Madison Mayor Paul Soglin expressed his disappointment in the Town of Madison police department’s decision to hire former DeForest Police Chief Daniel Furseth, who resigned in August after making racist comments in a YouTube video.
The video, posted to YouTube in December 2015 by a former DeForest police intern, features Furseth speaking in a stereotypically black voice while filming a group of well-dressed black men walking into a Steak and Shake restaurant.
“We's out on our date. We got the bitches and we gonna get 'em and we're gonna give 'em food,” Furseth can be heard saying in the video. “I got my cane, I gots my suit. Oh baby, I got a car alarm on my Impala. All right boys, let's go in. This is the fanciest restaurant I've ever been to.”
After the video came to the attention to the Village of DeForest’s government, Furseth was placed on paid leave. He received a severance package worth $102,000 from the village in August following his resignation.
Furseth was hired by the police department in the Town of Madison, a series of discontinuous land fragments separate from the City of Madison, on Oct. 5. Madison Mayor Paul Soglin issued a statement Friday denouncing Furseth’s hiring as well as the town’s hiring of more police personnel. Soglin suggested that the town enter into a contract with either the City of Madison or the City of Fitchburg to provide necessary police services.
“We are very disappointed that Town of Madison officials hired additional personnel, particularly the addition of Daniel Furseth, to their police department,” Soglin said. “One has to wonder if this decision is representative of the 6,800 residents who live in the Town.”
