Barron, WI is a city of about 3,500 people, about 90 miles east of Minneapolis. As you might expect, it’s overwhelmingly white, but it has a growing Somali-American community (somewhere around 15%). If that doesn’t make it the most “diverse” small town in heavily-segregated Wisconsin, it’s gotta be in the top 5.
Like everywhere else in the world, decent people in Barron are hurt and outraged over the lynching of George Floyd and the 400+ years of white supremacy that lead up to it (and persists after it). And amid that outrage, somebody... tagged a park shelter.
This should not be news. People tag park shelters (and just about anything else) thousands of times every day, for any reason and no reason, in big cities and small towns all around the world. It’s usually not a great or super-constructive thing to do, but civilization persists. Not so in Barron.
Barron Police Chief Joe Vierkandt took to Facebook to effectively issue an “all points bulletin” alerting citizens that the entire community had been “victimized:”
On June 1, 2020, at about 12:53AM, a Barron Police Officer was on routine patrol in the area of Anderson Park, in the City of Barron. The officer observed the words "BLM" and "No justice no peace" written in black spray paint on the east side of the main pavilion in Anderson Park.
The officer notified Barron County Dispatch and after doing so seen 3 people run from the building. The officer identified that one of the suspects running from the scene was a black male.
The Barron County Sheriff’s Department arrived and assisted in the search of the suspects. The officer returned to the pavilion and photographed the vandalism. The letters “BLM” were also spray painted on a picnic table and the paved road into Anderson Park. At this time, no suspects have been identified.
The suspects, who committed this crime, are victimizing the community as it is taxpayer dollars that will have to be used to repair the building. The City has placed a lot of time, effort and money into making Anderson Park a beautiful place for the residents and the surrounding community to enjoy. We are extremely disappointed by this act.
If you have any information on the identity of the suspects, please contact the Barron Police Department at 715-537-3101.
The Mission of the Barron Police Department is to provide the highest level of service through community partnerships and problem solving in a professional, ethical, and timely manner. We are dedicated to protecting life, property, maintaining order while assuring fair and equal treatment to everyone, and enhancing the quality of life in our community.
Respectfully,
Chief Joe Vierkandt
There are so many things wrong with this:
- Why make this post at all? This isn’t an active shooter or a tornado warning. There’s no danger to the public.
- I’m sure there has been plenty of graffiti in Barron over the years that wasn’t given the “be on the lookout” treatment. Why is this one different? If you catch somebody in the act of tagging, write them a ticket. If not, then just have the parks dept clean it up and be done with it.
- As just about anyone could have predicted, this post has inspired quite a few local white supremacists to openly call for violence. I’ll let you dig thru the public comments and shares yourself, but this one (and his buddy’s comments below it) feels awfully close to a conspiracy to commit a hate crime.
- Why in the world would you tell the public only that “one of the suspects is a black male”? If that’s the only identifying piece of information you have, don’t release it to the public! All you’re doing is making every black male in your city a “suspect” in the eyes of would-be vigilantes. You’re literally making Barron less safe. That’s the opposite of what police chiefs are ostensibly paid to do.
I’m sure the powers that be in Barron would like to just sweep this under the rug and talk about what a “good family man” their police chief is, and how he should be forgiven for a little social media snafu. But we all know black and brown folks don’t get that second chance or benefit of the doubt. This guy is the chief. He leads people. If he doesn’t have the self-awareness or the empathy for his whole community to realize how reckless this was, he needs to resign and find another line of work.
Want to tell officials in Barron what you think of all this?
Barron Mayor Ron Fladten: 715-418-9695
Barron City Administrator Liz Jacobson: 715-537-5631
Barron Police Non-emergency line: 715-537-3101
(Note that Barron Police Chief Joe Vierkandt was hired in December 2019. The City of Barron website still lists the old chief.)