People were arrested when mobs broke out at the opening night of the Wisconsin State Fair. Eighteen people were injured, including seven police officers, and just yesterday an investigation of the violent incidents led to the arrest of a 16-year-old African-American who told investigators he targeted whites, according to the police.
The teen told Milwaukee police that he and the other Black teens beat up white people because they were "easy targets." He went on to reveal that he was "going along with the crowd" in robberies that occurred last Thursday. He has since been booked on suspicion of attempted robbery and robbery, and police are recommending that he face additional penalties for the flash-mob hate crimes.
Recently, across the country another violent flash-mob attack broke out in Mississippi. A horrific surveillance video surfaced this week of Deryl Dedmon, 18, and several of his white friends beating James Anderson, a Black auto worker, and then driving over his body. Those acts were also described as being motivated by race and classified as a hate crime.
Milwaukee police, however, aren’t the only officials concerned with the state fair mobs’ behavior that mirrored that of the teens in Mississippi. City officials are also speaking out, but in a very condescending tone against Black youth in general.
On Tuesday, in response to the attacks, two elected officials from the City of Milwaukee issued a news release saying that the attacks have “much to do with a deteriorating African-American culture in our city.”
In the document, Ald. Bob Donovan and Ald. Joe Dudzik publically blame the acts on “no positive male involvement in the lives of African-American children,” “single-parent homes where children aren’t properly supervised,” the near 50 percent unemployment rate for African-American males in the city, a failing public school system, outdated juvenile justice system, and highest teen pregnancy rates in the Black community.
The two conclude by saying, “Our hearts go out to the older generation of African-Americans in this city who remember when their community had one of the highest marriage rates in the city. Sadly, many of these same residents are now scared of their own children and grandchildren.... We believe that change must come from within the African-American community, where new seeds must be sown.
There is no excuse for these recent group acts of violence occurring in Milwaukee and many communities across the nation.
But in our haste to condemn the actions of a finite group, we have to be careful not to imply that such actions on the part of a few are representative of the values and virtue of an entire community. It is inappropriate and irresponsible to paint such an erroneous picture because sometimes perception is allowed to become reality. We should operate from facts and not speculation.
For example, of the nine people in custody for involvement in the BP incident, eight were young people turned in to police by their parents, were also from mostly working class households, generally doing well in school, and none of the juveniles had a prior criminal record. As more information comes forward the public will see that these are not the juvenile delinquents many automatically assumed they were. Additionally, reports now are that of the 24 people arrested in the State Fair incident, seven were juveniles.
If you were to take the largest estimated numbers of young people involved with these incidents (50 for the Riverwest incidents and 400 for the State Fair incident, and given that Milwaukee has more than 83,000 African Americans under 18 years of age), the reality is that those involved in the incidents make up far fewer than 1 percent of kids in our community. So maybe — just maybe — we need to concentrate more of our energy, time, and attention on the majority of kids who are not involved with these isolated incidents who are doing positive things in our community and who are not involved in these group acts of violence.
Make no mistake — the group violence phenomenon is very serious and we need to address it together as a city — but we should let no one point fingers, and we should let no one distract us from our goal of finding the truth as to why and how these incidents occur.
While yes there are countless things we need to work on in our community, including joblessness, health disparities, family structure, personal accountability, and many others, we can not allow our children as a whole to be judged or characterized by the actions of a few. And with each of these incidents there is enough blame to go around: i.e. State Fair could have had greater crowd control measures in place, MPD could have slotted more officers at public spaces where people gather to watch the fireworks, governmental entities could fund more youth activities, parents could be stricter, kids could be more personally responsible, etc. But at the end of the day, most of our children are good, lawabiding citizens and are not deserving of the erroneous broad brush depiction they are now receiving.
A few of my colleagues have suggested that these incidents are a result of the deterioration of the African American culture in the City of Milwaukee and illustrate deeper issues that only the African American community can change.
They could not be more wrong, and their “concern” is highly disingenuous!
Their statements diminish the credibility of City government, and distract the entire community from focusing on the real work and the hard work of preventive and proactive solutions that work in other communities but never seem to get a fair hearing in our city.
Shame on both of these Aldermen for spouting such divisive and offensive rhetoric that would more appropriately be uttered in this city’s distant past than its present. Milwaukee is better than that, and Milwaukee deserves better than that from leaders elected to help guide the city and its residents into a brighter future.
As Milwaukeeans, not one of us wants to see violence of any kind happen in our city. Now is the time for us to come together to find out what is causing some of our young people to act out together in violent ways; it is not the time to point fingers and place blame. It is the responsibility of us all to give back to the community that helps to make us who we are.
