Steve Hanson is the founder and editor of Uppity Wisconsin. He is also a web developer in his spare time.
Free Whitewater
Posted March 21st, 2008 by Steve Hanson
Free WhitewaterAmidst all the election angst, irritating judge ads, and other items flying by our radar, it's sometimes easy to overlook smaller but important issues in the state. I think it's time to say something about the Free Whitewater web site issue.
John Adams, an anonymous blogger in Whitewater, has been stirring up a hornet's nest in the city by being critical of the local government, particularly the chief of police. Rather than rehash this here, I'll just point you to one of the fine articles already written about this issue.
Anonymous blogging isn't my style, but then again so far no government agency has been coming after us, so it's easy to be brave. That could change, given the general climate toward the press that has developed. So I think it is genuinely essential that we stand in support of Free Whitewater and John Adams . Our government agencies should not be expending their precious small resources in an attempt to find the people who are being critical of them. Perhaps the time has come when government agencies should stop trying to silence their critics, and instead take the radical step of listening to them.
I stand fully in support of the right to speak, and that includes the right to speak anonymously. Count me in on support of the right to criticize and complain. True Wisconsin Uppityness.
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My insight
As a proud alumni of that fine university and someone who was involved in local politics while I was there, I will say that I find these stories incredibly funny.
In defense of the city, often the way Mr. Adams approaches things tends to carry a distorted view and a fairer assessment would catch the nuances of the interplay between a relatively small town and the RELATIVELY large university that happens to be located there.
However, these actions by the police department are simply inexcusable. I’m assuming this was curiosity, mixed with hurt feelings, which led to an extreme abuse of power. From what I know of the Chief, he is a good guy, trying to do his job and keep the drunk college students from peeing on people’s lawns -- but again this is clearly out of control.
I am hopeful that the City Manager was not involved in this, and I believe that is the case. His comments seem to show he is more interested in making this story about silliness on the part of the police department go away. And if he was involved, maybe a little bad press is just the medicine to stop this sort of behavior out of City Hall.
But beyond the crazy Joe McCarthy-esque espionage by the whitewater PD, my main question is why this guy would pick John Adams??? President John Adams passed the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 which made it illegal to criticize the government! These four acts by Adams and the Federalists were the reason that Jefferson and the Democrats took control in Washington in the next election. It seems someone only did half their homework when picking a moniker.
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