Badger Blogger

As someone that works in this neighborhood every day, this is scary.

Man, 24, shot in car
A 24-year-old man is in serious but stable condition after being shot several times Friday while in his car stopped at a stop sign at N. 19th St. near W. Center St., Milwaukee Police said.

Police said that a dark vehicle pulled up next to the man’s car, words were exchanged and someone in the van fired several shots at him. According to police, the man said he did not know the people who shot at him.

And this happened about 10 blocks from my home.

Teen shot early Friday evening
A 17-year-old male is in stable condition after being struck by one of seven shots fired in the 5600 block of W. Lincoln Creek Drive at 6 p.m. Friday, Milwaukee Police said.

The teen was walking with a group when two other people approached and began firing shots. Police said the shooting appears to be gang-related.

I understand the frustration folks, but please watch the language and check the bigotry at the door…

As much as I despise What the McGee’s have done and will continue to do, the personal ad hominem attacks and the broad brush condemnation of all black people in Milwaukee needs to stop. Maybe it is because some people don’t work closely with the black community, but I do and some of the comments have been upsetting.

Some of the broad brush statements could be directed at family members and friends that I know for a fact disagree with McGee and his tactics. McGee has his following, but by no means does the entire black community agree with him, not by a long shot, especially the older people. McGee, especially Jr. is very charismatic for the younger folks, that is where his base is, but this is by no means everyone.

Like with McGee, laying the entire crime problem of Milwaukee on “the black community” is also wrong. Yes, there are elements in this community that are bad actors, and the fact is that most violent crime is committed by young black males, remember that their victims are usually black themselves. When I target a crime for special commentary, I am not blaming “the community” he comes from, his community is the victim. If you notice where so much of my criticism is directed, it is toward the perpetrators, the police department at the command level (Hegerty in specific) and the city leadership, mainly Tom Barrett, for their inaction (notice the race in 2/3 of this equation). To blame the victims is stupid. To blame people that can’t get out of a bad neighborhood and are to afraid to fight back, is foolish. To condemn an entire people for the actions of a few is wrong.

Yes, there are people in the black community that “could” fight back against crime, I am talking to people in positions of leadership in the community. Without them, the fight can not be won. We must have their support in fighting the violent thugs in our society, they must speak in support of the efforts to remove the cancer in their community. I am talking about the elected officials, business leaders and clergy. When they speak, the people listen, but they need the support not just OF the community, but from OUTSIDE of the community as well. I know it is not easy for these black leaders to speak in support of the police, we see what happens when Sheriff David Clarke or Brother Bob Smith speak of personal responsibility. They, and others need to be supported, not lumped in as “being black” and disregarded. That is counterproductive and bigoted.

I work every day in some of the roughest parts of this city, and every single person that I have any contact with are wonderful people. Maybe more people on the outside looking in, should join me sometime. I think the view from the inside might open some narrow views.

By ending violent crime in Milwaukee, the people that will benefit the most are not the rich white suburbanites and east-siders, it will be mainly the black community its self, but that has an effect on the entire city, county and region.

In short, this isn’t about race, it’s about right and wrong, it’s about good and evil… It’s about doing the right thing.

Kansas tracks 300 sex offenders using GPS for $1.2 million, Wisconsin could easily do the same thing, but Doyle refuses, insisting that we must hire 120 new state employees at a cost of over $10 million. So instead of doing as he promised, he is going to continue to gut the legislation that he used to get himself elected. GPS is all but dead, and Doyle flacks admit that even fewer sexual predators will be monitored.

h/t: Kevin Fisher. The Chanel 4 link below includes video.

Tracking Sex Offenders with GPS
It costs Kansas $1.2 million annually to track 300 sex offenders by GPS. Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle’s office claims it would cost the state $10 million to monitor 300 offenders here. Doyle signed a GPS bill to protect Wisconsin children. Now he’s threatening to gut the bill by cutting the spending and limiting who gets monitored.

Wisconsin Reps. Joel Kleefish, Jeff Stone and Scott Suder came to Kansas to study its GPS system. The biggest reason GPS is affordable here is because Kansas outsources the monitoring. Only nine new state workers had to be hired.

The Wisconsin Department of Commerce claims 120 new workers are necessary and they won’t hire an outside company that would save millions. The governor claims letting the DOC run it is the best option.

“We can do this cheaper, better, safer,” Stone said. “You would have to be a fiscal imbecile to not use this technology to keep our community safe.”

“We’ve heard from the Pentagon and parole agents here in Kansas, prefer this system..would cost them time, effort, energy,” said Suder.

