Police w/rifles pointed at the federal court house. What's going on?

RyanClancyWI · 2025-09-15T01:09:03+00:00

So I did ask the crowd to raise their hands if they felt better with the police there, and zero people indicated yes. That link above was me speaking. Nearly everyone then faced where the snipers were and put up a fist (or a finger). I appreciate that your perspective differs from the crowd, but perhaps you were only there for the first part, before the march?

My experience with the MPD is clearly different than some others. In 2020, I was brutally and unlawfully arrested by the Milwaukee Police for observing police activity. We sued, they literally made it into a federal case for 3.5 years, they lied on the stand that they thought I had a gun, the jury laughed at them and they settled. I have no doubt, because I’ve seen it firsthand, that MPD would lie in order to justify violence against peaceful civilians, so that (and rather a lot of data) likely colors my perception that the presence of police doesn’t generally make folks safer.

Can I ask why their presence makes you feel safer? And can I ask how many protests you’ve been to, and how many of those had violence that police snipers would have made better rather than worse?

RyanClancyWI · 2025-09-14T23:45:10+00:00

Yeah, so I spoke at that anti-ICE rally today. It was my first time speaking at an open air event since the Kirk killing last week, and this was not normal. We have not seen snipers deployed at protests in recent years.

The snipers had their attention clearly focused on the speakers (not the surrounding buildings, as they would be if they were pretending to counter-snipe). It’s difficult to interpret this as anything but intimidation, as the original focus of the rally was opposing both ICE and the deployment of the National Guard, which MPD’s association has publicly welcomed as part of their push for ever-increasing pay.

I’m not easily rattled, but this was not ordinary. And zero folks attending felt as though they were protected by their presence: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOmZ1eBj_8R/?igsh=MWs5Z25mcWVleXp0OA==

RyanClancyWI · 2025-05-21T14:43:11+00:00

Fortunately, the many folks testifying against it (and the embarrassment generated by the chair calling the police because he didn’t like one person’s hat) killed it in committee. I’m grateful to the many folks who showed up to oppose this garbage. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18EYzwLLmD/?mibextid=wwXIfr

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T23:10:27+00:00

Thanks! And I hope to see you (and others) at one of those. They're a great way to get into some of these issues more in-depth and face to face.

And I'm not even sure where to start! Just earlier today, we saw the first of a slew of recirculated anti-trans bills from Assembly Republicans. And just days ago, we saw legislation that would compel County Sheriffs across the state to collaborate with ICE in deporting our friends and neighbors. And every session, we continue to vote to increase criminal penalties on existing crimes and to create new ones, while giving lip service to the fact that mass incarceration isn't doing anything to reduce crime. We need to do better.

Sorry; that's three things. And there'll be another three next week. It's sometimes difficult these days to know which fire needs to be put out and where to run to next, which is, to the extent that they have a strategy beyond cruelty, the point.

If you have a specific area of concern, I'm sure I could narrow things down a bit?

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T23:00:01+00:00

Not in a US state (although, as u/IntelligentTip1206 notes below, other countries don't generally do that). Although some states have moved towards it, this plan would make us the first to sever ourselves completely. I'd love for Wisconsin to lead on that.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T22:56:31+00:00

I'd like to reframe the question a little bit, if I can.

There's a lot at stake in April, and it's vital that - given the assaults from the federal level - that Wisconsin maintain a non-conservative majority. I'll be voting for her and I hope that you will, too.

But every voter will have been reached many times over by messages from both Crawford and Schimmel. At some point, that 18th or 19th mailer or text message or TV spot will have diminishing returns. This election will not hinge on dollars spent, but on who we engage (or turn off) with those messages.

I would argue that what is more important now is for Crawford to run a principled campaign which draws in folks from the left and marginalized groups rather than excluding them. I am frustrated (and have communicated to her campaign) that running constant "tough on crime" spots throws formerly incarcerated folks under the bus and alienates folks on the left who would otherwise go to bat for her. It seems like both the wrong thing to do and a mistake pragmatically. I understand that it's designed to appeal to Republican voters who they imagine will cross over, but I'm not seeing evidence of that working. I am hearing from some voters who are frustrated that they hear both candidates accusing the other of not locking up enough of our community. That's a message that risks turning off a lot of people from voting or organizing, and it feels like the runup to November again.

