A group of state legislators, county supervisors and aldermen would seem
to be an unlikely crime-fighting unit, but the recent quadruple
homicides in the Metcalfe Park area forced the Milwaukee Unity Caucus
to canvass the neighborhood searching for answers.
The caucus held a press conference at City Hall to urge residents to call the police—anonymously— and offer tips. Those in attendance included state Sen. Spencer Coggs, state Sen. Lena Taylor, state Rep. Barbara Toles, state Rep. Pedro Colon, state Rep. Tamara Grigsby, Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway, County Supervisor Elizabeth Coggs-Jones, Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines, Alderman Willie Wade, Alderman Ashanti Hamilton, Alderman Nik Kovac, Milwaukee Urban League President Ralph Hollman and others.
“I think the fear is extremely real,” said Alderman Hamilton, who canvassed the neighborhood. “Because people retaliate all the time. Sometimes they get rocks thrown through windows, cars scratched up, graffiti on the house. A lot of times when you hear gunshots, those are not just random gunshots in the neighborhood. People have the feeling that a lot of the time they were intended to send a message to them about their cooperation or affiliation with the authorities.”
Unity Caucus members offered to take witnesses’ tips at their offices, act as liaisons between residents and the police, and arrange meetings at neutral locations so that those offering information wouldn’t appear to be cooperating with the police and risk retaliation. They also heard residents’ concerns about other issues affecting the area. “You have to listen to what’s going on in people’s lives,” Rep. Toles said.
Power in Unity
Alderman
Wade, chair of the Unity Caucus, said that while the homicide effort
seems to be a bit unusual for the caucus—which typically meets monthly
at the NAACP offices—members are focused on issues that require
attention at all levels government.
“These are the usual issues that plague our city,” Wade said. “Crime, unemployment, jobs, the tax base, health services, senior services, children’s issues, infrastructure issues.”
Hamilton
said that the city’s elected officials and community organizations must
work cooperatively to ensure that programs make sense and are
implemented wisely.
“The state may have an initiative to
create jobs with no consultation with other levels of government,”
Hamilton said. “And then we, on the local level, try to advance an
agenda or idea that would help, but have to create the climate that
will make it happen.”
Wade said transportation will be a major focus of Unity
Caucus efforts, since city and county officials know the community’s
needs well, but that the funding will have to come from the state and
federal governments.
“Without the city of Milwaukee
getting adequate investment for our transportation system, it’s going
to affect us economically in the future,” Wade said. Sen. Taylor, who
launched the Unity Caucus early in her legislative career “because
there’s power in unity,” said she’d like to create offices that pool
together resources of all levels of government, so that residents don’t
have to call various offices to try to find the correct government
official to address a problem.
“A one-stop shop or a common
place could be created so that people don’t have go all around trying
to figure out which elected official can handle a specific concern,”
Taylor said.
If you have information about the July 4 shootings,
you can contact a member of the Unity Caucus or make an anonymous tip
at 935-7360.
What’s your take? Write: editor@shepex.com or comment on this story online at www.expressmilwaukee.com
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