Kansas officials have found a financially viable way to protect children. And when legislators and Gov. Doyle agreed on a bill last year, it appeared Wisconsin had as well. Now the governor appears ready to strip down the bill he initially approved.

A Doyle spokesman said the governor plans to add provisions for more treatment beds for sex offenders, but he did concede that under the governor’s plan fewer sex offenders will be monitored.

I am glad that the Chief is finally doing something to fight violent crime… but sending 56 newly graduated cops into the most dangerous parts of town on their first assignment on the streets? Is that the best idea? Maybe it is, I am not a cop, but it seems that we need experienced officers in these locations.

Intensive policing is planned for high-crime areas
Fifty-six recent graduates of Milwaukee’s Police Academy will complete their field training in time to join an effort to target crime in some of the city’s most violent neighborhoods starting in May.

Police Chief Nannette Hegerty said Thursday that her department is reviewing crime statistics from May through September of last year as part of a “predictive analysis” before dedicating resources to high crime areas, including the new class of officers.

We seen this past week that Alderman Michael McGee/Jackson/McJr. has attacked Milwaukee police officers that shot a man that had already stabbed a family member and said he was going to get his gun. When police followed him into a hallway, he lunged at police with the knife. That is when McJr said for the cameras, “Any time a person has a knife, they should never be shot”
Now his latest attack is against the Milwaukee Fire Department. He blames our Fire Fighters and Paramedics for the deaths of shooting victims, because they will not rush into an unsecured violent crime scene before the police arrive.

“You know, the Fire Department, a lot of the times they are considered the good guys, and we don’t look at them. But the Fire Department, they have a policy in place, where we are losing a lot of black men that are shot. Whenever they are shot, the Fire Department does not respond if the Police Department is not there holding their hands.”

Oh yes, we have audio:

Download the audio

What color are the moons on this guys planet?

Just time for a tease… But the McJackson’s are at it again. Details this evening, but as a hint, they are now not only attacking police, but the fire fighters and paramedics as well… Check back tonight.

Fred Dooley is the only candidate that thinks Racine residents should be protected from sex predators by implementing a program based on the Franklin model.

Candidate wants more restrictions on sex offenders in Racine

Learn more here and if you live in Racine’s 7th district, Fred Dooley is the only choice to vote for.

She has to do me too!

Notice: there is no disclaimer on this post… or any of the millions of yard signs across this nation.

It’s not going to pass with this governor and state senate make up, but we passed the referendum that showed that most people believe Wisconsin should have the death penalty for the most heinos crimes.

Bill would execute ‘vicious’ killers

In their first response to Wisconsin voters who passed an advisory referendum in support of the death penalty last November, seven Republican legislators have sponsored a bill that would allow the execution by lethal injection of “vicious” murderers.

The bill has no chance of becoming law, since it is opposed by Democrats, who control the Senate, and Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. Wisconsin abolished the death penalty more than 150 years ago.

Republican Sen. Alan Lasee (R-DePere), who as president of the Senate over the last two years made sure the advisory vote was on the Nov. 7 ballot, is the chief Senate sponsor of the bill; the Assembly lead sponsor is Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah).

The other day, I mentioned that I thought Pal had the makings for a therapy dog… Today, I took him to one of the centers that I work with, they deal with people that have developmental and physical disabilities and he was absolutely awesome!

He is so calm and gentile, even when surrounded by 40 or 50 people, most in wheel chairs. Everyone wanted to pet him, and he loved every one! Some of the folks couldn’t pet him, but when I held his front paws off the ground so they could see him better… those smiles said it all!

I believe that I have a very special puppy here, and if he can keep creating smiles and and shouts of joy like I heard today, we’re going to have a lot of fun in the days and years to come!

Alderman Bob Donovan, along with Sheriff David Clarke and retired MPD Captain Glenn Frankovis, have put together a genuine plan to curb the violence in Milwaukee. This is a Must Read! Feel free to hotlink, or download a copy to share with your friends in Milwaukee today.

What we need now is the leadership to enact a policy that will be effective… Mayor Barrett, the ball is in your court.

Enough is Enough! A Plan to Restore Order to the Streets of Milwaukee

There will be some that will say that these measures go to far, a real leader is needed to stand up to the few, but vocal critics, and do what needs to be done to save Milwaukee. Leadership is what Milwaukee has sorely been lacking.

UPDATE: Text version now available it is lengthy, so to view the entire text, follow this link: (more…)

To continue yesterdays discussion if the 81 year old woman mugged in a Walgreens parking lot while store employees watched and refused to call police. As I said then, I frequent the El Greco restaurant whose parking lot connects to the Walgreens. I have been going there a few times a week for the past several years, so I have gotten to know the employees. I talked to several of them today and they were all furious with the callousness of the employees and to a person, they said they would not be going to that Walgreens again.