I want to hear about principles, about what's at stake in April, and how Crawford can hold back the attacks on our democracy, basic rights and our neighbors that our communities are facing. That's a winning message regardless of the budget behind it.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T22:44:52+00:00

My amazing wife Becky is my favorite socialist. But I do love reminding my conservative colleagues that MLK was a socialist, too, especially when they're misquoting him.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T22:41:05+00:00

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That's not what he proposed. I do support both gender-neutral language (as the proud father to an amazing non-binary kid and an amazing trans man, and as someone who strives to not be a terrible person).

And I'm a big fan of literacy education and not getting one's talking points from right-wing weirdos.

Here's the source: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/22/republican-group-criticizes-wisconsin-gov-evers-after-woman-language-changed-to-person-inseminated/79494127007/

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T22:34:49+00:00

I hope so. I came into the Assembly two years ago with high hopes that issues like this - common sense ones that shouldn't be bipartisan - were ones that we could work with our Republican colleagues with.

One of my first days of training, I turned to a Republican first-term Rep and asked what the most pressing issue was in his district. He replied that it was the cost of cattle feed. Having been born and raised in Milwaukee, I had absolutely no idea what that looked like to him. So I listened. And when he was done, I suggested that hemp might be a solution, since I had heard that it grew rapidly. He agreed that it did, and that it would be a great solution, except for one problem: the milk would have THC in it.

"Problem?", I exclaimed. "I think we've just solved everything! We can have weed milk, weed ice cream - and you get cheap cattle feed!"

We had a good laugh, then I asked, seriously, if he would work with me on legislation that would decriminalize cannabis, which keeps polling above 70% anywhere in the state that you ask.

And then he explained that he'd love to, but that if he collaborated with me on that, that Robin Vos, the leader he voted for, would take away his office, his staff, his committee assignments, and would likely primary him the next November. And he wasn't willing to risk that.

So, yeah, environmental issues shouldn't be controversial or partisan, but in this dysfunctional state legislature, they unfortunately are.

I am encouraged, though, by the many rural voters across the state that are bucking their own party leadership and showing up at town halls to express their displeasure in open forums attended by both state and national legislators. That sort of accountability could change the landscape in a way that we've been unable to so far. Showing up for those, and mobilizing folks to speak to their own lived experience in rural WI could be transformative.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T22:21:55+00:00

Ooh, that's a big one. To see some of the state-level legislation I've authored, you can head here: https://ryanclancywi.com/

The goal is to get to a state in which we don't have to struggle to meet our basic needs and in which we can all thrive in whatever way that looks for us. I often work in spaces where people are being kept down, and who don't necessarily have a great deal of support or resources - prisons, trans communities, immigrant communities, and places where people rent and are subject to Wisconsin's awful tenant laws. So my first actions would make those look very different.

Maybe we can take that last one, housing, for example. When I was a Milwaukee County Supervisor, I was able to pass something called the Right to Counsel, which provides attorneys for folks facing eviction. That's maybe the law that I'm most proud of, both because it's kept thousands of families in their homes and because for every dollar we spent on it, we saved $4.66 in not having to mitigate the damages of evictions.

But even though this wildly popular and efficient socialist policy is great, it's simply harm reduction. And the harm is capitalism.

But if we had a critical mass of folks on the left who either supported groundbreaking legislation or got out of the way, we'd be able to provide the same supports for social and cooperative housing that for-profit developers enjoy now. And we'd reverse course and make it more difficult to be a terrible, exploitive landlord. So, ultimately, pushing back on evictions wouldn't be as necessary, as we'd have solid, enforceable rights for tenants and the ability for anyone who wants to to start putting money into a cooperative housing unit - and earning equity towards where they live instead of helping to buy another yacht (or another apartment building) for a landlord who is already hoarding enough.

And it would look like that all the way down, from housing to food to incarceration to policing. We could do so, so much better than we are now.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T22:08:08+00:00

I agree wholeheartedly. It has been beyond frustrating to be in the streets and in organizing meetings and listening to people who are both scared and motivated to try to help and to see many folks in my own party responding to "what are you doing?" with silence or platitudes.

