Milwaukee coalition rallies against Wisconsin SB 207
Khalil Coleman and Chance Zombor of Occupy the Hood-Milwaukee, surrounded by opponents to SB 207
October 24th marked the beginning of a self-declared ‘state of emergency’ for several community organizers and a local politician, reaffirmed during Saturday’s Occupy Milwaukee rally. Full details in the video below.
The “Ban the Box” resolution approved unanimously by the Milwaukee County Board on September 29th, 2011 would be overruled by the change in state policy, as the proposed bill would nullify any city or county legislation that attempts to delay the disclosure of felony convictions in order to prevent discriminatory hiring practices. Milwaukee County’s “Ban the Box” removes questions pertaining to criminal convictions from the initial job application for prospective County Employees and urges all public and private employers to do the same. Tenth District Supervisor, Eyon Biddle, introduced the resolution and has voiced what he believes to be the benefits of delaying felony disclosure.
“This legislation is a huge victory and an important first step in preventing recidivism and encouraging reforms to hiring practices,” he stated in a press release after approval by the Milwaukee County Board.
Darling introduced SB 207 last week in Madison
Senators Alberta Darling (R – River Hills), Mary Lazich (R – New Berlin), Rich Zipperer (R – Pewaukee), Terry Moulton (R – Chippewa Falls) and Pam Galloway (R – Wausau) introduced Senate Bill 207. None of the sponsoring senators lives within Milwaukee County.
Senator Darling introduced the bill at the public hearing in Madison. She stated that the legislation would help protect businesses that are crippled financially by discriminatory hiring lawsuits. Darling was reported to have left the hearing immediately after introducing the bill, choosing not to listen to the debate that followed.
The Madison hearing was well attended by residents of Milwaukee, who shared their opposition to the bill and requested that a public hearing be held in the city before the bill was voted on. Many organizers feel that Milwaukee residents, especially members of the African and Latin American populations, will be disproportionately affected.
Democratic State Senator Lena Taylor of Milwaukee requested the Committee on Labor, Public Safety and Urban Affairs hold an additional public hearing in Milwaukee. Despite the requests of Milwaukee residents, the motion failed 17-16.
The defeat of Senator Taylor’s motion in Madison has opponents of the bill in Milwaukee working quickly to raise awareness of SB 207. On Friday, October 28th , organizers held an emergency press conference at Urban Underground on Fond du Lac Avenue and Capital Drive in the heart of Milwaukee’s inner city.
At the conference, Occupy the Hood—Milwaukee organizers Khalil Coleman and Chance Zombor announced that a people’s hearing will be held in Milwaukee on Wednesday, November 2rd at 6:00 pm at the Almagamated Transit Workers Local 998 Union hall, 734 N. 26thStreet in Milwaukee.
Occupy the Hood is an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City and has spread nationwide. According to the Facebook page of the national Occupy the Hood movement, their mission is to increase the involvement of people of color in the greater Occupy Movement.
“Our request for a public hearing was denied by the state government, so Occupy the Hood put together a people’s hearing. We don’t need the state government’s permission to have a hearing, we intend for our voices to be heard, regardless,” stated Zombor.
Despite no official sanction, Occupy the Hood—Milwaukee hopes that a grass roots hearing on November 2 will be the spark to light opposition to Senate Bill 207.
[…] of a felony. Current legislation allows the practice if the circumstance … Read more on ThirdCoast Digest […]
Thanks, Spencer. Well done. — Strini
[…] Milwaukee coalition rallies against Wisconsin SB 207 | ThirdCoast Digest – 10/31 […]
Stalin murdered 60 million. Today there are about 60 million in the USA who are disenfranchised from the workforce due to old felony convinctions, misdemeanors, or even bad credit.
The number of felons who will be denied employment permanently, for life (in an attempt to liquidate them) is probably around 30 million. The number of illegal aliens currently working in this country for criminal employers who are part of the “illegal labor mafia” in the USA today is also about 30 million.
The number of slaves who were set free by Lincoln was about 3.5 million. The number of people currently behind bars is about 2.5 million.
