Police in West Allis, Wis., say some attacks by black teenagers on white people outside the gates of the Wisconsin State Fair on Aug. 4 were racially motivated and should be prosecuted as hate crimes.
One African-American teenager arrested Wednesday confirmed witness statements suggesting that the large group of black teens, who had originally fought among themselves, specifically targeted white people as they spilled out of the large fairgrounds on the outskirts of Milwaukee at closing time. According to the West Allis Police, he said he personally picked out white people because they were "easy targets." Eleven people were hurt.
The incident sparked a crackdown by Gov. Scott Walker (R) and widespread condemnation of the acts by leaders in Milwaukee's black community. After the incident, Milwaukee joined Chicago and Philadelphia in efforts to combat a spate of recent attacks by groups of primarily African-American teens against strangers who are white.
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the near 50 percent unemployment rate for African-American males in the city, a failing public school system, outdated juvenile justice system, and highest teen pregnancy rates in the Black community.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.”
Donovan and Dudzik seek to blame the African-American community as a whole for the violent attacks; however, as seen in Mississippi, it’s not just a small group of Black youth who are guilty of hate crimes. Other races are as well. In an interracial world, if we are trying to eliminate hate crimes, whether in the Midwest or South, it will take a village of all races to help change the attitudes of racial acceptance for years to come.
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