I’ve been asked Is it pronounced “LIVES” (hard “I” like Island) or “LIVES” (soft “I” like Lick)? It’s BOTH.
Milwaukee Lives (a noun) – like individuals – people young and old, black, white, Latin X, Asian, Native American, straight and LGBQ+, conservative and liberal and moderate, urban and suburban and rural (if there are any “rural” areas left in Greater Milwaukee) … and it is ALSO Milwaukee Lives (a verb)- like wakes up, works, learns, grows and develops, plays, interacts with others, rests and relaxes, deals with ups and downs, and generally experiences life !!
A Forum About Living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and About People in Milwaukee. Discussion and Topics about Milwaukee – its people, its neighborhoods, its lifestyle, and yes … its problems.
From Heavy Issues like racism, affordable housing, education, criminal justice reform, mental health, and gun violence to Softer Topics like sports, recreation, entertainment, dining and leisure.
JANUARY 2, 2024
Year in Milwaukee Ends with 13-year-old Boy Being Charged with Killing 10-year-old Girl with Firearm?!
WHAT CAN WE DO ?
I guess it’s fittingly sad that my first post in a “Milwaukee Lives” Blog is about gun violence. Part of me is reluctant to launch this site with such a troubling, negative, and complex issue; but at the same time – part of me is like “let’s jump right in the deep end” and get to it. Problems aren’t going to solve themselves, right? Gun violence is nothing new to the city of Milwaukee and, increasingly – the greater Milwaukee Metro area. Milwaukee has experienced growth in gun-related deaths – both suicides and homicides – over the past few decades.
I think what has troubled many who live with and study the issue of gun violence and homicides by firearm the most are that so many victims AND perpetrators are younger and younger. In Milwaukee 46.7% of all victims of gun violence was someone between the ages of 18 and 29 (MKE Elevate – Office of Violence Prevention) and 14% of shooting victims in Milwaukee THIS YEAR (2023) are UNDER THE AGE OF 17 (Urban Milwaukee). Just yesterday – as 2023 winds to an end – Milwaukee prosecutors have charged a 13-year-old boy with homicide in the shooting death earlier this month of 10-year-old Trinity Johnson. Trinity died Dec. 18th from gunshot injuries she sustained Dec. 13th inside a home on Milwaukee’s north side. It was the 21st child killed by gun violence in Milwaukee in 2023. Young people in Milwaukee are increasingly hurting and killing other young people with guns. Why? How did we get here? And more importantly – what can we do?
Programs Have Worked In The Past But They Take Commitment and Resources
Unfortunately in the United States of America we have had a lot of experience with increases in crime and violence – including gun violence – in many places. Many communities, cities, counties, and states have had to deal with spikes in crime and gun violence at some time or another. Above I asked the question “How did we get here?” – but I think that is a topic too historic, too deep, too complex to fully address here. Maybe another blog. And, although it is sad and tragic that we – as a nation – have this experience over many decades, it also has meant that many institutions and people have been trying to address the issue for a long, long time. Some with success and some with little success. So – we already have some blueprint of WHAT WORKS to help reduce gun violence. Why can’t we just copy the ideas that have showed signs of success? Well – not all places and circumstances are the same – but we can try, right?
Several Places In the US Have Experienced a Measurable Reduction in Gun Violence During Specific Periods of Time
- Boston, Massachusetts (1990s)
- Richmond,California (1990s)
- Chicago, Illinois (2017)
While each of these places (and even time frames) are very different – these 3 places showed a MEASURABLE reduction in gun violence (between 15% to 55%) over a sustained period of time (more than one year). How did they do it? Well – without going into the details and costs of each city’s strategy let’s focus on some common strategies and tactics used by each of these cities.
Some of these items are smaller in focus and easier to implement while others are VERY LARGE in Scope and complexity (i.e. successful schools that engage students), which is an ENTIRE topic/issue/blog itself. They are listed here if they showed to have some impact and correlation to the Crime data of the time period.
