Police reform bills — but no session — mark Juneteenth

Ten days before the Juneteenth holiday, on June 9, the Wisconsin Legislative Black Caucus sent a letter to Gov. Tony Evers asking him to call a special session specifically on June 19 to pass bills tied to racial justice and police reform.

“At this session, we wish to convene to discuss and enact pertinent legislation aimed at reforming our justice system at the state level,” wrote Rep. LaKeshia Myers, chair of the Wisconsin Legislative Black Caucus in the June 9 letter. The rest of the Assembly Democrats echoed this call in a letter of support on Wednesday.

On Friday June 19, Evers sent a letter in response, far too late for holding any kind of session, saying “this is the moment for action,” but rejecting the Black Caucus’ request for a special session — at least for now.

Over the past year, Republicans rejected Evers’ call for a special session on gun control (gaveling in and out to open and close the session in mere seconds). They ignored a request for a session on school funding. And while they took a few of his requested bills for a special session the governor called on agriculture, they rewrote them and mostly substituted their own — and never got most of them passed through both houses before the session ended in March. 

Evers’ letter, cosigned by Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, recalled this past treatment of important issues as his reason for rejecting the Black Caucus’ special session request. (Evers’ office ignored multiple requests to comment on potential sessions or legislation this week for articles.)

His release stated, “ … one thing is crystal clear: calling another special session where legislative leaders come in and gavel in and gavel out risks us losing this incredible moment in history where we can and should be able to work together to get something accomplished. We should not need a special session when people across our state are demanding we take action. We are committed to working with Republican leadership, committee chairs, and other members of the Legislature to find common ground on these issues, and we know you are, too.”

Common ground?

The list of topics that Republicans have refused to work on with Evers to find common ground is even longer than the list of rejected special sessions. And a recent battle over an Evers staff member taping a phone conversation with the Republican leaders without their knowledge has left the two branches at another low point in their relationship.  Things started off badly with the 2018 GOP lame duck session focused on taking powers away from the governor and attorney general after Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul were elected but before they were sworn in. The bad feeling lingered as Republican leadership has taken the Evers administration to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to block its authority on mail-in elections and issuing Safer at Home orders for the COVID-19 crisis.

In an interview late Thursday, before Evers’ official response, Myers stressed the importance of Juneteenth as a call for a session that would be a day of action in the Legislature.

“Look at June 19, 1865, which was two and a half years after [the official Emancipation Proclamation], when the last of those that were in bondage were finally notified of their freedom” she said, “the significance is having a special session on Juneteenth, which is widely known as African American Independence Day.”

That said, she has been in conversations with Evers’ office and says she understands why he did not call a special session.

“I think when you look at the governor’s perspective, I can understand where he’s coming from with regard to calling a session and not having it be a political football, because this is not about politics for us. This is bigger than politics.”

Myers has also had conversations with Speaker Robin Vos about potential collaboration. “He seemed amicable, and open to conversation,” she said. “You know, I’ve not talked to Sen. Fitzgerald, about it, but hopefully he understands the magnitude of this moment. This is about doing some actual real work.”

“This is not just a moment,’ she adds. “This is a movement.”

In his letter, Evers committed to calling a special session if voluntary collaboration doesn’t work.

“As we move forward, if there is an unwillingness to do this important work, conversations with legislative leaders break down, or there are talks of delays until the next legislative session, as governor, I am ready and willing to use my power to call on the Legislature into special session to act,” he wrote. “We must do better. We must continue to do the hard and uncomfortable work of dismantling the institutional oppression that exists in our state and our country.” 

Bills: chokeholds, no-knock and transparency

This package of bill drafts that Evers offered as “the first step toward dismantling the systems we’ve created,” contains many bills that are very similar to legislation that a number of Democrats have been pursuing — without success, as Republicans refuse  to even hold public hearings on these bills — for years. 

Noting the dismal marks that Wisconsin gets in racial disparities “from infant mortality to child poverty, educational attainment to employment, and homeownership to incarceration,” Evers said in the release, “Our country promises the opportunity of justice and equity, and it’s time for us to deliver on that promise.” 

“We know we don’t have all of the answers—no one does,” he added. “This legislation is a first step toward dismantling the systems we’ve created.

Barnes, Wisconsin’s first African American lieutenant governor, added, “We continue to lose far too many Black lives, be it from inequities in criminal justice and policing, in health care, or in economic well-being.” 

“The social and economic consequences of these deep-seated inequities reach every community in our state,” Barnes added, “and eliminating them will require action at every level of government. Passing these bills is one piece of how we move closer to accountability, equity, and justice for all.”

Below are the bill drafts — and descriptions from Evers’ release — that make up the executive package of bills.  (LRB is short for Legislative Reference Bureau, the agency that drafts bills and here it indicates the bills are new drafts that have not yet received a bill number.)