State Representative Janel Brandtjen calls for funding cuts to Milwaukee until policies change
I will be openly advocating for funding cuts to Milwaukee unless steps are taken to dramatically cut crime in Milwaukee.
Last week homeowners in Washington County were held hostage in their homes by the actions of 5 young criminals from Milwaukee. All night long the Milwaukee Police, SWAT teams and law enforcement from Washington County combed the darkness for 5 youths with guns. Families were forced to unlock their gun cabinets and instruct their loved ones to shoot to kill.
The violence and the crime that has plagued Milwaukee for decades has now begun to spill over into Milwaukee’s suburbs. I lay the responsibility for this growing and out of control problem at the door of the Mayor’s office. Mayor Barrett may not care about the safety of his family but I certainly do care about mine.
Mayor Barrett, the people of southeast Wisconsin will not sit by and watch your administration destroy the entire region with failed liberal policies and a 10 second “Tommy Tough Talk” sound bite. If you do not fill the hundreds of vacant police officer positions, apprehend and arrest car thieves, demand prison for repeat criminals and start standing up to the judges who let repeat offenders off easy you will be in my opinion “assisting and enabling” the very criminals who are responsible for the record number of shootings, car jacking’s and murders.
I will be openly advocating for funding cuts to Milwaukee unless steps are taken to dramatically cut crime in Milwaukee. I will no longer sit by while you destroy Milwaukee and its flourishing suburbs. I cannot justify financing your failed policies in Milwaukee until you take public safety seriously.
State Representative Janel Brandtjen.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
Maybe Milwaukee will retaliate & start offering free housing vouchers for convicted juveniles & their families… of course the vouchers would only be good in Janel Brandtjen’s district.
I like the way you think, Tim. Dimwits from the 262 like Brandtjen think they can live in a Bubble where the consequences of their anti-Milwaukee mentality doesn’t affect them, and they can use the city’s amenities whenever they want, without paying for them.
Let’s relocate some of these troubled, economically disadvantaged youth to a more peaceful place wuth better opportunity. Like Menomonee Falls. Problem solved, right Janel?
What a worthless, toxic piece of trash…..Waste Management wouldn’t even remove her….
The anit-Milwaukee platform needs to stop especially in SE WI. Wake up idots! MKE is an economic engine and this person wants to reduce funding? And Washington County residents elected her to make decisions on their behalf?
I love it when I call someone an idiot but then I go on to spell the word idiot wrong……Needed more coffee
And cutting funds will help exactly how? Another brainless solution by someone who hasn’t thought out the problem. Hint Janel: if anything your “solution” would exacerbate the problem.
Why didn’t we think of that first? Thank you for bringing your enlightened ideas to our ignorant politicians. Less money should reduce crime and bring safety to Milwaukee and your district as well.
Picking on Milwaukee is fun! Finding solutions and solving problems is for adults.
Obviously this is a frustrated representative who is hearing from frustrated constituents. She also, judging by her demands, doesn’t realize that arrests and apprehensions are up quite a bit. That is especially true for juveniles. Really, she is advocating for the same things Chief Flynn did at the Public Safety committee meeting yesterday. Trouble is, isn’t prosecuting criminals a county thing?
Either way, I don’t think she believes cutting funding will cut crime… she’s trying to use her influence (state money) to get the city to make changes. It’s misguided and I hate when big government interfere’s in the details of smaller government affairs (be it fed, state, etc). I don’t say all that to give her a pass but to bring up their point of view that they believe Milwaukee (city or apparently county if they are talking county courts) isn’t doing enough to stem the problems.
I see AG, she means well but just can’t come up with anything constructive? You are GOP apologist #1… well, at least behind WISCONDIG aka Bob Dohnal.
IDK, rather than coming up with an elaborate excuse, maybe when someone says something ignorant & couterproductive… they’re just doing their absolute best & still found wanting.
Look at a map of her district. She seems to represent part of the NW side of the City of Milwaukee (between Hampton and Good Hope). She advocates punishing (cutting funding) her own constituents.
Those Milwaukee residents effectively have no voice in the Assembly since they were gerrymandered into a suburban (or, in parts, almost rural) district.
The map of her district (with its extraordinarily jagged boundary in Sussex) should be Exhibit 1 for drawing compact, contiguous, easily comprehendible, legislative districts.
ftp://ftp.legis.wisconsin.gov/gis/Website/Assembly%20Maps/ASM_22_Poster_Map.pdf
Tom- I think she represents those people just fine. This is the section that Sheriff Clark lives in and others who need to live in the city but really hate it.
That’s one way to make a name for yourself. You now move to the front of the line of people who really need to meet an ironic end by getting run over by our new streetcar crossing the street. Of course, you’re probably too scared to come into our “city by a lake” so feel free to drop dead by any other method.
Judging from the amount of activity I hear at outdoor gun ranges in Washington, Ozaukee and Waukesha counties, I think the carjackers who wish to stray or run farther afield have the most to fear.
Many residents here bank sufficient trigger time with their firearms, unlike gangbangers in the city who ‘spray and pray’ and are mostly a threat to innocent bystanders.
Tim, I’m not apologizing for her, I think it’s an awful tactic to threaten budget cuts to force things to happen. But it helps to understand another persons perspective when you disagree with them rather than just name call and say how stupid what they do is.
