Damakant Jayshi
Members of Wausau’s Liberation and Freedom Committee on Wednesday questioned a task force report saying a review did not find evidence of systemic racism in policing in Wausau.
A number of members said they believe that systemic racism does exist in Marathon County and within the Wausau Police Department. They were responding to a presentation by Wausau Policing Task Force Chair John Robinson, who was sharing the group’s findings and recommendations.
“I am concerned with the comments of no systemic racism here in Marathon County or at Wausau Police Department,” member La’Tanya Campbell said, after Robinson presented a snapshot of the WPTF report. “I know with police arrests as well…when they pull someone over, like what area is traditionally occupied by groups of color, have more frequent stops…Where my concern is that (when) we say there is no systemic racism, then it stops the conversation.”
The WPTF on May 18 will hold a public hearing on its findings and recommendations. The report will remain unchanged unless there is strong feedback on any aspect of the report. The Task Force will meet again May 23 to develop a plan of action for various county and city bodies.
Campbell asked if a copy of the full report and data were available for public review prior to the hearing. Robinson, who is also a Marathon County supervisor, said the report is still being finalized with appendices.
“If you have concerns regarding our findings and recommendations, please bring them forward,” he said. “We were reacting to the information that we had and what was presented.”
Robinson said the Task Force’s job was to recommend how the community should move forward “relative to mental health, the homeless, the case management, and other things…And that’s really what we were charged with doing.”
At every committee where he has presented the findings and recommendations, Robinson has said that while the Task Force did not find instances of systemic racism based on the information they had received, the WPTF chair has noted that the group did not have enough data to conclude either way on systemic racism in policing and called for access to more information.
During a WPTF meeting early this month, police chief Benjamin Bliven strongly objected to any mention of systemic racism in the report. During a presentation at the WPD, some officers told Robinson they wanted the report to specifically say the Task Force did not find systemic racism in local policing.
“You guys didn’t do any research into systemic racism as it pertains to the justice system as a whole, to Marathon County court system or things like that. Your role was to focus on the police department in the City of Wausau,” Bliven said, on April 7.
Robinson pushed back at those remarks, reminding Bliven and others that the Task Force was formed because of concerns of systemic racism in policing nationwide. The Task Force launched in September 2020, a month after it was formed by the City Council. Mayor Katie Rosenberg took the initiative to form the Task Force in August 2020 in the wake of protests across the U.S. related to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
A database on police shooting maintained by The Washington Post shows that Black Americans are killed at a much higher rate than white Americans.
The strongest objection to the “no systemic racism” assertion came from Chris Norfleet, another member of the Liberation and Freedom Committee. He said drawing a conclusion by speaking only to “three or four people” does not give a full picture of the issue.
Norfleet also questioned the finding that more than 80% of Wausau residents approved of the work local police are doing, noting, correctly, the majority of the respondents were white.
Of the 1,231 respondents to the community survey on policing, 92% of those who responded were white people. According to 2020 Census, of the nearly 138,000 people in the county, 90% are white. For Wausau’s nearly 40,000 residents, the number is 82%.
Norfleet said the goal is not to make police look bad or good, but to seek truth about policing, so as to make the relationship between police and people of color better. However, “it’s almost impossible to make things better when everybody has already agreed that they are doing a great job,” Norfleet said.
“Marathon County is still segregated,” he said, adding that without acknowledging that racism exists in Marathon County, the whole thing “gets watered down.”
Robinson said they tried to reach out to as many people as possible during the coronavirus pandemic, which complicated those efforts.
“It was an extremely difficult time for public engagement…It’s snapshot in time. It doesn’t mean it is 100% accurate but it’s the best we could (do),” he said.
The WPTF chair said Norfleet raised a good point. “Is this window-dressing or is this a plan of action?”
Robinson said the group tried to identify the various roles and “dependencies and who else is a player in the game,” so that when the plan of action is developed, those roles are not lost.
