News

WHY? J.B. Van Hollen Jumps at Michael McGee, Declines to Help in Scott Walker Probe

Sep 21, 2011

MILWAUKEE-Following is the statement of Democratic Party of Wisconsin Black Caucus Chair Stephanie Findley following news that Scott Walker ally J.B. Van Hollen declined to assist Milwaukee prosecutors in a corruption probe of Scott Walker, after jumping at the opportunity to help in investigating former Milwaukee Ald. Michael McGee.

“J..B. Van Hollen owes citizens, African-Americans in particular, an answer to questions why he and his office leapt at the opportunity to help in the prosecution of former Ald. Michael McGee Jr., even while his hyper-partisan office declined the request for aid in the investigation of his close “Tea Party” ally Scott Walker.

Time-and-again, Republicans have insisted that there need be no attention paid to discrimination in law enforcement activities, to the point that Walker signed away protections designed to track and detail so-called “racial profiling.”

Van Hollen, meanwhile, has been a willing accomplice in creating the fraudulent narrative of widespread “voter fraud,” that lead to Jim Crow-style suppression legislation that is among the most severe in the country, and which affects African-Americans the most. In creating this phony narrative, Van Hollen offered up any and all resources of his office.

But now, his office cannot lift a finger. So, we ask, why does Wisconsin’s top cop jump to help prosecutors in the investigation of a black elected official, while declining the same help when the tables are turned on his political partner?”