Here & Now

Community Awaits Decision From DA On Tony Robinson Death

Frederica Freyberg:

The Dane County District Attorney has offered no timetable for when he will release his decision whether to charge a Madison police officer in connection with the march shooting death of 19-year-old Tony Robinson. He has said he will give 48-hours notice of that announcement. In that 48-hours and beyond will the community come together or will it splinter apart? Our next guest has been reaching out to bring people together. Michael Johnson is CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County. And Michael, thank you very much for being here.

Michael Johnson:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

First, I wanted to ask you your reaction to Baltimore charging six officers today?

Michael Johnson:

Just got a text about that so I hadn’t seen the video. I think when you look at these issues all over the country, people assume that when African American men, Latino men are killed, that justice won’t be served for them. So the fact that this has happened today, it is an unfortunate situation, but I think it will give people hope that our criminal justice system is not broken.

Frederica Freyberg:

What lessons might be learned from Baltimore and even the justice that is being weeded out there here in Madison and Dane County?

Michael Johnson:

I think we just got to treat people with love. In this city we have been meeting around the clock. The United Way has been organizing meetings with African American leaders. We have been meeting with all of the Chiefs of every police department in Dane County. We have been meeting with young people just this weekend. We got over 2,000 young people that participated in a youth and unity town hall meeting. We brought in national celebrities. We had over 40 workshops on college readiness, passport to manhood, and when you channel young people’s energy in the right direction, they will respond. When you don’t listen to young people like the young people in Baltimore who live in economically challenged communities, high unemployment rates and their voices are not heard and they have nothing to lose, you see situations like that happen in communities. Unfortunately Baltimore is the community that it is happening in right now.

Frederica Freyberg:

With all of these meetings and all of this work you have been doing, have you seen people come together? What do you expect to happen when the charges are — whether or not the charges are announced in the Tony Robinson case?

Michael Johnson:

I am optimistic that the congressman in Baltimore said that this issue can happen in any city in the United States. I’m optimistic about our city because we are communicating. We know what our challenges are. At the same time, I think we are listening to our young people. The fact that 1500 people, young people was at this event on Sunday and 500 the day before, we are listening to our young people. I would argue that even with Young Gifted and Black all of these protests have been pretty much peaceful.

Frederica Freyberg:

If you are listening, what are you hearing?

Michael Johnson:

I am hearing young people saying I– our voices want to be heard. I am hearing young people say we need employment opportunities. I am hearing people say we need to close the racial achievement gap. We live in a great city, the fourth safest city in the United States, but we have an unemployment rate of 4 percent, but for African Americans it is 25 percent and for Latinos it’s 16 percent. It damages the fabric of our overall community and we’ve got to address those issues.

Frederica Freyberg:

The young people are telling us this, are we responding effectively enough?

Michael Johnson:

I tell you, that’s why Boys and Girls Club decided to commit to finding 675 internships for young people. That’s why we are putting a lot of resources inside of public schools to help young people not only find jobs but to graduate and go to college. I know United Way is doing the same thing. African American leaders are meeting more often than I have ever seen. Miss Malalay, who is the Editor in Chief of Umoja Magazine said, I have been here several decades and I have never seen so many meetings occur. I think people are serious about addressing these issues. We just have to roll up our sleeves and figure out how to make it happen.

Frederica Freyberg:

In terms of the decision we are awaiting out of the Dane County District Attorney’s office which do you suppose might be worst in this community if the officer is charged or if he is not?

Michael Johnson:

I think there is going to be heightened emotions on I think whatever the decision is it is going to be a lose/lose situation. I think if he is convicted there will be one side that will be very pleased. I think if he is not convicted I think that there’s another side that won’t be pleased. So, there's going to be emotion regardless of what happened. So it is how we respond. I am going to take direction from Tony Robinson’s family. They said no matter what happened, that people need to respond in love. They need to protest in peace. I believe our community will do that. Our community has demonstrated that. And I think that will happen.

Frederica Freyberg:

Michael Johnson thank you very much.