The Kringlesphere

The Smiths' go to Racine

It seems I was right when I proposed (in a prior blog post) that the "Smith's" were indeed responsible for the call that came into the sheriff's home the night of the police "hunt" for our mayor.

This just in from the "Milwaukee Journal Online Daywatch" section:
(And after that the Racine Journal Time's link to the whole thing as it unfolds.)

I do have to say that this story has elements of some very good investigative reporting by all the sources.
What is coming out doesn't make the Smith's look very pretty. Neither does it make our Chief of Police look like a saint.
If anything, the whole thing is painting Mayor Becker as a pawn in a nasty political game that is being undertaken by a bunch of cronies who are still angry at loosing a "mayoral election" that they felt they should have won).
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THURSDAY, June 15, 2006, 1:32 p.m.By Sheila B. Lalwani
New statement in Racine mayor case
Racine - The wife of the former mayor said in a statement today that she saw the city's current mayor, Gary Becker, driving erratically May 31, and that she urged her husband to report his behavior to police immediately.

Her statement, released this afternoon in a fax, is the latest twist in a dispute between Becker and Police Chief David Spenner over how police responded to a phone call to the department saying that Becker had been drinking at a reception May 31 and that he was driving home erratically.

Joyce Smith, the wife of former Racine Mayor Jim Smith, who lost to Becker in the last mayoral campaign, said in her statement that calling police was not politically motivated.

According to Smith, she and her husband were traveling behind Becker and witnessed him speeding and switching lanes. "I wanted to do the right thing, but I was terrified if Mr. Becker found out we happened to be in the car behind him," she wrote in the statement. "We saw what we saw! However, I feared becoming the subject of his wrath and retaliation."

An independent investigation by the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department into the incident found that neither Becker nor police violated any laws in the incident.

According to the results of the Kenosha County investigation, at about 9 p.m. May 31, Spenner received a call that Becker was intoxicated and speeding while traveling eastbound on Washington Ave. after leaving the Racine Economic Development Corp.'s annual meeting at the Racine Marriott. Spenner advised his on-duty patrol shift commander that he received an "unidentified" call that Becker was possibly intoxicated and speeding, and the caller had given the chief the mayor's route to his residence.
Spenner advised the shift commander to have his personnel establish proper probable cause to initiate a traffic stop. But before police could act, they found that Becker's car already was parked in his driveway.

In a telephone interview today, Becker said he believe the incident was politically motivated. "Given the opportunity, it would have happened sooner," Becker said.
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The story as our hometown paper writes it:
http://www.journaltimes.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=6251

What wicked webs we weave in our little city on the lake.
This stuff is worthy of the finest soap operas on tv I tell ya.....

Oh and an add on to this story from the Milwaukee area: An independent investigation by the Kenosha police has found that the "stakeout" that was conducted on our mayor did NOT break any laws nor did Becker do anything wrong.
Click on the link for the full story as reported by the jsonline web site:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=436130

posted by John @ 4:41 PM