In July, the murder of Corey Ruiz at the hands of the Madison Police Department (MPD) sparked the biggest resurgence of protests against racist police brutality since the 2020 George Floyd uprising. The following public comment was given by Socialist Alternative member Rosemary Wonnell at a Madison Common Council meeting where city alders voted 14-6 to terminate the independent police monitor, Aeiramique Glass, and replace her with the council’s chief of staff. This vote came after 12 hours of public comment from more than 110 community members who overwhelmingly conveyed deep outrage at this move. The resolution to terminate Monitor Glass was introduced after she released a statement exposing how the Madison city establishment obstructed her investigation into the murder of Corey Ruiz. 

My name is Rosemary, and I am a member of Socialist Alternative. I strongly oppose the resolution to terminate Monitor Glass. At every moment, the Madison city establishment and its Democratic politicians tried to undermine and divide the movement for justice for Corey Ruiz. The way that they shut down the encampment was directly out of Trump’s playbook. We must be crystal clear that this resolution is political retaliation and retribution because Monitor Glass called out and exposed the utter bankruptcy of the Madison Democratic city establishment and their active obstruction of her investigation. If we think this about anything other than blatant political maneuvering and repression, we are being successfully fooled. 

Because the Madison city establishment never wanted these reforms—the Police Civilian Oversight Board and the Office of the Independent Monitor—to exist in the first place. They need funding, but they are the absolute bare minimum and what the Justice for Corey Ruiz movement has proven is that they are set up to fail. The city establishment will shed crocodile tears and whine about “job performance” to cover their asses. Not only is that lies and smoke and mirrors, but in reality they are waging a war against reforms that they were only forced to take up because of the massive pressure from the movement for George Floyd in 2020. Meanwhile there has been no such maneuvering on the part of the city to fire killer cops Kiel Peterson and Matt Kenney. They get their full-throated support and protection. This city establishment serves the chamber of commerce, it serves business interests, and it serves capitalism. 

What we need is to completely overhaul these reforms to get real community control of police—meaning democratically elected working people including from the most policed areas of the city, who have the authority to hire, fire, discipline, and allocate resources. And for an independent police monitor that is accountable to that body and to the working class. And we need to slash the police budget to fund affordable housing, healthcare, public education, and social services. Anything less than this is leaving the police in the hands of the racist capitalist state, not working people.

Corey Ruiz’s murder, Richard Lee Johnson’s death while in MPD custody, Nolan Wells’ death going uninvestigated—these are all acceptable tradeoffs to the ruling class for the protection of private property and corporate wealth. A one-year old Black child, Kohen Wiley, was shot in Mississippi while his mother’s friend was allegedly stealing diapers from Walmart, a multi-billion dollar corporation, and his death was just ruled as justified. And after Corey was murdered, the first priority of the city establishment was to protect the businesses on Willy Street, not to arrest and indict the killer cop Kiel Petersen.

The Madison city establishment should already be deeply shameful. But the resolution to terminate Monitor Glass, which we must strongly oppose and fight against, must be understood as a complete indictment of this capitalist “justice” system. And we should not give a single vote to anyone who is guilty for these crimes, which is the vast majority of the elected officials in this room, as well as the entire Democratic establishment in Madison and in the whole US. Real justice can only come from the pressure of an independent mass movement of working people and the oppressed. Solidarity with Monitor Glass and Justice for Corey Ruiz.