One employee said that they were over there all the time, since they work so close it is very convenient, but they all know that it could be one of them next, and they now know that they could expect no help if they were attacked.

Another waitress knew the victim, they attend the same church, and her son seen her being interviewed on Fox6 news.

The store manager says it is the rule to not get involved with things outside of the store, I guess they don’t think that it is their responsibility to help customers in their parking lot, but as another waitress said, if someone slipped on the ice in their parking lot, it would become their responsibility in a heartbeat. If course, they could not be expected to chase down the thug mugger, but to refuse to call police, or stick your head out the door and tell the thug that the cops are on the way while he is beating an 81 year old woman is unconscionable.

I am glad to see that I am not alone in my boycotting of this store. One of the ladies said that there must be a way to contact their headquarters to complain about how their store reacted, you can find their contact information here. I encourage everyone to call or write an email voicing your displeasure towards this very poor corporate citizen.

You can view the Fox 6 news coverage here: Senior Citizen Mugged Outside Milwaukee Walgreens

Cynthia Kaump’s blog post here: 81 Year old Mugged

An 81 year old woman was mugged in the parking lot outside of the Walgreens Pharmacy on 91 & Appelton… I was there this weekend, and on many of my days off work, I have breakfast at the restaurant that shares a parking lot with that Walgreens store.

The Fox6 news report says that store employees watched as this brave woman fought her attacker, but no one came out to help, or even called police!

I will never again spend another dime at the Walgreens store on 91st & Appelton Ave.

I was happy to learn that retired MPD Captain Glenn Frankovis submitted his cover letter and resume to the Fire & Police Commission today at City Hall.

Captain Frankovis was the man that was run out of MPD by the outgoing police chief because he called the thugs running our streets… Thugs.

Frankovis, 55, issued the memo Dec. 15 after Hegerty moved Officer Michael Lutz out of District 3 following threats on his life.

On Aug. 4, Lutz shot and paralyzed Timothy Nabors in the 2500 block of N. 27th St. Nabors later admitted to detectives that he had a gun in his hand. The district attorney cleared Lutz. Nabors was convicted of disorderly conduct.

The day Lutz was moved, Frankovis issued a roll-call memorandum that said, in part, “This transfer should serve as incentive for every police officer who works at District 3 to send a clear and convincing signal to the thugs that the only thing they accomplished was to give us cause to make their lives even more miserable than before.”

The memo also urged officers to show, “The dog wags the tail; the tail doesn’t wag the dog.”

While Captain Frankovis was in charge of Districts 3 and 5, his form of policing had a very real and quantifiable impact on violent crime in his districts, the numbers don’t lie.

I want to repost those numbers that I originally posted in January:

Eugene Kane seems to think that the only reason that the murder of Scott Huggins is getting the attention that it is, is because of his race. He doesn’t see anyone getting upset by any of the other murders that happen in our city… I guess he hasn’t been reading this blog where we talk about how to end Milwaukee’s violence nearly every day. Yes, some crimes do get the attention of a larger audience by the nature of the crime. A 16 year old shooting a man on a busy intersection in broad daylight is going to get more news coverage, so let’s use that! We need more people involved in this problem, so I say take the publicity focused on this to expand the discussion of how to curb the violence.

The only way we will ever get a handle on the violent crime in Milwaukee is to get everyone in the community working together. Holding a meeting to denounce a murder does nothing, we have seen it all to often. After every really bad incident, so called community leaders stand in front of the camera and say it must stop, but they aren’t seen again until the next really bad thing happens, then they do it again.

We need to band together with the police (under new leadership, FAST) and support their efforts. We need to hold parents accountable for raising their children, we need prosecution, not a revolving door that does no service, other than teach people that crime pays, until they kill someone, then it is to late to save them. Parents, churches, schools, police, prosecutors, judges, all of these need to work together, or the violence will never end.

Back to Mr. Kane, the anger sir, is there, but the frustration caused by inaction and people like “the alderman” make a lot of people wonder where the anger is from the black community its self.

Where’s anger when victim is black?
It seems Milwaukee is suddenly much more frightening to some people because of a shocking daytime crime. No, it wasn’t the death of Prentice Barnes, a van driver killed by random gunfire near N. 39th and W. Center streets at eleven o’clock in the morning.

My March 13 column lamented that an innocent man could get killed in his own neighborhood at 11 a.m. and suggested daytime crime had become an unsettling reality for those who live in the city.

But Barnes’ shooting didn’t set off the same amount of hand-wringing as the death of Scott Huggins, the boxing coach from Waukesha. Barnes was African-American; Huggins was white.