Good lord. This is the attitude that keeps people down, in poverty, and in jail.

At a University of Wisconsin Madison panel dealing with “Best Policing Practices,” UW Director of Community Relations Everett Mitchell recommended that police stop responding to shoplifting and theft at Wal-Mart and Target as a way to reduce what he refers to as, “over policing” of the community.

What a genius this dude is.

In his introduction, Mitchel argued that communities should be able to decide for themselves what laws should be enforced. He argued that the ultimate goal of law enforcement is not the actual enforcement of law, but community safety as defined by the community itself. Mitchell cited theft from big box stores as an example of a crime that police and the community may view differently.

Everett, the community already has decided. They, as a community, elected representatives to government, who, together, passed laws that define what is criminal activity, and what is not.  You don't like that, then vote them out, but the law is the law, and it is legitimately established by the community.

To an approving murmur from the audience, Mitchell advocated,“I just don’t think that they should be prosecuting cases or [unintelligible] up cases for people who steal from Wal-Mart. I just don’t think that, right? I don’t think Target or all them other places, them big box stores that have insurance. They should be using justification, the fact that people steal from there as justification to start engaging in aggressive police practices, right?”

Everett, do you like having stores in your community to use when you need to get something, like groceries, or shoes, or medicine?   Then you can't bankrupt them by just taking their inventory.  To follow your advice is to ensure that they all close, and no others open.

He went on to argue that, “I go to these meetings and that’s what they throw up there on the table, ‘look at where all this crime is happening, at the East Towne and the West Towne Mall, and the Wal-Marts and Targets, that’s where crime is happening, that’s why we have to focus so much’…they do that all the time to justify why they’re going to over police our children.”

Everett, you and your families are the first ones responsible for "policing" your children.  YOU need to teach them right from wrong, and how to behave properly. Doing that job correctly ensures your kids never have a run in with the police because they broke the law.  Failure to teach your own children does not mean that the rest of society has to pay the price, or change the definition of deviant behavior down to accommodate you. Get with the program. It's been proven successful over thousands of years and many cultures.  It'll take decades to repair the damage done, so better get on it right this minute.

Mitchell formerly served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Dane County District Attorney’s Office and currently serves as the UW Director of Community Relations a job that, according to his LinkedIn profile, “Represent[s] the UW-Madison Chancellor’s Office and institutional positions on community development, education, broadening UW-Madison’s presence in the local community, nurturing partnerships, and cultural issues through membership on and leadership on various public and private boards, commissions and committees.”

PS, I recognize this article is from 2015, but perhaps the delusions voiced by Mr. Mitchell explain how privileged basketball players can somehow, beyond all common sense or need, go and get themselves arrested for stealing in China today.