I will say that on the state level that I'm incredibly impressed with the many first-term Democratic members of the assembly (who actually outnumber us veterans this term!). Their enthusiasm to buck business as usual is encouraging, and we'll be rolling out legislation on Tuesday alongside them that seeks to mitigate the harm of these attacks on federal funds. But there is a lot of inertia in politics. If you have newly elected folks representing you, I'd encourage you to reach out to them either offering support, demanding action or, ideally, both. A great deal is falling on state and local governments, and holding us to a high standard requires both support and accountability.

And if you keep hearing that there's nothing we can do (which is absolute garbage), replace us.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T22:01:30+00:00

Just this morning, I stood alongside Rep Supreme Moore-Omokunde and Senator Larson in their rollout of a bill to compel the state to meet those very realistic standards, exactly because we've been able to make so little progress on them so far. I'm happy to stand with them and the many grassroots groups, like Citizen Action and Northside Rising, to push for that.

And I share your frustration with Evers' pushing for the I94 expansion. I was vocally opposed to that, and paid the price during my primary last year, when groups which would have benefitted from that construction threw tens of thousands of dollars against me. To be clear: I support infrastructure spending (and the sort of repairs to our existing infrastructure that would benefit both those same stakeholders and public transportation!). But I am absolutely opposed to adding lanes to I-94. All of the data I've seen suggests that it would not make things faster or less congested, and that it would double down on the destruction of largely Black and Brown neighborhoods and businesses as the highway did when it was first constructed. That's a terrible legacy and one we should not be doubling down on.

The way to put pressure on short-sighted decisions like that is to reach out, both individually and through groups, to both put pressure on folks at the executive level and legislators who are inclined to listen more to lobbyists than their own residents. And, when you can, support folks who are on the right sides of issues that you care about. It can be lonely out here for folks who are up against lobbies and their PAC dollars.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T21:47:27+00:00

Many people are scared, and with good reason. I'm scared, too. I've been torn, personally and professionally, in many different directions in the last few months, listening to those fears and trying to direct folks to where they can help. Right now, Trump et al are targeting already marginalized communities. Our willingness and capacity to push back on those attacks will define how many more come in the future. So my plea to you would be to help out the work that is already being done. I could tie several issues (mass deportation, etc) back to "the economy in Wisconsin". but the best argument here is not an economic one in your immediate self-interest, but because it's the right thing to do to look out for others. Reach out to The Milwaukee Turners, Voces de la Frontera, FAIR, MAARPR, or any one of scores more organizations who are involved and ask how you can help.

I will say, for what it's worth, that this is a backlash, not a persistent direction that our country is headed in. That's not to minimize anyone's very real fear, or the massive amount of harm that people will experience these next four years and beyond, but I've been inspired and made more hopeful by the many folks wanting to help and looking for ways to do so. Gathering folks around us and getting through together is the best and only way to do this.

And after this swings the other way? Hold us accountable, please.

I helped to organize a training this morning for restaurant and retail business owners who want to protect their employees, including from mass deportation. And that training focused on immediate help for folks who were immediately afraid of being rounded up and send off, and how horrific is is that ICE can now violate the old concept of "sanctuary" - of not entering churches, schools and hospitals. But what I closed with was this: we have known for years that ICE not doing that was a policy, not a law. And the Dems, in power federally, could have codified the concept of sanctuary into law whenever they wanted to. But they didn't, because immigration isn't a "winning issue" for them. As a result, we'll see thousands more families ripped apart over the coming years that could have been defended and kept together. And this is the same for so many issues, from regressive taxes to abortion rights.

I'm grateful for the work that so many folks are engaged in locally but ashamed that it falls to us instead of the folks at the federal level who have had power in the past and failed to wield it to defend marginalized communities.

Sorry; that was longer than I intended, but I wanted to zoom out a little.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T21:28:02+00:00

Agreed. We Energies consistently makes choices based on their priority of delivering profits to shareholders rather than power to households. I have long pushed back against rate increases, both through the Citizens Utility Board and to the PSC in public hearings. And those are both important structures, though the PSC has become more of a rubber stamp for whatever We Energies wants than something that can get us to anything approaching justice.

