What, you didn't know about the Hoofer webcam? That's because it was disabled soon thereafter by the HSC webmaster (guess who) because he and others didn't like that some plum smuggler had figured out how to capture time lapse video from it, and because such captures were being used to publicize screw-ups by Hoofer "staff".
Had they not removed that camera, there might now be video of the Yu Chen incident as the camera pointed straight at that part of the lake. (there may be video anyway, but the sheriff and DA are still withholding everything 8 months later.)
This is the Information Age, and knowledge is power. That's why those in authority do everything they legally can (and often illegally) to obtain information and then to keep it exclusively for themselves>. The Union's 100+ surveillance cameras are just one example. The public is not allowed to see any of that video, ever. Yet, Union staff, crooked cops, and other voyeurs can lock themselves in a room and study it whenever they like. If you're not breaking the law, who cares, right?
Who cares if they're getting off on girls in bikinis or you with your shirt off on the Terrace. Is the Union safer or better in any way since they installed all those cameras? Nope. The only deaths at Hoofer Sailing have both occurred after the installation of blanket surveillance--and after the removal of the one useful and publicly available camera at Hoofers.
Have you seen The Post yet? It's a great movie about crooked government officials trying to suppress public information, starring Meryl Streep & Tom Hanks.
NOTE: Thanks to those who posted the link with a bit of new info on the investigation.
Good reporting documenting our slow ooze into a Police State. That camera from the Tower was priceless for getting a quick glance at the flag conditions. That time lapse is very entertaining and the Benny Hill theme music is, as our cousins across the pond say, 'Spot on.'
ReplyDeleteUnlike pencils, humans do not have erasers to fix their mistakes. How often have any of us seen UW-Rescue bringing in boatload after boatload of worn-out windsurfers, refugees from capsized scows, missing students (oh, there you are. Where were you?) and canoeists? They have a remarkable service record and they are awesome.
ReplyDeleteWe are coming-up on 10 months since Yu Chen was killed, we assume, by the UW Rescue Boat. I think all of us are conflicted on this incident. We have an inkling of how Yu Chen died, but on the other hand we are concerned for the staff running the UW-Rescue boat that day. They are professionals who take their job seriously and there are none of us that want to see them in trouble with the law for what was a tragic accident.
Toxicology reports and seeing if the DA will press charges? If marijuana was in the boat operator's bloodstream they would be in deep do-do. In a retro 1980's state like Wisconsin, even a minute trace in the bloodstream leftover from sparking one 3 weeks back will show-up.
ReplyDeleteThe DA must weigh what amount of cannabis in the bloodstream constitutes impairment. Or, since we are a retro 1980's state, the correct answer is zero. Just say no.
This does not bode well for the skipper of Harvey that day. Had this occurred in Colorado, that state has thresholds for impairment. If this is truly the case, our Harvey skipper is looking down the barrel at some prison time. No sunshine-filled days on the water when you are sharing a 6x8 cell with hardened criminals. And when he gets out of prison? Felons wear that sign around their neck for the rest of their lives.
Even our great, orange pompadoured leader would tweet, 'Sad'.
The Warren Commission did not take this long to investigate and reveal their findings on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
ReplyDeleteAnd it was found by the Commission that Lee 'Harvey' Oswald acted alone. The common name for UW-Rescue is 'Harvey.
Sad
ReplyDelete這是非常悲慘的。我們逃離了非自由民主國家和政權，以實現公開和透明的政府的承諾。對於所有認為美國是自由和自由的光輝的人們來說，這是非常悲慘的。但在威斯康星州，這就是美國人所稱的香蕉共和國，與沃克將軍一起填補了那些不知道自己在做什麼的親信隊伍，除了讓我們在黑暗中工作的同時賺取高薪。
ReplyDeleteSí. En mi país de nacimiento solo sabemos lo que el gobierno nos dice. Si protestamos entonces es un golpe en la puerta en el medio de la noche lo que obtenemos. Simplemente desaparecen para que nunca más nos vean. Somos sinceros con la familia de Yu Chen, ya que todos mis pueblos han perdido a su familia sin ninguna explicación. Es trágico que la promesa de América sea una promesa que no se cumple.
ReplyDeleteLet us weep not only for our lost windsurfing colleague but the loss of a transparent democratic government that once existed to serve the citizenry of Wisconsin. The DA has had the Sheriff's report on the investigation since November 1, 2017. 3 1/2 months later nothing. Nothing at all. The family's attorney cannot fathom it either. Can you?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailycardinal.com/article/2017/11/evidence-on-windsurfers-fatal-collision-with-uw-rescue-boat-reaches-das-office-remains-out-of-reach-for-family
Oops! Only one thing left to do, hold another Hoofer Sailing Club Kickoff membership drive https://gph.is/1mEpCzI
ReplyDeleteWell, well; so many of you for years have scoffed at all the corruption around Hoofers and the UW itself, whenever anybody tried to do something to correct it; and here it is again, openly defying the open records law of the state yet again. Who shall be the first to voice the usual Quisling excuses? Godless and corrupt administrators all around, venal adults too cowardly to demand truth and what is right in this institution, often to squat publicly-owned boats and shorelands as drunkards; what are they doing with all this time? Trying to rewrite reports? Rewrite what are otherwise quite simple evidence tests in a common Inquest? Maybe the Chinese Embassy should get involved since apparently the righteous of UW-Madison and Dane County do not value Chinese lives.
