Empower Wisconsin | June 18, 2020.

By M.D. Kittle

MADISON — On Monday and Tuesday alone, Milwaukee police investigated at least five separate shooting incidents that left three people dead and two others injured.

Milwaukee County homicides are up more than 70 percent for the year, rising 114 percent last month alone. Non-fatal shootings are up sharply, too.

Despite the uptick in violence, Milwaukee leaders have called for cutting the Milwaukee Police Department by 10 percent. That would amount to a reduction of about 180 officers. Department officials think there’s enough blood lust for blue lives that the figure could be closer to 20 percent — or 375 officers.

The questions quickly come up. If homicides, and violent crime in general, are rapidly rising now in Milwaukee, what would happen to public safety if the city’s police force lost 200, 300 or more officers?

But such questions don’t seem to matter to many in the Black Lives Matter movement that is driving a national Defund The Police campaign.

’This is just the beginning’ 

In the wake of the death of George Floyd, a middle-aged black man, at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, several U.S. cities led by liberals have pledged to defund their police departments, or at least make drastic budget cuts to them.

Cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and New York have vowed to “divest from police.”

Minneapolis is leading the insane parade, with its common council insisting that it will disband the police department. Minneapolis’ mayor said he would not support such a move, but the radical left council has a veto-proof majority.

The Baltimore Council this week voted to eliminate about $22 million in police spending for the upcoming fiscal year — a sign of things to come, City Council President Brandon Scott told the Baltimore Sun. 

“I am proud to lead a City Council that took the first step to responsibly reduce Baltimore’s budget dependence on policing,” said Scott, who is the Democratic nominee for mayor. “This is just the beginning, and I intend to continue leading this process to redirect our public dollars and reimagine public safety in Baltimore.”

Baltimore dubiously boasts one of the highest homicide rates in the nation. In 2019, the city recorded 348 murders. Two-thirds of those cases have not been cleared.

The Democrat (socialists)-led cities looking to nix their police departments talk about “redistributing” the taxpayer money to fund Sunday recreation centers and hiring an army of social workers to serve troubled neighborhoods.

’Terrible idea’  

Closer to home, Madison Common Council members are divided on the question of defunding the police.

“We’ve spent so long funding police and we are still in a place where we haven’t been able to fix accountability, we haven’t been able to stop them from policing black and brown bodies at a disproportionate rate. We need to go a different route,” District 8 council member Max Prestigiacomo told Channel 3000. 

Prestigiacomo, too, said he’d like to “reinvest” Madison taxpayer money into affordable housing, education, health care, violence prevention programs and social services. Madison is looking to ban crowd control weapons such as rubber bullets and tear gas used in the recent riots and looting that ripped up the city’s downtown.

District 9 alderman Paul Skidmore, who has been one of the few vocal defenders of law enforcement on the far left council, told the TV station that defunding police is a terrible idea.

“It’s premature. We don’t know what it’s going to look like. We do know what it looks like in Mexico where they’ve defunded the police and it’s been replaced with gangs, thugs and militia, which is a terrible idea,” he said.

In Milwaukee, where liberal leaders often talk out of two sides of their mouths, Mayor Tom Barrett is the quintessential mealy-mouthed executive. In a recent interview with WUWM, the Democrat didn’t go directly to the defund police question. He said he expected budget cuts for 2021, but those reductions would hit every part of the city spending plan.

“Well, I think that what we’re seeing right now is a fundamental shift in our society as to how we view the relationship between the community and our police departments. And I think it’s very, very important to listen to,” Barrett said.

The radical left activists promoting eliminating or vastly diminishing law enforcement don’t care if Barrett listens. They’re going to try to force changes, public safety and reality be damned. In America’s liberal cities, these extremists are in charge of the government. And here’s something the left doesn’t like to talk about: Liberals have been in charge of these cities — where the vast majority of violent crime, unemployment, black and hispanic poverty, segregation, and police brutality cases have taken place  — for decades.

State Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) spent much of his professional life in law enforcement. He offered a warning to Milwaukee and other cities flirting with defunding police departments.

“I can tell you, as soon as you pull officers out of those areas, it will be taken over by the gang-bangers and everybody else, and the crime rate is going to increase multiple fold,” Wanggaard told Fox6 News. “We have seen this in the past.”

Who will answer the call? 

Anne E. Schwartz, a law enforcement consultant who served for several years as director of communications for the Milwaukee Police Department, this week posted on her Facebook page the calls for service for June 14. The volume is staggering. The violent incidents are many. She asks in her post, who will answer the call if Milwaukee defunds or significantly cuts its police force?

Who will answer the call?💙

Because I do not think people really know what happens in Milwaukee on a daily basis.

Milwaukee Police Dispatched Calls for Service (Just a few) June 14th 12:00 AM to 11:59 PM:

BATTERY CUTTING

4:05 pm 1521 W SCOTT ST

.

OVERDOSE

2:20 pm 6913 W CARMEN AV,MKE

4:36 pm N 76TH ST / W PALMETTO AV

4:47 pm 5638 N 68TH ST

6:09 pm 1506 N 28TH ST

.

ROBBERY

3:37 am S SUPERIOR ST / E RUSSELL AV

9:47 am 2700 W CAPITOL DR

12:29 pm 2504 W WELLS ST

5:39 pm 3306 W WELLS ST

7:25 pm N 51ST BL / W CAPITOL DR

8:36 pm 2950 S CHASE AV

11:16 pm W JUNEAU AV / N 20TH ST

.

ROBBERY ARMED

5:02 am 812 S LAYTON BL

1:00 pm 1727 W LINCOLN AV

4:56 pm 3078 N 40TH ST

.