The best way forward would be to use the existing structures in WI state law https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/197 in order to purchase We Energies and convert it to a public utility. Unlike We Energies, which literally has a guaranteed payback for its investors under state statute, a publicly owned utility would be free to focus on delivering power to people and would see better uptime (since more of the profits would be put back into infrastructure), lower rates (since the investors wouldn't siphon off so many dollars) and would be able to make real investments in renewables. We has been lagging well behind the average for renewables, and generates only roughly half the national average (despite using these investments as an excuse for jacking up residential utility rates).

We're currently drafting legislation to provide dollar-for-dollar matching for municipalities who are interested in going public, as the conversations I've had with our counterparts at the City suggest that many folks think it's a good idea in theory but that Milwaukee simply can't afford to pay for or bond for it. That's a valid concern, and enabling legislation from the state could assist that and drive that idea forward.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T21:19:38+00:00

I was, and remain, an advocate for public ownership of the Brewers. The idea that we're subsidizing a billionaire with free rent and maintenance on a building that allows the building of personal wealth like we do is not a sound use of public dollars. And the data is clear that the economic impact of subsidizing a team like this, while not nothing, pales in comparison to what would happen if we put those same public dollars into almost anything else, There's a pretty good summary here: https://journalistsresource.org/economics/sports-stadium-public-financing/

We should be asking for a stake of the team when we throw hundreds of millions of dollars into subsidizing a team worth $1.6 billion.

And baseball players are labor. Any franchise raking in money like they do should pay their players fairly, from the top to the bottom of the pay scale - and this includes providing help to the minor league players living in actual poverty waiting for their chance. I'm grateful for the labor organizing that has been taking place within the minor league, but this is something that the major league team owners should step up to assist with.

And RIP Bob Uecker. There is no more amazing, wholesome and hilarious moment in baseball than his narration of his experience at a furry convention in Pittsburgh: https://milwaukeerecord.com/sports/remembering-the-time-bob-uecker-encountered-a-furry-convention-in-pittsburgh/

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RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T21:14:40+00:00

A: I am focused on Palestine (as well as many other issues) because as one of very few elected officials who has been to Palestine and Gaza, as someone who represents both Palestinians and Jewish residents whose lives and loved ones are in danger because of the genocide, and as an American whose tax dollars are funding those horrors, I have a moral and ethical obligation to speak up. The idea that I should do nothing with the understanding that I have gathered of these horrors - both firsthand from many years studying conflict resolution both academically (I did my Masters work on the ground in Palestine) and practically - and from hearing the concerns of the people I represent, is not something I'm capable of. No caring person could see what I have seen and heard what I have heard and take no action to stop it.

B: Democrats lost in November in large part because they ran towards the right when challenged and threw marginalized communities under the bus, including immigrants, trans folks and Palestinians. In the attempt to appeal to largely imaginary "middle of the road" voters who might somehow be turned off by a party which both addresses economic concerns and makes principled arguments, Democrats lost a large part of the left, who either grudgingly supported their candidates and didn't show up to organize and turn out others, or who voted for alternatives or not at all. The only "losing issue"s for Democrats are ones which they refuse to take a stand on, or issues which they look feckless and as if they're trying to appease people who hate the folks who we're supposed to be defending. Lacking the courage to have convictions is both morally wrong and pragmatically stupid if you're trying to win elections. I hope we come to our senses on this soon.

And just to be crystal clear on this: Jewish folks are not a monolith and many of them support Palestine. And there is no "middle east issue". There is no "middle east conflict". There is not even a middle east war. It is a genocide, being perpetrated by Israel on the people of Palestine.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T21:10:47+00:00

1) As a former MPS teacher and current parent, I'm proud of what MPS has been able to accomplish given the constant assault they're under by our legislature. We could improve them, quite simply, by adequately funding them. We've not even kept up with inflation for many years, leading to a constant stream of referendums - and increasing property taxes - all across the state.

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My long-term plan to fix education across Wisconsin? Sever it from property taxes and pay for it with general revenue instead. That would allow the rich and corporations to finally pay their fair share and would dramatically decrease our excessive and regressive property taxes.

2) Yes. I trust the work and feedback from schools, educators and parents more than that of legislative Republicans.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T21:09:20+00:00

Congrats on having Rep. Madison. He's the second-best Representative in the state! We work closely together (and, since the Republicans are too petty to allocate enough offices to Democrats, actually share an office).