- Getting rid of “blighted” housing – remove or replace abandoned and unkept properties
- Gun Buy Back Programs – opportunities for the public to “sell” or “turn in” firearms without questions or investigations into where they got them and why they have them
- Community Policing – “hot spot” policing and police who are trained to “build relationships in high crime neighborhoods” including foot and bicycle patrols
- Getting people involved in drug or alcohol-related incidents access to treatment programs
- Separate DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COURTS that can focus on Relationships Counseling, Anger Management, Conflict Resolution and Marriage and Family Counseling
- Partnerships between Law Enforcement and Schools as well as Law Enforcement and Local Organizations Who Work With Youth
- Successful Schools that Engage Students and create positive experiences for kids and a connection to real-world job opportunities
Again, this is a pretty exhaustive list of a wide variety of initiatives and concepts, however, each of them has been shown in the three examples of the cities above to having had an impact on a reduction in gun violence. Obviously, some of these items involve a large investment and financial cost and not all places – including Milwaukee – have the government or private resources to enact them all. But before we discuss what Milwaukee can, should, and is doing – let’s look closer at the principle of what can and should be done.
“Midnight Basketball is Not Crime Prevention”
While researching the “programs that work” attributed to Chicago, Illinois in 2017 list I had talked to several officials and residents in Chicago. I remember an interesting conversation that I had with Mike O’Brien, a resident there who I had lived with in college in Madison, Wisconsin. Mike O’Brien had a strong opinion about one of Chicago’s programs that was set up intended to reduce gun violence, Midnight Basketball.
For background, one of the programs that took off nationwide in many cities with gang problems in the 1980s and 1990s was Midnight Basketball Leagues. The Leagues would fit the “Partnerships between Law Enforcement and Local Organizations” category above. The idea was that many of the gun violence incidents were taking place among rival gangs and were occurring between midnight and 3am. Most of the victims and perpetrators of the gun incidents were young men in their late teens and early 20’s. So the local YMCA and police gang liaison officers decided why not start a basketball league that played its games late at night where young men could play other teams or groups in basketball. The games would take place between 11pm and 1am and would try to refocus a lot of energy into a positive activity. By most accounts – the leagues were popular and quite successful. Although there are reports that violent incidents occurred shortly after – or even during – a few of the games, for the most part the leagues was deemed a positive for many of these communities.
When reading off a list to Mike O’Brien of the programs that were considered by Chicago officials to have “helped” in the reduction of gun crimes from 2016 to 2017 “Midnight Basketball” was on the list. “Midnight Basketball is Not Crime Prevention” he said. I paused for a second to think about what he said and what I felt about it. I think that is where I realized there isn’t even a strong view or consensus on what “preventing gun violence” looks like.
Preventing gun violence, to me, is simply finding ways to get people TO NOT PULL THE TRIGGER. That may look very different at different times throughout the city. It may be “emergency” or immediate actions to alleviate a dangerous situation or it may be a long-term plan or program aimed to halt future incidents involving guns. Any tactic or method that is used to prevent someone from pulling the trigger on a gun is “preventing gun violence”.
WHAT HAS MILWAUKEE DONE? IS IT WORKING?
There is a front “page” article on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s website TODAY with the headline “We Have Made Gains”. It discusses that Milwaukee homicides and non-fatal shootings both DECLINED in 2023.
The article from the Journal Sentinel and links to it are below:
Gun violence in Milwaukee trended down in 2023. But there’s still too much of it.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
After three consecutive years of record-breaking homicides and nonfatal shootings in Milwaukee, both crimes finally declined in 2023.
Although anyone who is involved in violence prevention, policing or public health will quickly tell you the task of lowering the city’s gun violence remains a towering challenge — gun crimes are still roughly double that of pre-pandemic levels — there is still some growing confidence among those at the frontline of the issue.
