Eight dead in eight days – What Milwaukee needs to do to turn things around but won’t

I don’t mean to offend anyone, but it is time for the mayor to take a dump or get off the pot.

If my blunt reference offends, I sincerely apologize to the offended. But right now we need blunt talk and we need action!

Outside of the obligatory press conference feigning outrage and demanding that the violence stops, the mayor offers nothing. He needs to start delivering for our neighborhoods or step aside.

I’m talking about the very essence of what government exists for! The preamble of the Constitution describes government establishing justice and providing for the common defense, and ensuring the general welfare. If you happen to live in certain Milwaukee neighborhoods chances are your general welfare sucks!

Right now we need three things from the mayor: Leadership, a plan and the guts to carry it out. By the way ‘the plan’ already exists: The Common Council came forward with a comprehensive public safety plan two years ago after soliciting input from the community. Now all we need is a mayor with the gumption to put it in place.

If you think I’m being too hard on the mayor, the reality is that he holds all of the cards. If the mayor is not behind an initiative it is very unlikely to go anywhere. He holds all of the cards, and he either comes up with a way to stop this deadly violence and protect our citizens or he must step aside.

Don’t get me wrong – the mayor is a very busy man and he works hard – most especially for a man his age. He attends all the right meetings and shows up at all the right funerals. He promotes this city the best he can and he’s the consummate politician. But there’s a difference between being busy and making progress.

If it was up to me these problems with crime, violence and disorder would have been taken care of years ago. But we only have one mayor in Milwaukee and his name is Tom Barrett. It’s his job to solve these problems.

We have a good police chief – we need to get behind him and give him the resources he needs, as given the mayor’s 14-year track record, he WON’T.

The mayor’s laid-back hands off approach to governing has literally jeopardized the health, safety and welfare of Milwaukee’s most vulnerable populations (just look at the chaos in the Health Department, which the mayor said he was unaware of!).

The emperor – in our case Mayor Barrett – truly has no clothes and it’s high time this city realizes that sad fact.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.