That being said, here is what she thinks Milwaukee should do: fill the hundreds of vacant police officer positions, apprehend and arrest car thieves, demand prison for repeat criminals and start standing up to the judges who let repeat offenders off easy you will be in my opinion “assisting and enabling” the very criminals who are responsible for the record number of shootings, car jacking’s and murders.
Oh nice, we’ve moved past name calling and on to quasi death threats or suggestions of violence.
How do we stand up to the judges that just let the jackers go?
I want more police, you want more police, we all want more police… how can the city pay for it now, let alone without funding cuts by Janel & the rest of the GOP?
If you can’t admit those ideas to just “add more police” are just bs talking points & won’t find a funding solution, you’re just an apologist. Have pride in what you are!
Tim, you’re so constructive.
Casey, that’s a good question! Like I said earlier, I think Flynn has been doing that lately… but I’m not sure what good it’s doing yet.
Regarding more police, I’m willing to add a bit to my property tax bill. I’ve had several cases of needing the police where it took them hours to arrive if ever. Although I’m sure there are far more creative options as well.
More cops and prisons only treats the symptoms. The disease needs to be addressed too: better education, better economy, more jobs, etc, so people don’t feel the need to steal or deal drugs to get by in life.
The irony, of course, Homer, is that these same people’s parents and grandparents were probably jumping up and down with glee when their employers left the city and they were able to move to the nice, quaint suburbs without any of those pesky minorities. The apples never fall far from the trees.
I get Flynn has been heeing and hawing but what can we do as a populace do? March? Would probably be for first in our history: a march to lock up kids? I don’t see people getting behind that even though most probably support the idea.
Not that that is the only thing we can do but that’s all that is coming to my simple mind.
AG, ok… let’s increase the amount of police by 25% & the police budget by 25%. Now, where are you going to find $69,000,000 each year to pay for it?
Let’s see, the city property tax brings in ~108,000,000 so… you want to increase property taxes 63%, is that right?
We wouldn’t have to increase the police if there weren’t so many criminals getting released after their court date. We need these judges to start taking these folks out of society for a time.
AG you always say that people being needlessly or antagonistically divisive drives you nuts. You lament those who play up the urban versus suburban divide. What she is doing represents that at its very worst. Her comments are inflammatory and deplorable. It is disappointing (not to mention hypocritical of you) to see you make excuses for her. You would not be nearly as understanding of someone with a D after their name.
Tim, I don’t think it needs to be increased by 25%. You can use queue theory to find that a small incremental addition to capacity has exponential effects on output/performance.
Homer Jay, I completely agree. The only final answer is a holistic approach that encompasses all aspects of society. Harsher punishments aren’t the answer to solve the problem, but not punishing crime CAN have the opposite effect of allowing/encouraging an increase in crime.
Casey, you once again have me stumped. I wish I knew how we could get them to actually enforce laws. There does seem to be a race element to prosecutions… we need to make sure laws are applied evenly, but that might not mean numbers of criminals per race. If a white/brown/black person in Milwaukee commits a crime, they should be held accountable no matter what. If we worry too much about incarceration rates based on race though and that causes the authorities to curtail punishments in the wrong way, we could have issues.
Vincent, despite what the reactions to my post may lead some to believe, I do not agree with rep Bradtjen’s PR and agree this is exactly the type of divisional attitude that I detest. The reason for my comment was because rarely do people on UM take the time to try and understand the other sides point of view (aka, the right). I don’t seem to have to try to point out the lefts point of view very often since most people here tend to hold that view.
I think the idea of cutting funding as a response to crime is ridiculous.
A little less ridicuous, but still offensive, is a an elected official with bad grammar. “Carjacking’s”!?!?
Wow, who voted for you?! Ha.
AG, what’s the increase you’re looking for? I don’t believe queue theory is relevant here but you’re welcome to show examples that refute. I see the police department budget as necessarily manpower driven, you pay more cops to lock up more bad guys and you’re driving your cost centers wild.
Anyway, prove you’re serious and not just excusing your rhetoric because the supposed “liberals” on this site aren’t worldly enough. I still doubt you know a meaning of that word beyond a simple pejorative, otherwise you’d know many here skew middle of the road.
Tim, if you don’t know what queue theory is you don’t need to try to refute it. Wait times is literally exactly what queue theory is all about. When you’re waiting in line for cops to respond to a call, you are in a queue. Not that I’m here to give you a capacity planning lesson, but in queue theory, if demand is only a few percentages higher than capacity you will still have an exponential growth in wait times.
Do you think we have enough cops to service our city properly?
Since you think I’m only talking rhetoric, the only thing being proven here is your unwillingness to understand others perspectives.
White people were victims. That is a deal breaker.
Considering Milwaukee relies on shared revenue to fund cops, cutting funding would in fact require it to have less cops. Shared revenue to every municipality has been falling for YEARS.The budget can’t support more cuts.
I love how state legislators/Bob Donovan types call for changes (more cops, tougher sentences) while at the same time refusing to increase funding to support such policies. If they spent 5 minutes looking at the city budget, they’d realize that it’s a miracle that the city isn’t in worse shape.
If you actually care about crime prevention and want more cops, give the city the money to hire more cops. It’s that simple. The city is already making due with less!
Sam- Milwaukee County contributes more in taxes than what we receive. By cutting funding it would only put us more in the hole.