“We’re seeing some positive trends we haven’t seen in the last couple years,” said Constance Kostelac, the director of Milwaukee’s Homicide Review Commission and a professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “Certainly nowhere near where we want to see in terms of the levels, but at least (it’s) a positive direction overall, so that’s encouraging and something we certainly want to see continue in 2024.”
As of Tuesday, the city recorded a preliminary total of 173 homicides in 2023, according to the Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. That number is about a 20% drop from the 215 recorded in 2022.
It’s the largest single-year drop since 2008, when homicides fell 32%, according to FBI data.
The 2023 numbers are still preliminary, as death investigations continue. Incidents that were initially reported as a homicide may later be determined to be self-defense, for example, causing the number to fluctuate into the new year.
As good as all that sounds, the size of the remaining issue is easily apparent. Apart from the still-large number of homicides — 171 tops the city’s pre-pandemic record of 165, set in 1991 during the crack epidemic — Milwaukee did not see as big a drop in nonfatal shootings — 5%.
Milwaukee mirrors national trends
The numbers from this year align Milwaukee more closely with national trends. Although national homicide numbers are still comfortably higher than they were in 2019, preliminary findings from AH Datalytics, which studies national crime trends, estimate a 12% decline in more than 170 American cities in 2023.
https://cm.jsonline.com/article-body/inline-desktop_121223_Holiday
That would be one of the biggest single-year drops ever recorded.
Meanwhile, gun assaults — a term that is broader than nonfatal shootings — dropped 5.6% in the fist half of 2023, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
Experts suggested homicides and shootings are declining nationally because the effects of pandemic disruptions and the damaged police-community relations from the murder of George Floyd are lifting. But increased gun-carrying, brought on by historic levels of firearm purchases during the pandemic, continue to play a role in elevated levels of gun violence.
“The last three years in our lives were aberrations in a way,” said Alex Piquero, a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Miami. “We’re starting to see some of those pressures that were occurring in 2020 and 2021 kind of abate at the national, aggregate level.”
Signs of progress in Milwaukee
Locally, officials are less eager to theorize about the declines in Wisconsin’s largest city.
However, they are unanimous in that targeted enforcement from police; the rollout, albeit slowly, of $12.65 million in federal pandemic aid for violence prevention; increased programming for minors; expanded domestic violence services and unprecedented levels of collaboration between law enforcement, community groups, public health experts and other public entities have helped save lives.
“I believe that we are in a better position of collaboration than we ever have been before,” said Police Chief Jeffrey Norman. “We have made gains, but we still have a lot of work to do. You can never be comfortable with where we’re at. One shooting and one homicide is one too many.”
Still there are more resources needed. Officials in Milwaukee have called for continued investment in affordable housing, mental health and substance use treatment and services, employment and youth activities. And they have called on state and federal lawmakers to enact universal background checks and extreme risk protection orders, which are supported by a majority of Wisconsinites but have been blocked a Republican-controlled Legislature.
There are longstanding trends in Milwaukee’s gun violence that persisted into 2023. In a city that has suffered from generations of racial segregation, poverty, neglect and easy access to firearms, victims (86%) and suspects (88%) of homicides and nonfatal shootings are overwhelmingly Black.
Milwaukee’s north, northwest and, to a lesser extent, near-south sides, continue to bear the brunt of the city’s violence.
However, Reggie Moore, the director of community safety policy and engagement at the Medical College of Wisconsin, said 2023 was the first year he could remember where homicides decreased in all seven of Milwaukee’s police districts. Three saw increases in nonfatal shootings.
Where officials report some progress is in child and domestic violence-related homicides.
Although children are still being shot and killed at twice the rate of pre-pandemic years, child homicides dropped from 27 to 21 in 2023, as of Dec. 21. Moore said efforts to mediate conflicts among youth, which can spill over into gun violence, have “been extremely productive over the past year.”
Meanwhile, domestic violence-related homicides across all of Milwaukee County dropped from 41 to 31 as of Dec. 19, according to the Sojourner Family Peace Center, the largest service provider for domestic violence victims in Wisconsin.
