Jeff, hope you are continuing on a speedy mend. All the best. nonq.

  7. What James wrote was inappropriate and incredibly insensitive. The name calling toward James is infantile.

  8. As much as I often disagree with James W. I feel the need to weigh in here. I get the sense that James was trying (unsuccessfully, and somewhat inarticulately..) to make the point that there were prior occasions where the youth justice and rehabilitation systems in Wisconsin could have engaged with this young man in a way that would have prevented his tragic death. None of us, can know if that is the case, and sadly we will never know.

    I have known James for nearly 30 years, politically we agree on next to nothing, but I do know that James Wigderson is not a racist.

    There are real questions around the response of the Madison Police Dept., at the time. Having grown up in the Madison Area (Sun Prairie), I never saw a single officer respond to a public disturbance call, In my experience MPD always arrived in two’s. I’d be interested to know why only a single officer was sent in response to the initial call?

    Robinson’s death made the news here in London. Friends and colleagues knowing I am from the same hometown as the victim have asked me if Madison is “like Ferguson MO”. I certainly hope and pray that my answer of “No”, is not proven wrong.

    1. DaveinUK,

      Wigderson’s armpit deep in the Bradley Foundation’s well educated, refined white supremacist communications team. In the link below he’s defending oligarchs who tried to use outdoor to suppress the African-American vote.

      “Journal Sentinel repeats racism charge despite evidence”

      http://www.wigderson.com/journal-sentinel-repeats-racism-charge-despite-evidence/

      The Einhorn’s son, David, is a billionaire who tried to buy the NYMets. He’s also contributed a lot to Gov. Walker, presumably to position himself to loot the state’s pension fund.

      If you have a counter-example, a piece Wigderson wrote that took on white supremacists, held them accountable, please share link.

      1. Thanks Daveinuk but to give wiggy the benefit of the doubt means that you have to forget everything he has written and done in his career.

  9. Thanks for your pov.

    My feeling is that racists here in WI have developed a different level of sophistication in the language they use in their dog-whistle statements and JW gives us a prime example here. He is all in, in supporting Walker from what I understand about his personal and professional political views, i.e. so drug test those “shiftless,” unemployed, jail blacks to the tune of 8-1 in relation to the proportion of crimes committed vs racial makeup of the criminals and throw away the key, take away citizen control of a prominently black populated city, be against funding public transit there and don’t honor the Republican AG’s request for 5-6 employees and several hundred thousand dollars to fund the new state mandate to have outside investigations of police shootings of civilians resulting in a civilian death, just to name a few. “Not a racist,” does not fit here as you suggest.

    Also, if this person wanted to clarify his statement at a blog that has featured it, I don’t think that has yet happened.

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