Milwaukee's Daily Magazine Monday, Nov. 23, 2009

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In Politics Commentary

By Doug Hissom Special to OnMilwaukee.com E-mail author | Author bio More articles by Doug Hissom

Published Oct. 16, 2009 at 5:09 a.m.

Tags: gun control, ald. bob donovan, ald. tony zielinski, kinnickinic avenue, scott walker, ku klux klan, lee holloway, joseph rice, joe sanfelippo, mark borkowski, lynn debruin

A discussion about guns proved to be a blazing topic earlier this week at a special meeting by the Milwaukee Common Council's Public Safety Committee. And sure, there was plenty of room for grandstanding and collective hand-wringing.

Ald. Bob Donovan set the pace before the meeting saying, "There simply is no excuse for the gun violence in our communities and residents will no longer stand for it. It is high time we take serious action."

Serious action, indeed.

The Milwaukee Police Department showed up with its Power Point presentation suggesting some serious action. Too bad it all hinges on one thing -- changing state laws.

One hurdle preventing Milwaukee from getting tougher on handgun violence is a state law that was pushed through by the National Rifle Association and other gun lobbyists that prevents local governments from enacting stiffer gun laws than the ones currently on state books.

MPD officials suggest state law be changed so that:

• Getting busted a second time for carrying a concealed weapon is a felony.
• Taking part in what's called "straw purchasing," in which one person buys a gun for another that's ineligible to buy a gun, is a felony.
• There are new penalties for not reporting a lost or stolen gun.
• Mandatory minimum sentences are imposed for those violating gun laws.
• Sales taxes on gun and ammunition would double, with half of the revenue designated for "prevention of gun violence."
• Laws would regulate the distance a felon can be from a gun store and a gun show.

Sick of BID: Not everyone is thrilled with Ald. Tony Zielinski's effort to create a Business Improvement District along Kinnickinnic Avenue in Bay View. The street's business community has never been keen on the idea and the current hodgepodge of storefronts and taverns lends the street a run-down feel.

A Business Improvement District would pool funds from businesses to spruce up streetscapes and other amenities on the street.

At the Joyce Parker Productions building, the familiar scrolling lighted sign in front of the building urges businesses to "show your irritation" with Zielinski's idea, which it is argued is essentially another tax on businesses.

Klan Chaos: Calling a political opponent a member of the Ku Klux Klan seems to be off limits these days for members the Milwaukee County Board. In the heat of another annual budget battle over draconian cuts proffered by County Exec Scott Walker, County Board Chairman Lee Holloway said Walker was acting as if he were a member of the Klan.

That didn't sit well with Holloway's colleagues on the board, including Joseph Rice and Joe Sanfelippo. They penned a quick chastisement to Holloway saying he was inappropriate and set the "wrong tone.

"Your comments serve to further erode the credibility and trust that the public has in the Milwaukee County Board. We urge you to issue a prompt apology to the County Executive and the people of Milwaukee County for your unfortunate comments and to refrain from similar intemperate remarks in the future," the two wrote.

Supervisor Mark Borkowski chimed in, too, saying Holloway "threw a barrel of kerosene on the fire" and became a distraction from the budget process. Borkowski asked Holloway to retract and apologize for his comments.

Supervisor Lynn DeBruin says she was accosted because of Holloway. She said she was confronted in a grocery store parking lot by an irate constituent pointing his finger at her.

"You must do exactly what Scott Walker wants and not what those blacks running the County Board want," the citizen reportedly told DeBruin.

DeBruin called Holloway's comments "extreme and unfounded," adding, "initially, many of us in attendance felt that ignoring the comments, just as the County Executive initially did, seemed to be the best response. Now, however, these comments are distracting the public from the real story of the day, the 2010 County Budget."

Building Move Questioned: A few years after Milwaukee County pumped millions in remodeling its public assistance building at the corner of 12th and Vliet Streets, the state has decided it wants to move the operation to King Drive, right in the heart of the Bronzeville redevelopment effort.

The motive is uncertain, but any move would run counter to city efforts to create a cultural and entertainment district around King Drive.

Ald. Milele Coggs spearheaded the opposition to the move and got the Common Council to unanimously pass a resolution opposing the idea.

"The city has invested heavily in redevelopment of the Bronzeville area, including the establishment of the Historic King Drive Business Improvement District, the Bronzeville Target Investment District, the Brooks Targeted Investment Neighborhood and the Historic King Drive Main Street, and putting the DHS services center in that district just isn't compatible," she said.