The teen told Milwaukee police that he and the other Black teens beat up white people because they were "easy targets." He went on to reveal that he was "going along with the crowd" in robberies that occurred last Thursday. He has since been booked on suspicion of attempted robbery and robbery, and police are recommending that he face additional penalties for the flash-mob hate crimes.
Recently, across the country another violent flash-mob attack broke out in Mississippi. A horrific surveillance video surfaced this week of Deryl Dedmon, 18, and several of his white friends beating James Anderson, a Black auto worker, and then driving over his body. Those acts were also described as being motivated by race and classified as a hate crime.
Milwaukee police, however, aren’t the only officials concerned with the state fair mobs’ behavior that mirrored that of the teens in Mississippi. City officials are also speaking out, but in a very condescending tone against Black youth in general.
On Tuesday, in response to the attacks, two elected officials from the City of Milwaukee issued a news release saying that the attacks have “much to do with a deteriorating African-American culture in our city.”
In the document, Ald. Bob Donovan and Ald. Joe Dudzik publically blame the acts on “no positive male involvement in the lives of African-American children,” “single-parent homes where children aren’t properly supervised,” the near 50 percent unemployment rate for African-American males in the city, a failing public school system, outdated juvenile justice system, and highest teen pregnancy rates in the Black community.
The two conclude by saying, “Our hearts go out to the older generation of African-Americans in this city who remember when their community had one of the highest marriage rates in the city. Sadly, many of these same residents are now scared of their own children and grandchildren.... We believe that change must come from within the African-American community, where new seeds must be sown.
There is no excuse for these recent group acts of violence occurring in Milwaukee and many communities across the nation.
But in our haste to condemn the actions of a finite group, we have to be careful not to imply that such actions on the part of a few are representative of the values and virtue of an entire community. It is inappropriate and irresponsible to paint such an erroneous picture because sometimes perception is allowed to become reality. We should operate from facts and not speculation.
For example, of the nine people in custody for involvement in the BP incident, eight were young people turned in to police by their parents, were also from mostly working class households, generally doing well in school, and none of the juveniles had a prior criminal record. As more information comes forward the public will see that these are not the juvenile delinquents many automatically assumed they were. Additionally, reports now are that of the 24 people arrested in the State Fair incident, seven were juveniles.
If you were to take the largest estimated numbers of young people involved with these incidents (50 for the Riverwest incidents and 400 for the State Fair incident, and given that Milwaukee has more than 83,000 African Americans under 18 years of age), the reality is that those involved in the incidents make up far fewer than 1 percent of kids in our community. So maybe — just maybe — we need to concentrate more of our energy, time, and attention on the majority of kids who are not involved with these isolated incidents who are doing positive things in our community and who are not involved in these group acts of violence.
Make no mistake — the group violence phenomenon is very serious and we need to address it together as a city — but we should let no one point fingers, and we should let no one distract us from our goal of finding the truth as to why and how these incidents occur.
While yes there are countless things we need to work on in our community, including joblessness, health disparities, family structure, personal accountability, and many others, we can not allow our children as a whole to be judged or characterized by the actions of a few. And with each of these incidents there is enough blame to go around: i.e. State Fair could have had greater crowd control measures in place, MPD could have slotted more officers at public spaces where people gather to watch the fireworks, governmental entities could fund more youth activities, parents could be stricter, kids could be more personally responsible, etc. But at the end of the day, most of our children are good, lawabiding citizens and are not deserving of the erroneous broad brush depiction they are now receiving.
A few of my colleagues have suggested that these incidents are a result of the deterioration of the African American culture in the City of Milwaukee and illustrate deeper issues that only the African American community can change.
They could not be more wrong, and their “concern” is highly disingenuous!
Their statements diminish the credibility of City government, and distract the entire community from focusing on the real work and the hard work of preventive and proactive solutions that work in other communities but never seem to get a fair hearing in our city.
Shame on both of these Aldermen for spouting such divisive and offensive rhetoric that would more appropriately be uttered in this city’s distant past than its present. Milwaukee is better than that, and Milwaukee deserves better than that from leaders elected to help guide the city and its residents into a brighter future.
As Milwaukeeans, not one of us wants to see violence of any kind happen in our city. Now is the time for us to come together to find out what is causing some of our young people to act out together in violent ways; it is not the time to point fingers and place blame. It is the responsibility of us all to give back to the community that helps to make us who we are.
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