Carmen Pitre, the president of the organization, attributed that to expanded intervention services as a result of a $1 million grant from the state government.
She said she expects the additional resource will “further reduce the homicide rate in the years to come.” But like other officials, she is mindful of the substantial challenges that remain.
“Why I’m cautious is because I think we still have too many people living in despair and hopelessness,” she said. “And in despair and hopeless people adapt sometimes by using violence because they’ve learned it. We’re not done with dealing with the impact that violence has on peoples’ lives and how kids grow into that.”
How to find help
Where to find free gun locks
- United Neighborhood Center of Milwaukee, 1609 W. North Avenue.
- City on a Hill, 2224 W. Kilbourn Avenue, during outreach events on the second Saturday of each month.
- Milwaukee Christian Center, 807 S. 14th Street, at their food pantry, which operates Monday through Thursday, from 1 to 3 p.m.
- Neighborhood House of Milwaukee, 2819 W. Richardson Place.
- Neu-Life Community Development, 2014 W. North Avenue.
- Silver Spring Neighborhood Center, 5460 N 64th Street.
- COA Youth and Family Centers, 909 E. Garfield Ave. and 2320 W. Burleigh St.
- Northcott Neighborhood House, 2460 N. 6th St.
- Journey House, 2110 W. Scott St.
- All Milwaukee Fire Department stations and health centers run by the Milwaukee Health Department also hand out free gun locks. Directories for fire stations and health centers are available online.
Domestic violence
- The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233.
- The Sojourner Family Peace Center in Milwaukee operates a 24-hour confidential hotline at 414-933-2722.
- We Are Here Milwaukee provides information on culturally specific organizations at weareheremke.org.
- The Women’s Center in Waukesha has a 24-hour hotline at 262-542-3828.
- The Asha Project, which provides culturally specific services for African American women and others in Milwaukee, provides a crisis line from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 414-252-0075.
- The UMOS Latina Resource Center in Milwaukee offers bilingual, bicultural domestic violence, sexual assault and anti-human trafficking supportive services and operates a 24-hour hotline at 414-389-6510.
- The Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center offers culturally sensitive, trauma-informed services for those who have experienced domestic or sexual violence and can be reached at 414-383-9526.
- Our Peaceful Home, which serves Muslim families and is a program of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, operates a crisis line at 414-727-1090.
- The Hmong American Women’s Association, which serves the Hmong and Southeast Asian community, has advocates available at 414-930-9352 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
- End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin has a statewide directory of resources at endabusewi.org/get-help.
Conflict mediation and crisis support
- 414Life outreach and conflict mediation support: 414-439-5398.
- Milwaukee County’s 24-Hour Mental Health Crisis Line: 414-257-7222.
- Milwaukee’s Child Mobile Crisis and Trauma Response Team: 414-257-7621.
- National crisis text line: text HOPELINE to 741741 to text with a trained crisis counselor.
- National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255.
Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on X at @elliothughes12
RESPONSIBILITY
This first edition of Milwaukee Lives is already too wordy for me, but it is a deep and complex topic and a difficult conversation to have. We have all lost someone close to us to gun violence or we know someone who has lost someone close to them to gun violence. Families, neighborhoods, and entire communities have been traumatized by crime and violence. It also is an issue that can spark a lot of debate and political discussion – which often gets heated. I did not want to focus on Gun Control legislation because that usually ends up becoming too polarizing, but am willing to discuss it in the future.
I think people who talk about “responsibility” are on to something – whether personal responsibility regarding firearms, being responsible for raising our kids right, or what responsibility we have for our friends, neighbors, and the community – I think it is a starting point for each of us to decide how responsible we feel for preventing gun violence. And what role we can play in reducing gun violence in Milwaukee.
Thoughts, Questions, Comments, Suggestions, Your “Two Cents” ….
As always I’d love to hear what you think. Please feel free to leave comments. Please do not use profanity or disparaging language. Keep comments civil. Thanks.