Solving Milwaukee's Gang Problems - Bucher Doesn't Have a Clue

As a Wisconsin resident concerned about gangs and safety in Milwaukee, let me share the following. There must be:

• Milwaukee City and County law enforcement fully committed to community policing both in name and spirit.
• recognition that law enforcement is only a small part of the solution and that piling on more cops is not efficient or effective unless it is part of a community based program.
• recognition that two community officers with neighborhood support are far more effective than ten officers as part of an occupying force.
• there must be the creation of Neighborhood Resource Teams (NRT).  City employees from the fire department, health department, library, city engineering, transportation, building inspection, EEOC/AA, working together on a regular basis with law enforcement.
• the NRT must be integrated with Milwaukee County Social Services, especially social workers and case workers.
• a common message  when it comes to community standards, that violence is unacceptable.  The message must be continually delivered by civic, political, religious, business, educational and all other community leaders.
• a strategic plan to assure than no citizen is lacking in job training, transportation, and quality child care.
• access for every school age child to quality after-school and summer recreation programs.

That is just for starters.  In the long term, the price tag is cheaper than the status quo.

As I wrote this post, I was focused on Paul Bucher's foolishness.  I read his latest homepage missive, Lautenschlager and Doyle AWOL on gun violence, and reread everything twice searching for his 'plan.'  I found his plan, but it is no more than a press release:

I would create, among other things, a firearms/gang violence unit within the Department of Justice to aggressively target violent criminals within our urban centers. It's time for the state to take a place at the table...

...That's why today I also called on both the Governor and Attorney General to immediately fund 90 cops for 90 days. Let's get more boots on the ground, and let's do it immediately...

Clearly no other candidate for Attorney General demonstrates such a grotesque lack of knowledge about controlling gangs. Gangs survive and thrive in the nurturing environment of a community they intimidate, in a community that does not reject violence, in a community lacking in alternatives. More "boots on the ground"  plays to Bucher's base listening to Milwaukee talk radio, but it doesn't start to address the problem.

I would suggest Bucher first do some reading.  Former Madison Police Chief David C. Couper and Sabine H. Lobitz wrote Quality Policing: The Madison Experience and Terry Anderson and Pat Holliday's Every Officer Is a Leader. Start there.

Comments

[Janifer Wilson]

I read the article with major concern about the gang violence, but it seems responsibility is placed on everyone except the parents- at what point are the parents of these gang members going to be held accountable for their off-springs? If my dog bit someone, I would be held accountable because I am the owner. The parents brought these gang members into the world, why aren't they held accountable. It is time to put the responsibility where it belongs.

[jim rowen]

Political rhetoric is so cheap and abundant during an election season. To jump in as Bucher did from his partisan perch in Waukesha County was gratuitous and ghoulish. We here in Milwaukee don't need his so-called advice and the campaign for AG doesn't need it, either.

[Janifer]

Janifer: I agree, parents must be held respsonsible. We can hold them responsible while Milwaukee continues to flounder. Or we can do some things which includes workign with the ones who want to fix things. But to hold them responsible while Milwaukee goes under wasn't worked.

[t.fedup]

I travel to the south side of Milwaukee most everyday.One day I saw dozens of cars with smashed windows.I thought maybe something would be said about tit on the news,But nothing.It seems the people around tenth and Lincoln are afraid of the gangs.To afraid to say anything.This area in the next few months will become a really nasty area for gangs.I hate going there to get my son,It always is an adventure.