ReplyDeleteA 6x8 cell - with a 6'8" 300 lb guy who hasn't had a woman in 8 years....
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to voice this to the New York Times. "The Curious Case of Yu Chen" Expose that pulls back the black drapes and lets the sunshine in.
ReplyDelete10 months now! And the DA has been sitting on the Sheriff's Report since November 1, 2017?
ReplyDeleteLet's just call it what is. Incompetent (or deceitful?) Public Servants working for a Rogue State. Look-out North Korea! You got some competition here. This is the US' equivalent of a worker's paradise brought to you by The Koch Bros Politburo and their puppet Kim Jung Walker.
Seriously...this is very sad and disappointing. Poor showing all around.
Time to get your applications in if you are a new Sailing Instructor or a returning Sailing Instructor. On that last note, pssst.....we need a replacement windsurfing instructor..can't talk about it. Just use the mash-up of the 2018 application with the inserted 2016 Training Instructor Selection and Training Schedule. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BywZ-rLn0R8haHZyaERPWUtPS2gzU0VmV0pxN01NcVRDU1JB/view
ReplyDeleteKey fun facts for 2018 Applicants! February 14th, 2016 the applications are due! What is the date for 2018? Who knows...but if you are asking that question now you probably missed the boat ;
Do you think UW and the government would be treating this case the same way if the deceased were a young, white woman from a prominent donor family to the UW? What possibly is so complicated? Who was driving the boat?
ReplyDelete4 months after receiving the Sheriff's Report, The DA is not acting one way or another. The Club still lists Yu Chen as an instructor on the website. Following the tragedy there was no mention on the Club Website.
ReplyDelete3 months to go until the 1 year Tragi-versary with no explanation for the family, the Club members or the community. It is not just Hoofer folk wondering what happened. The community at large asks and keeps on asking me what ever happened with the Hoofer Windsurfing Instructor that was struck and killed by the UW Rescue boat?
I am at crossroads. I love sailing and contributing my volunteer time with fellow club members. But how can I be part of an organization that following a tragic loss of life is now part of inflicting further pain on the family of the decedent? My dollars, time and energy only empower the current trajectory of the Club and its connected actions. The family needs to know. The community needs to know. WI Union, the DA and others have 'gone dark'.
I cannot in good conscience renew my Hoofer Sailing Club membership this year.
Instructor Job Notifications: Does the Club have to post Job Openings? Was this done in accordance with State & University policies? It was not advertised on the Hoofer Club Website as in past years. One has to dig through the site to find the current application but the dates contained on the web page and within the form are bewildering at best. Are we looking at 2016? 2017? 2018? What is the date that applications are due.
ReplyDeleteDoes the WI Union post the jobs elsewhere to satisfy conditions of public notice? In past years these paid positions were advertised on the Club Site.
The malaise continues to enshroud the club and darken even the fairest of days.
Were his arm and fitbit watch recovered? Maybe we can let sailors know in the spring to keep an eye out with a message with 'What to do if you find a body limb?' Yu Chen's family might appreciate having all of his body back. This is the one thing we can actually do to help his family.
ReplyDeleteSome T-Shirts Club Members can wear at the Terrace when all the public are there?
ReplyDeleteNeeds some brief words on the Tee to get the point across. (http://thefilmspectrum.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Screen-Shot-2013-11-17-at-7.13.28-PM.png)
Blog Hoster? Could be a great contest here...let's get a new topic going!
The Wisconsin Judicial-Prison-Industrial Complex, so swift to scoop-up African-Americans for a wee puff of marijuana and turn them into the raw input for their machinery, are not doing a thing with what looks like manslaughter.
ReplyDeleteAnd that comes as a surprise? It is because the DA, sheriff, and UW rescue all are state employees, one big happy family. If a member of your family commits a crime, that's not the same as a stranger doing it. As Matt Damon playing the CIA director says to Joe Pesci, mafioso, in The Good Shepherd: "The rest of you are just visiting." That is, minorities including Italians greeks poles hispanics blacks Jews and many others, do not have real ownership in the United States. They are here to provide labor and to fill lower caste positions for the true owners, the WASPs who rule by old money, brotherhood, crookery, and intimidation.
ReplyDeleteThe brotherhood and crookery aspects extrapolate perfectly to Wisconsin state employees even if they are (most) minorities.
We need to commemorate the upcoming Tragiversary of Yu Chen's death on a T-Shirt 'Forgotten, but not gone from our hearts'.
ReplyDeleteOn the back, 'Questions? So do we!'
Is there another city in this country where a motorvehicle can run somebody over and kill the person, and yet the authorities will not release the data after a year, in violation of a clear statute requiring otherwise? Was it an accident or murder? Afterall, these people presumptively are in same social circles; have the authorities suspicions of homicide?
ReplyDeleteGood point. Where in this country is this acceptable or legal for government officials to not act one way or the other? What's the reason? This is not open and transparent gov't.
ReplyDeleteWhat? Are people now afraid that they will lose their Club keel boat privileges if they speak-up? Good example how vested interests tacitly collude through silence.