Jay Weber Show transcript: 6:08 7-7-20
So-half way thru 2020- the Milwaukee homicide rate is the highest it’s been since the early 1990s.
For those who don’t know-that was a time in which this city was seeing its absolute worst crime and homicide rates.
This was before Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich got together on a bill to get tough on crime- that turned out to be a great help to the country.
It also encouraged ‘truth in sentencing laws’ in many of the states-which further reduced crime rates.
It was one of President Bill Clinton’s successes-and true legacies- because he cooperated with republicans to get it done and do something-necessary….stone-cold- necessary -for the American people.
Today-of course- Bill Clinton is vilified for it- by his own party members and their new socialist progressive activists.His own party-hates-Bill Clinton...because he did something that solved the worst crime problem of the modern era.
It worked and they malign it now and work to reduce and toss out sentences and open the prison doors. This movement, coupled by these anti-police...anti-prisons efforts...have led to a new spike in crime in most major and medium sized cities across the country.
The j/s has a story specific to Milwaukee...and it’s a good story...but they do miss a-very-important qualifier...if you are going to compare today’s murder rate to those of Milwaukee in the 1990s.
This is too big to ignore-and it helps illustrate what sort of serious problems we are facing now.
Today- folks-for as high as the homicide rates were in Milwaukee in the early 90s...the MPD nearly -always-caught the murderer.
In the early 90s...the MPD had a very effective homicide division- that cleared 90 percent of all murders in Milwaukee.
This was an astonishing number-and one that other big city mayors and police chiefs marveled at:Milwaukee detectives nearly -always-got their man...and nearly always-got a murderer off the street.
Now? Today?
The MPD’s homicide clearance rate is a pathetic fifteen percentand I don’t need to tell you what that means...but I will: it means that nearly 9 in 10 murderers in Milwaukee...go free.Aren’t caught.Are still on the streets....
And that is too important a fact to ignore. I expected to find it in the j/s story...and didn’t.
That stat- exposes- why today’s high homicide rate...is really...far worse...than even those high murder rates of the early 90s.
Back then- at least the MPD was getting the murderers off the streets
This is no time to be a cop or sheriff’s deputy of course morale is low.
Officers are getting hit from both sides: the public doesn’t seem to support and appreciate them- (even though we do) and they aren’t getting the public support from their own chiefs, police commissions, and mayors that they should.
These officers aren’t even confident that city leaders will have their back...if they are involved in a controversial stop. Or shooting.
And this is before the asinine effort to defund or abolish the departments themselves.I don’t know how seriously the Milwaukee city council is talking about slashing the Milwaukee PD’s budget-but it should have been boosted every year under Barrett...notcut.
As Ald. Bob Donovan famously reminded us twice a year- over the last decade: the MPD has been running 200 officers-low- for years. We’ve needed hundreds more officers -not fewer.
Its’ the same all across the country...as big city mayors buy into this ‘slash the budget’ effort.
Source credit jsonline.com: Halfway through 2020, Milwaukee homicide rate is highest it's been since the early 1990s
photo credit: Fox 6 Now