Police Monitor Covers For Pearson

Here’s what happened. As reported in a story in the Wisconsin State Journal, according to a criminal complaint against Brandi Grayson’s and Maia Pearson:

Grayson was driving and Pearson was a passenger in a GMC Yukon that had parked at about 11 p.m. (in December, 2025) in the Majestic Theatre’s loading zone.

When a security guard with the theater asked Grayson to move the vehicle, she refused and began yelling at theater employees and drove over caution cones the security guard had placed to mark the no-parking zone.

After police arrived, Pearson reached over to try to push a button to restart the vehicle after an officer had turned it off.

Both women subsequently refused police orders to get out of the vehicle and had to be removed by force. It took three or four officers to “stabilize Pearson as she was handcuffed due to her constant screaming and pulling her arms.” Once in the back of a squad car, Pearson extended her legs in an attempt to keep officers from closing the door.

Pearson

That account is the product of sworn statements of Madison police officers and civilian witnesses. As is routine, the Dane County district attorney’s office reviewed the case files and brought charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest against Grayson, who heads a nonprofit organization and Pearson, who is both a Madison school board member and head of the Police Civilian Oversight Board. That board oversees the Independent Police Monitor.

But within hours of the incident, the interim Monitor, Aeiramique Glass, announced that she was investigating, not Pearson, but the police who arrested her. Now, she’s issued a finding that cops had no reason to arrest Pearson. Never mind the statements of police and witnesses, never mind the findings of an experienced DA, Glass knows better.

And consider that Glass works under the Oversight Board and Pearson chairs it. I don’t know. Anything about that strike you as unseemly?

The Monitor and the Oversight Board were an expensive mistake from the start and they’ve been a circus act ever since. Now, Pearson won’t so much as take responsibility for her own outrageous behavior. She should have apologized to the public, the school board, the city and the cops long ago.

Now, if we lived in a sane world the city would strip Pearson of her position on the Oversight Board, the school board would send her packing and the whole sorry episode of the Oversight Board and the Monitor would be put to an end by the mayor and the city council, saving property taxpayers a half million dollars a year.

Let’s be honest about why none of that will happen. Madison is a very liberal place. And there is no more exalted status in liberal politics and culture than that of victimhood. Black women, as a group, are thought to be the greatest victims of all — admittedly, not without reason. And so, actions and statements that would be disqualifying had they been committed by anyone else are greeted with silence if they come from a member of a victimhood group.

It’s possible to be so open minded that you let your brains fall out. White liberals, terrified of being accused of racism, see what is plainly in front of them and utter not a word. When it comes to this stuff they check their judgement, their common sense and their courage at the door.

Even most liberals believe what I do: that bad behavior is bad behavior regardless of who does it and nobody should be exempt from the consequences. It’s just that nobody else will say it.

That’s it for this week, folks. One more week of this stunningly powerful insight before we shut it down for the summer.

Published by dave cieslewicz

Madison/Upper Peninsula based writer. Mayor of Madison, WI from 2003 to 2011.

6 thoughts on “Police Monitor Covers For Pearson

  1. see what is plainly in front of them and utter not a word.”

    Au contraire, words are being uttered over on neighborsnextdoor (THEY Report/YOU Decide!)

    The words being uttered by the White liberal apologists you reference might be summarized by:

    They’re innocent! Now…what are the charges…?”

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  2. If only there was a way to record police interactions on video, you know, something each office could wear. You might call it a “body camera”.

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  3. The independent monitor needs an independent monitor. It should be obvious to all that the staff of the oversight board cannot credibly investigate a case involving the chair of the Board they work for. All they can really achieve is division. Without credibility, belief in the Board’s work product becomes a matter of ideology not facts.

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  4. If only Dave had bothered to include actual facts in his biased commentary instead of just substituting his opinion for that of others far more informed than he is this might have been worth reading. Apparently he can’t conceive that an agency that doesn’t want oversight yet has the power to arrest people might arrest the people directed to enact such oversight. If he had bothered to read the statement by the Independent Monitor he would realize there was no basis for arresting Pearson. But apparently our former Mayor does not believe people are innocent until proven guilty. Apparently he thinks they should be punished even if they haven’t been charged with an offense. And that tells you everything you need to know about his judgement

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    1. First off, let me repeat a lament I’ve had in the past with other readers who post comments. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone hides their identity. You can agree or take issue with me all you want, but you know who I am. People who hide behind aliases are being paranoid. Trust me, you will suffer no repercussions for being forthright. Nobody will care. Now, that my throat is cleared, let me address the substance of the mysterious K’s comment. I believe very much that people should be assumed innocent until proven guilty. And Pearson has not been proven guilty. The system is working as it should. The cops provided their report to the DA, a Black man by the way, who evaluated it and brought charges. Now, if Pearson wants to contest those charges she can have a jury trial before her peers. But the public doesn’t have to follow those standards. In my case, I look at the public record, the sworn statements of the police and the witnesses, the fact that DA Ozane believes he has enough evidence to support the charges and the fact that her fellow defendant, Brandi Grayson, has already reached a plea deal and, yes, I reach the conclusion that Pearson did what she was accused of. I wonder now if K took the attitude that people should not have rushed to judgement about Derek Chauvin.

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