People in the US need to wake up. The political process has been reverse engineered to liquidate portions of the US population by strategic electronic assassination of entire demographic groups such as felons, or people with bad credit, the mentally ill, etc. Our LEADERSHIP is trying to kill us by destroying employment opportunities which people need in order to obtain food, shelter, health care, etc. This is an act of murder by strangulation similar to what Stalin did to the Ukraine, but we refined the process with the help of the internet and bold leadership like Senator Darling.
It is my belief that the number of people who have already been murdered by this systematic process of “employment deprivation” over the past several decades is probably many, many millions. There are a few studies which support this.
To my government, to whom I send my tax dollars, I say “Thank You” for attempting to murder me with this legislation, it wont work as planned, and better luck next time.
There are 60,000 ex-cons in Wisconsin who are already, or will be permanently banned from ever having a job again in this state. It costs $27,000 (?) per inmate per year to keep people locked up. I say, if you cannot get a job on the outside your only survival option is to use prison as a survival resource. 60,000 x $27,000 = $1,620,000,000. If every ex-con were to go back inside it would cost this state 1.6 BILLION DOLLARS. That is a lot of money that the Republicans are trying to waste. I think that instead of trying to get jobs, ALL ex-cons should be trying their hardest to get back inside by any (legal) means possible. The state is already bankrupt because debt is so much greater than revenue. This government has no money. I say … clog the system and penalize the system to the tune of $1.6 Billion Dollars. Together we can do this. Lets pull together, (legally), and put a price tag on this piece of legislation. $1.6 BILLION DOLLARS 😀 !!!
If ya cannot work for an honest income because you are banned from getting a job, then you really have no choice but to sue for that same income while sitting around doing nothing. Here’s what you guys need to do. Build a database of felons who are applying for jobs and track employers who systematically deny work to qualified applicants. This means that someone will have to collect that data, this whole thing needs to be private. Currently there are NO RECORDS of how many felons are denied employment by employers, and so the only way to get that data is by creating a database privately. Eventually, trends among various employers will inevitably emerge and it will be provable in civil court that these employers have been violating the law for years under the protective wings of people like Senator Darling and others. We all know that many employers DO discriminate harshly, even against qualified applicants. We just need proof. Someone needs to step up and start collecting that data. Every time a felon applies for a job we need to record it, and the result of the application. We need that data !!!
The other thing that you guys need to do is start documenting and collecting data on which employers are hiring illegal labor. Like it or not … you are being replaced by illegal labor. That is why we have 20 million laborers in this country – because there are 50 million felons that nobody will hire. You need to gather data on the employers who hire illegals and store that information as evidence for prosecutions which will happen in the future. What we have today is basically an illegal labor mafia. State government refuses to take any action against these employers who hire illegals … and these employers are criminals who need to be brought to justice. They belong IN PRISON. If they can lock YOU up for petty crap, then those employers should be locked up for what they’ve been doing too. But currently they are protected because what we have here is a ILLEGAL LABOR MAFIA and the government is protecting them. Prosecutions could come in the future however !!! So collect that data, write stories, compare notes, and SAVE THIS INFORMATION IN A CENTRALIZED LOCATION WHERE IT CAN BE SAFEGUARDED. We need to know which employers hire illegal labor, how many they hire, and the names of management who are aware of it when it is happening, if that company was ever visited by state regulators we need to make note of that, we need to know who knew what, when they knew it, and that they did nothing to stop it. START WRITING.
I don’t even know how I finished up right here, but I thought this put up was once great. I don’t recognise who you might be but definitely you are going to a well-known blogger for those who are not already. Cheers!
Kind of disgusting that nobody has the guts to even argue against what I’m saying here. I’d certainly hate to think that I might just be right. Surely there must be some sensible reason for writing laws like this, other than the desire to perform social cleansing / social engineering experiments on the labor class. I find it remarkable that these kinds of practices have been in place for almost 100 years, and yet we still have this enormous crime problem. Does anyone really think that SB207 will do anything to reduce crime ? I rather doubt that. In my opinion is has the exact opposite effect. It fans the flames of crime. SB207 will destroy “families” who rely on that income. Etc etc etc. The real problem is that legislators are never really held accountable for their actions. In my personal opinion, people who write laws like this belong in prison for a good long time. And if Walker is doing such a good a noble job, then why is he doing _precisely_nothing_ about illegal immigration in this state ? The Republicans are in total control of both houses, they can pass whatever they want, and they have done _nothing_ about illegal labor. Clearly – the Republican leadership SUPPORTS illegal labor because they are almost certainly profiting from it somehow as well, otherwise they would move to enforce existing law which simply is not being done. You want to pass a law that makes it OK to fire anyone who ever broke any law, ever. But you also want to break the law yourself and use 3rd world slave labor in your sweatshops. Must be nice. Keep up the good work.
