- These words from Governor
Tony Evers this week.
"We must reject
the efforts of those who seek
to undermine and distract
from the pain of generations
of injustice." He says,
"We must condemn all those
who encourage violence against
black lives.
We must offer our compassion.
We must offer our support.
But most of all," he says, "we
must offer our action."
And Governor Tony Evers joins
us once again in our weekly
one on one interview.
And thanks very much for doing
so.
- Thanks, Frederica.
- So the tangible action
that you want to take comes
in the form of a legislative
bill that would make the
primary duty of all law
enforcement to preserve the
life of all individuals.
And that deadly force is to be
used only as a last
resort.
Why is that what you call
an important first step?
- And that's great, because
that's, that's what
brought us to where we are
today.
Obviously, the
horrible murder that we saw
in Minneapolis
with George Floyd
and how
that happened, because there
wasn't the accountability
piece in place as
it relates to
police and
relations and interactions with
folks.
And so, yes, use of force
is what
we're looking for.
It's, it's an Assembly bill.
It's already there.
It's really straightforward.
It's about making sure those
standards exist so that
everybody, both the community
and the police, know
what is expected of
them.
- Now it certainly is--
- I'm sorry, but it is only a
first step.
We, we have an opportunity now
that goes,
you know, obviously police
relations and criminal
justice reform,
housing, you name it.
We have an opportunity now
to really move it.
Move it. Move the needle.
- Specific to that use of force
bill, it is certainly being
criticized by the chair
of the State Senate Public
Safety Committee, who is
our next guest on this program.
He says it was written "by
liberal activists who don't
know anything about police
work." What do you say
to that?
- Well, it is -- it was
written in
large part
by the people that we're seeing
and that are protesting
using their First Amendment
rights. I understand
that
the senator has lots more
criminal justice and police
experience than others do.
But that doesn't, that doesn't
mean that we can't move forward
on something around
accountability for police.
90%, 95%,
you name the high number
of people that work in the
profession are good.
We need accountability for
people that, frankly,
need some help in establishing
standards.
That you don't have to be a
former police officer to
understand that.
- What about mandating and
funding implicit
bias training for law
enforcement? Something like
that?
- Absolutely. There are all
sorts of good ideas on the
table. As I've talked to people
all across the state, but in
particularly Madison
and Milwaukee,
on the ground, I'm not talking
about elected officials.
People that are living this
every single day,
they say and they are
accurate, there are enough blue
ribbon commissions and enough
task forces and enough
other things that there are
ideas out there that can be
implemented.
And so I'm looking
forward to getting the best
ideas, especially from those
people that are on the ground.
Obviously, we have to get
support from legislators, but
this should be a bipartisan
issue.
- Thursday, you declared racism
a public health crisis.
What tangible steps will you
take to heal that crisis?
- Yeah, that is-- I mean, it's
been laid bare during this
pandemic.
Which groups are
inordinately and
disproportionately impacted by
the virus?
It's African-Americans. It's
Hispanics and other people,
people of color.
So and we've been talking about
this a long time.
Frankly, I still
believe that taking the
Medicaid expansion money
that we could have done in the
last budget would have freed up
lots of money for other
programs that would have
directly impacted
the lives of people
of color in this state and
helped to reduce that
disproportionality.
To me, it is,
it's unacceptable that we
have not taken the money that
our taxpayers have sent to
Washington, D.C.
and we're getting no benefit
from that.
- Well, what is your position
on defunding the
police and putting those
funds toward things like public
health, housing or
economic development on behalf
of people, people
of color?
- Yeah, I, I've been asked that
question a lot and
possibly even some of the folks
you're talking to tonight are
going to be talking about that.
But if defunding
means remove funding from
police officers and
the work that you're doing, the
good work that they're doing,
of course, I'm not against
that. Who is going to be arresting
the person driving 100 miles an
hour on the Beltline?
A dead drunk?
I mean, we we we have to have
some police out there to help
us get through these things.
But if some
of that money could be used
differently.
Around, as you talked about
before: implicit bias, bias
training, psychological
help for officers
are working under traumatic
circumstances all the time.
Reappraising
how that money is spent to help
them become better police
officers. I'm all for that.
- Among the other demands, as
you said, that was one and
we will hear about that
tonight from some people,
but among other demands
from anti-racist activists
and advocates is to
withdraw the National Guard
activated in the midst
of protests, which, as you
know, some of them resulted in
widespread property damage.
Will you cede to that demand?
- Well, first of all, we-- the
National Guard is
sent in when locals
ask us for it.
So in Milwaukee and Madison
and other, other places in the
state. But my
role or my
insistence and bottom
line is that they serve a
limited role.
I understand how people feel
about
military organizations,
even though our National Guard
has done a great job helping us
in the pandemic.
So we have, we have insisted
with local leaders that they
are primarily used to protect
property, especially
important property like the
state capital, like
electrical
situations and water
utility and other utilities,
cultural sites.
So that's their role.
And that's-- that's
the role they're primarily
playing.
So until
they are asking me to have
them play a more active role,
we will continue to do what I
think they're doing a great job
as.
- You say that we must
reestablish trust with
communities of color.
How do you do it?
- It's, it's, it's a long
process.
But believe me, we have a long
way to go.
And one of the things we
can do is act.
And I believe at the state
level, we have some actions
that we can take to help people
that struggle, people of color
in the state of Wisconsin.
But also we have to make
sure that
we involve the entire state
in this.
Our state is becoming more
diverse by the day
and will continue to
operate under that
umbrella of changing
demographics.
And so we need to have these
conversations.
I think the state has a bully
pulpit
role to play.
But more importantly,
an active role and action role
that relies on interacting
with people on, you know,
elected officials are fine.
We're going to continue those
conversations.
But the more I and
other state leaders spend
time speaking to people on
the ground in cities and
villages across the state on
this issue, the better off
we'll be.
- And you're committed to doing
that in the days and weeks
ahead?
- Yeah, I always have been.
This this is an issue that
I have--
it's been burning in my soul
for years.
And this this--
we have, we have a good
opportunity in the state of
Wisconsin. People are
protesting around some really
important things.
And I'm looking forward
to delivering
on some of the things they're
interested in.
Governor Tony Evers, thank you
very much for joining us.
- Thank you, Frederica.
Appreciate it.