(((Mr. Brian D. Johnson)))

@bjohnson.bsky.social

Jew. Reader. Writer. Madison, Wisconsin. “Treat everyone as if they are [G!d] in drag.” -Ram Dass.

Since 2012, Madison police have fatally shot two other men within blocks of where Ruiz was killed. The police who pulled the trigger in those shootings have not faced criminal penalties, and one still works for the MPD. Meanwhile the city has paid over $5.6M to settle lawsuits around the shootings.

Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

Here in Madison, WI, on Monroe St., the neighborhoods now has a tradition of giant, inflatable Santas. They are all the same. Someone can drive for blocks and blocks and, one house after another has the same inflatable Santa before it and after it. For some reason, this triggers my anxiety.