A right-wing blogger's pro-cop crusade is driving this college town nuts

Blaska told The Daily Beast he doesn’t particularly care about not being on the board. In fact, he admitted, he doesn’t think the board is necessary. (“Police are not the problem in Madison,” he said, arguing that “crime” is.) His real issue, he said, is the resolution spelling out which races or ethnicities can and can’t be on the board, which he says is unconstitutional. “It’s illegal to discriminate by race,” he continued. David Oppenheimer, a law professor and director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, reviewed Blaska’s complaint and called Madison’s resolution “unusual.” He said Blaska has an argument for discrimination given federal case law that has “made it pretty clear that in most circumstances, government cannot use race to exclude people from participation.” But, he said, the city could prevail if it came up with a “compelling” reason for why the diversity quotas are needed. Many residents of the Wisconsin capital believe that reason is crystal clear after a year of police protest rage: Cops treat communities of color differently than other populations, and therefore the express input of those community members is needed to change the situation. That’s part of how the city plans to beat the lawsuit, citing a dynamic experts and many insiders say is obvious to virtually everyone except Blaska.