I've been reading a couple posts over at Paul Soglin's blog which address the rise in crime here in Madison - "Why the Prospects for Madison Are So Bleak: Part I" and "The Madison Plan to Fight Crime: Not Nearly Enough". After having finished, I can only wonder when the white flight is going to start. Outlying areas take note: you are probably going to be seeing an influx of refugees from class wars soon.
This is because the views of people like David Blaska are going to rule the day. "Stop the crime, the poverty follows. Or maybe not. But, at least, the crime stops," he bleats. With such rhetorical force, how could those ideas not carry the day? The MPD's request for 30 additional officers, up from 18, is just the tip of the iceberg. "More cops" is nice'n'jingoistic and a palliative for the anxieties of white middle-class people so they're going to eat it up while the potential of a more comprehensive plan will fall to the wayside. What are tax-hating conservatives like Blaska going to do when the police want yet more officers and more stations and more prisons? It's not that more police officers is unwelcome, but is having more people charged with standing in a roadway really going to solve anything? I think we can look forward to a referendum on building another city pokey in the near future.
Sought or unsought, we're headed for an MPD-Prison complex here.
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