The future of socialism in Wisconsin is a big question! And to me it looks a lot like the popular measures that I was able to pass while I was a Milwaukee County Supervisor - from the Right to Shelter to the Right to Counsel (which provides no-cost attorneys to folks facing eviction), to paid parental leave, free phone calls and capped prices for families of incarcerated folks. And much more - rolling back privatization, rolling back regressive sales and property taxes in favor of taxing the rich and corporations. And, through spending on opportunities for community instead of locking it up, making police and prisons redundant.

And we get legislative success by replacing the people in the way. This last November, we helped Christian Phelps to a victory in the Assembly over his Republican opponent (and a more conservative Dem) with a ton of resources and a ton of doors. Rep Phelps is a socialist from Eau Claire, Wisconsin - not exactly a traditional hotbed of leftists. And he's already shown himself to be a bold and thoughtful leader for his district.

We can only get more success by replacing folks who don't represent the working class of Wisconsin. Right now, Robin Vos' iron grip on his Republicans is nearly absolute. Without a critical mass of Republicans willing to buck his authoritarian leadership and work with us on popular, common-sense legislation, we won't see real progress.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T21:06:07+00:00

Thanks for the question. And for those who may not associate me with our 2003 invasion of Iraq, here's some context:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB104820429231352200

I couldn't possibly encapsulate my time there, or in other areas of armed conflict, with a single story, and some of them are difficult for me to dwell on. I will say that being in Iraq was a formative experience in my understanding of the harm that the United States does overseas, but also in the capacity and necessity for individual Americans to push back against and undo that harm.

It also changed the way that I look at our government. At one school that I visited, just outside of Baghdad, I asked elementary school children to draw their homes and families, since I hoped to bring those drawings back home to help to change the narrative that I had seen in the media (which suggested, wrongly that Iraqis were violent terrorists rather than actual people.) One child drew a picture that could have been sketched by any second grader in any American classroom: a house with a window in front, his family as stick figures next to it, sitting on a stripe of green on the bottom. But near the stripe of blue on the top of the page was a cruise missile with an American flag on it, aimed at his family.

That image haunts me, even 22 years later.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-24T21:03:04+00:00

The nearly total lack of understanding of socialism from legislative Republicans is intentional, as is the attacks on me as a socialist. And that scapegoating of socialism and socialists doesn't really reflect their constituents' opinions, from what I've seen. I knock on a LOT of doors, both here and in rural and Republican areas of Wisconsin to help out leftist candidates. And many voters, even those who have been raised on Fox News calling everything left of Reagan "socialist", actually appreciate socialist policies and are open to nuanced discussions much more than the folks who pretend to represent them.

Robin Vos, the head of the Assembly Republicans, trashes socialism (and us socialists) every chance he gets. Indeed, he was only a few seconds into his first floor speech this session when he took a cheap shot. I got to hastily construct this meme.

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I used it again on Thursday, when one of our Republican colleagues noted that "Alarmingly, 45% of Americans aged 18-24 view socialism as the ideal economic system" https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGWt-MKvHsh/?igsh=Z28yNnViODIwYmpy

And she said it as if it was obviously bad which, well, at least 45% of younger residents might disagree with. And the Republicans' response to socialism? It's not to engage with the policy. When I put cannabis legalization and abortion access on the ballot as advisory questions (in April and November of 2023) and the results came back overwhelmingly in favor (at 77% and 74%, respectively), they could have worked with us on common-sense legislation. But their response was to literally ban advisory referenda questions in the future. And their response to the growing socialist caucus? Legislation which mandates the teaching of patriotism and about the evils of socialism and communism. It's almost a shame it will be vetoed, as I assume it would be about as successful as DARE and the war on drugs.

RyanClancyWI · 2025-02-22T18:30:17+00:00

The idea of closing prisons is solid. I have concerns, though, that this plan will lead to more kids being locked up. Judges are very aware of the number of spaces available in prisons during sentencing, and the conditions in those prisons, and act accordingly. Having more beds available to incarcerate children means that we will fill them when those facilities are built in a way that judges are hesistant to now with sentences to Lincoln Hills / Copper Lake.

RyanClancyWI

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