SHOTS FIRED

12:03 am 8842 N 95TH ST

12:16 am N 87TH ST / W MELVINA ST

12:19 am N 92ND ST / W CAPITOL DR

12:38 am 2580 S 34TH ST

12:59 am N 37TH ST / W VILLARD AV

1:19 am N 91ST ST / W DENVER AV

1:24 am 336 N MILWAUKEE ST

1:55 am N BUFFUM ST / E MEINECKE AV

2:23 am N 44TH ST / W CHAMBERS ST

2:28 am S 14TH ST / W ARTHUR AV

2:53 am 4458 N 40TH ST

3:07 am 5301 N TEUTONIA AV

3:46 am N TEUTONIA AV / W VILLARD AV

10:11 am N 33RD ST / W THURSTON AV

10:18 am N 56TH ST / W THURSTON AV

12:07 pm N 36TH ST / W ROHR AV

1:32 pm N BOOTH ST / E CHAMBERS ST

2:44 pm 4858 N 61ST ST

3:33 pm 5753 N 95TH ST

5:24 pm 4618 N 24TH PL

7:03 pm N 84TH ST / W FIEBRANTZ AV

7:14 pm N 54TH BL / W VIENNA AV

7:15 pm N 29TH ST / W CARMEN AV

8:54 pm 1138 N 21ST ST

9:01 pm N 15TH ST / W JUNEAU AV

9:03 pm 2562 N BOOTH ST

9:03 pm N 1ST ST / E KEEFE AV

9:13 pm 6115 S 3RD ST

9:25 pm 3300 N 3RD ST

9:29 pm N 40TH ST / W FOND DU LAC AV

9:47 pm 4603 N 29TH ST

9:48 pm 1800-BLK W VINE ST

9:53 pm N 49TH ST / W CENTER ST

9:57 pm 10418 W LAWN AV

9:59 pm N 2ND ST / W KEEFE AV

10:15 pm W FOND DU LAC AV / N 38TH ST

10:15 pm N 27TH ST / W TOWNSEND ST

10:22 pm N 20TH ST / W CONGRESS

10:35 pm 2010 W WALNUT ST

10:41 pm 2007 N 47TH ST

11:02 pm S 12TH ST / W WALKER ST

11:07 pm N 45TH ST / W CENTER ST

11:09 pm 2700-BLK N 41ST ST

11:09 pm N 68TH ST / W CONGRESS ST

11:18 pm 4716 N 36TH ST

.

SHOTSPOTTER

12:01 am 3071 N 22ND ST

12:02 am 1933 S 11TH ST

12:27 am 820 W LINCOLN AV

12:41 am 2501 W HADLEY ST

12:47 am 3570 N TEUTONIA AV

12:48 am 2427 N TEUTONIA AV

1:01 am 2632 N 45TH ST

1:08 am 4500 N 26TH ST

1:19 am 3049 N 29TH ST

1:53 am 2753 N 10TH ST

2:00 am 1930 W NASH ST

2:03 am 2259 S 19TH ST

2:14 am 2169 S 13TH ST

2:18 am 3001 N 41ST ST

2:25 am 4128 W BURLEIGH ST

2:31 am 1817 W LINCOLN AV

2:35 am 2405 W FOREST HOME AV

2:38 am 2327 S 17TH ST

2:42 am 3436 N 51ST BL

2:49 am 1412 W GREENFIELD AV

2:50 am 1517 S 21ST ST

2:54 am 3463 N 13TH ST

2:58 am 3332 N 15TH ST

3:02 am 2483 S 15TH ST

3:04 am 3422 N 15TH ST

3:06 am 3279 N 14TH ST

3:08 am 3452 N 16TH ST

3:17 am 2976 N 27TH ST

3:28 am 2729 N 18TH ST

3:50 am 3232 N 30TH ST

4:27 am 1932 W CLARKE ST

5:02 am 4604 N 29TH ST

12:46 pm 1134 N 33RD ST

2:20 pm 3100 W WALNUT ST

2:22 pm 4727 N TEUTONIA AV

2:28 pm 3220 W VLIET ST

3:01 pm 2408 N 32ND ST

3:04 pm 4448 N 44TH ST

3:51 pm 2622 N 30TH ST

4:05 pm 4502 N 27TH ST

4:33 pm 2028 N 31ST ST

5:06 pm 3409 N 37TH ST

5:22 pm 2520 N 35TH ST

5:53 pm 2250 N 33RD ST

5:57 pm 2436 W KEEFE AV

6:10 pm 3533 N 27TH ST

6:31 pm 2463 W HOPKINS ST

6:49 pm 2711 W WELLS ST

7:59 pm 2228 W CAPITOL DR

8:53 pm 720 N 35TH ST

10:01 pm 1568 S 14TH ST

10:07 pm 1442 N 34TH ST

10:10 pm 3363 N 37TH ST

10:20 pm 2102 W KEEFE AV

10:28 pm 1900 W CORNELL ST

10:32 pm 4125 N ELMHURST RD

10:55 pm 1926 S 20TH ST

11:14 pm 2043 W GRANT ST

11:20 pm 3019 N 23RD ST

11:36 pm 2360 N 52ND ST

11:37 pm 1601 W HOWARD AV

11:42 pm N 47TH ST / W HADLEY ST

.

SHOOTING

2:11 am Victim walk in at St Luke’s

4:44 am Victim wak in at Froedtert

2:20 pm N TEUTONIA AV / W HAMPTON AV

4:05 pm W CORNELL ST / N TEUTONIA AV

.

VEHICLE PURSUIT

3:13 pm 91ST /MILL

6:10 pm N 50TH ST / W CONGRESS ST