What I would like to see is some accountability. Not just for people who have been released from prison, but also legislators. For example, just for illustrative purposes, lets suppose that the State of Wisconsin passed a law requiring that men should beat their wives. Just suppose. My reaction to this is that those legislators should be held criminally liable for passing such a stupid law in the first place. Anyone who is stupid enough to write a law like that belongs in PRISON. Certainly it’s much worse than smoking pot and there are plenty of people doing time for that. So how do I feel about SB207 ? Personally I feel that this is a Stalinistic act of social cleansing which is specifically engineered to deprive an entire class of people of food, shelter, and even their very lives. This law, and this practice of discrimination is designed to slowly kill people by means of socioeconomic strangulation, and that is what I believe. That is why we have ghettos. That is also why we have tons of crime. And I believe that this law, itself, rises to the level of a criminal act against the very conscience of our entire system of law. John Locke is probably rolling over in his grave … all because of things like SB207. I think that passage of this law should be regarded as a criminal act, a crime against humanity, and someone should be held criminally accountable for this piece of utterly corrupt legislation. Those are my beliefs.
This law serves as an open admission by State Senators and leaders in the business community that they intend to eliminate people from society by means of socioeconomic strangulation. If you starve to death then they’ll probably be happy to see you die. THIS is the true value of citizenship in the US, this is the most correct way to measure it. Pretty amazing that things like this would happen in America, that the whole concept of America is perhaps little more than advertising campaign for a place which never even existed in the first place. If you are a felon you should realize that you are probably going to die. Soon. Because you wont be able to get a job doing anything, anywhere. But I would admonish that you, who are about to die, to be brave. And appreciate that your death while unfortunate, is miniscule in comparison to the death of something much greater. It is the death of justice in Wisconsin and what I believe to be the ushering in of a whole new level of police state tactics and expansion of the prison system. There really wont be anyplace for anyone to go except back to prison. I’m anticipating that millions will be affected by this law. So imagine Germany in 1939. I think that we are already seeing things very similar to that, and it will get worse for at least a few years to come. Then there will be some type of rebound, trials for crimes against humanity, and the cycle will eventually repeat. What you need to do is DOCUMENT EVERYTHING YOU POSSIBLY CAN, names of politicians, names of cops, names of detectives, names of businesses, bureaucrats, anyone who has anything to do with this process of social cleansing. Document everything in a DIARY, save it somewhere, and store that data in hidden places where no-one will ever find it until this storm has passed. Make no mistake, this law is obviously an attempt on the lives of millions. You need to start DOCUMENTING. Do not go blindly into the night without a fight. WRITE.
This Wisconsin law is really fascinating because it appears to have been plagiarized directly from the Nazis. In 1933 the Reichstag passed civil laws that barred Jews from holding positions in the civil service, in legal and medical professions, and in teaching and university positions. The Nazis encouraged boycotts of Jewish-owned shops and businesses and began book burnings of writings by Jews and by others not approved by the Reich. There were many other measures implemented by the Nazis to restrict Jews and others from engaging in commercial activities. Fast forward to 2012 and Germany has still got Jews, and gays, and Jehova’s witnesses, and communists, and crime. The holocoust was an ineffective tool for Hitler. In hindsight these hateful, horrific crimes against humanity were INEFFECTIVE. And they will be an ineffective in Wisconsin as well, but not without an enormous PRICETAG. Look at your children. Chances are very high that someday one of them will eventually do something stupid. Something illegal. When that happens you can expect that your precious baby will be treated just like a German Jew circa 1939. The price Wisconsin will pay begins with things like that, and only gets worse. Good night, and good luck.