Milwaukee has seen more violence and unrest than usual over the last few weeks. August was the city's deadliest month in a quarter century with 24 homicides. And over one weekend, protesters threw rocks at police, and torched businesses, angry about a fatal police shooting. Yet many people are giving less than rave reviews to a new proposal to boost public safety.
Critics say the plan is out of touch with what the community needs. And City Hall may hear those criticisms again on Thursday.
Back in June, Milwaukee Ald. Bob Donovan started convening his Public Safety Committee for a series of special meetings. His goal was to look for ways to reduce crime, at a time when car thefts and carjackings were making headlines.
"We indeed are not satisfied with the level of safety within Milwaukee," Donovan said.
Over the course of seven meetings, Donovan invited people connected to the criminal justice system to appear before the panel. In late August, the Common Council released the panel's recommendations. By that time community concerns about crime and policing had shifted, in light of a fatal police shooting and unrest in the Sherman Park neighborhood.
The 30-page plan calls for the city to hire at least 200 more police officers. It also advocates for the creation of a boot camp program for young offenders. And it suggests keeping some incarcerated longer, instead of releasing them on electronic monitoring. Donovan calls it a solid proposal.
"What we have there is a compilation of what we heard at committees," Donovan says.
Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton said the plan was a starting point, and predicted not everyone would approve of it. He was right. Some 20 organizations fired off a letter to Council members, expressing concerns about the plan's heavy focus on policing.
"When we are spending more on prisons than we are on our educational system here, it's time to look for a different solution," says NAACP President Fred Royal, who signed the letter. He suggests the city take a different tack to reduce crime: "We actually look at the root causes and address them systemically."
Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the local ACLU also signed the letter.
"The ACLU believes the process was never designed to come up with a plan that would encompass all that the community has to offer. The public never got a chance to testify," Ahmuty says.
The Common Council is promising to hold two public hearings on the proposal. Yet some critics worry that City Hall will ignore their input. So they marched into a Common Council meeting last week, demanding an audience. In an unusual move, the Council allowed one person to speak on the protesters' behalf. Markasa Tucker is with a group called UBLAC, which is short for Uplifting Black Liberation and Community.
"I know that you guys said you're going to have this community listening session. Well, we decided not to wait for you guys. If we keep waiting for you guys, we'll get this public safety plan, possibly, you know, we don't know," Tucker said.
Tucker says instead of putting more officers on the street, she wants the city to invest in education and job creation. She promised protesters will keep showing up at City Hall, including for Thursday's Public Safety Committee meeting, to make their views known. Meanwhile, Ald. MileleCoggs tried to put the group at ease, stressing the proposal is a work in progress.
"(The plan) has never been voted on, is not something that the Council legally or any legislatively way has ever endorsed, to this point," Coggs said.
Ald. Bob Donovan, whose Public Safety Committee gave birth to the plan, shrugs off the criticism. He promises the Common Council later will release proposals to address other community concerns, such as education and jobs.
