When most people think of Madison, Wisconsin, they probably don’t think of it as a place where state violence is made manifest against black and brown people. But the death of Tony Robinson, the black teenager who was shot and killed last week by a white police officer, Matt Kenny, is hopefully starting to change that.

There have always been two Madisons, and state violence directly, consistently and disproportionately impacts one. One Madison is known for its history of leftist protest, from student and anti-war movements in the 1960s to labor protests against Scott Walker in the present day. It is also perceived as one of the best places to live in America for some people, frequently topping quality-of-life lists for its public schools, the availability of fresh and local food and its incredible bike paths.

That Madison obscures the reality of the other one: our city has the worst racial economic disparities in the entire United States of America. A 2013 study of Dane County (where Madison is located) confirmed what black residents experience in their daily lives: 75% of black children in the county live in poverty, compared to 5% of white children. black adults are 11 times more likely to be arrested than white adults, and black youth are 15 times more likely to be arrested than their white counterparts. Dane County has a black population of about 6-7%; the Dane County Jail has a Black population of 48%.

The Young Gifted and Black Coalition (YGB) formed last November in response to the non-indictment of Darren Wilson, the police officer who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and, with our allies, have taken to the streets of Madison every week since November to call attention to the racial disparities in policing and incarceration. We also seek to prevent the county from building a new or renovating the old Dane County Jail.



After Robinson’s tragic and unnecessary killing, we also helped to facilitate the protests that have pulled people to the streets every day since. We believe that both the murder of another unarmed black youth and the building of a new jail which will primarily house black people are state violence, a term which encompasses both immediate acts of violence by the state (like stop and frisks, or police shootings) and “slower” forms of violence that the state sanctions, condones or enables (like poverty, segregation, surveillance, militarization and incarceration).

In the US, all forms of state violence disproportionately impact communities of color, especially black people. But many white middle-class folks in Madison used to refuse to see how state violence impacts our shared community because they never experienced what those folks in “our” Madison must endure. Robinson’s killing made some white people finally recognize both the existence of state violence and the two Madisons can not exist in permanent separation; his life was taken on one of the most popular streets in Madison’s white, liberal east side.

Others insist that Madison is “different” from places like Ferguson, Missouri, where state violence is visited upon black and brown people with seeming impunity. Unlike in Ferguson, Madison’s Chief of Police Mike Koval immediately came out with an apology to Robinson’s family and he placed Officer Kenny on unpaid administrative leave during the independent investigation. (Such leave has been required by law in Wisconsin, after a 2012 police murder that happened just up the street from where Kenny killed Robinson).

Still others defended Kenny, who shot and killed another civilian in 2007, and was given a medal of valor. And, like so many other unarmed black people killed by the police or vigilantes, Tony Robinson’s character has come under attack.

We will not stand for Tony Robinson to be put on trial for his own killing – the same way that Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee

and so many other black people who have experienced violence at the hands of the police or the state have been. It is time for Officer Matt Kenny and the system of policing he represents to be held accountable

We are calling for the Madison Police Department, the City of Madison and Dane County to end state violence that they perpetuate. Officer Matt Kenny should be immediately fired, and officials should implement a policy of firing any officer who kills an unarmed civilian. A community-appointed police accountability board – with a say in hiring and firing decisions – must be established to review police activity in our communities. And we demand a moratorium on plans to build or renovate jails in the county; that money should instead be invested in black community-led initiatives and infrastructure, through which we can effect real change in the lives of the people in the other Madison.

The “kinder and gentler” – and media-friendly – approach of the Madison Police Department after Tony Robinson’s death might look good in pictures and headlines, but it means nothing for the lives of black people here who live through – or die from – state violence. Police accountability has to remain after the cameras inevitably leave, or nothing will change.