She added that parking would be an issue, as well, and the fact that the Marcia Coggs Center has been the spot for people to get welfare for more than 40 years could lead to confusion when people have to find the new location.

The county spent $14 million remodeling the building five years ago and if it remains vacant after any move, it could cost the another $1.2 million, she said.

The state Building Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposed move next week.

Gore Gored Again: Al Gore still can't get any respect. Now he's getting ripped for going to Madison to talk with some environmental journalists about global warming.

State Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus doesn't like it at all.

"Al Gore could have saved Wisconsin residents some hot air and carbon emissions by simply staying home. Wisconsin needs more jobs, not more empty rhetoric by Democrats contributing to the emissions problem. Flying in big-name Democrats to discuss how to force Wisconsin businesses to pay more taxes on their energy bill is the height of hypocrisy," he said.

Dam Update: The Milwaukee County Board voted to override County Exec Scott Walker's veto of a county move to apply for funding from the state Department of Natural Resources to repair the Estabrook Dam. A question plaguing the board has been whether to look at tearing the deteriorating dam down or put more money into fixing the structure.

Folks living upstream want to keep the dam, while environmental groups say it's better for the river in the long run to tear it down. The county would pay $800,000 towards the repair and the state could chip in $400,000.

7 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by HmongkeyHmongsta on Oct. 19, 2009 at 10:16 a.m. (report)

The common perception that More Guns = More Crime is a myth. The most comprehensive data on the subject can be found in More Guns, Less Crime by John R. Lott Jr. and anyone who has read this book will likely change their minds if they believed gun control laws were effective. County to County, State to State, Nation to Nation, the more gun owners a population has, the less crime they have--the more guns legally carried further reduces crime. The laws proposed by the MPD seem constitutional, logical, and even fair but I worry this is just one step towards bad law and compromised freedoms. At the very least these laws are unnecessary and ineffective. They are just another way for the MPD to increase penalties, stack on charges and fill up our jails and prisons with petty criminals. Don't forget the victims themselves who are too scared to travel in their own neighborhoods without a loaded firearm--they too will be punished. Put aside the politics and the stats and just consider what the difference between a criminal and a law abiding victim really is? The difference is fear, criminals don't fear the law, they are willing to break any law no matter what the penalty is, go to prison, get out and do it again. Gun control takes the power away from the law abiding citizen and puts it in the hands of the criminal. It bothers me to see the line between Law Enforcement and Law Makers being blurred when the MPD is the one creating the proposed laws these days. Police have the mentality of a Football Team and in my opinion are barely educated socially & legally enough to qualify for their positions as it is--much less Lawyers, Lawmaker or Politicians. Don't forget the mentality is that anything they can do so another cop doesnt get shot is good cookie. That tragically includes several officers unloading entire clips on unarmed civilians because they thought a wallet was a hand gun. These laws are designed to protect police officers more so than civilians. The police in my opinion are already to protected by bad law as well as endagered by it. Bad law is why police across the country have gotten away with murder. They are trained to legally kill people way before anyone morally or ethically should. While other bad laws like Marijuana Laws complicate and distract them and even get them shot, like what happened just recently when MPD broke up a pothouse to shots fired. Was the big pot sting worth a police officer shot? I guess the old saying, "We don't make the laws we just enforce them" isn't true anymore. We need to get rid of the petty laws that are filling up our prison systems with petty criminals, exhausting our resources, creating criminals and distracting Police from more serious criminals as we let murderers and rapists go free as a result of our overburdened system. We need less law, more freedoms to seperate the victims from criminals and sort society out.

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Posted by Bayviewboozer on Oct. 19, 2009 at 7:28 a.m. (report)

Main Entry: draconian Function: adjective Usage: often capitalized Etymology: Latin Dracon-, Draco, from Greek Drakn Draco (Athenian lawgiver) Date: 1775 1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of Draco or the severe code of laws held to have been framed by him 2 : cruel; also : severe

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Posted by xofferson on Oct. 17, 2009 at 10:19 a.m. (report)

Actually, there is considerable research and evidence demonstrating that sensible, reasonable restrictions on handgun sales and possession reduce firearms violence. Criminal background checks is one example, yet half the guns in Wisconsin are legally sold with no background checks or record keeping becaause they are sold by individuals who are not licensed dealers. That's just one of many steps we could take that would actually help. Lots more info here: http://www.waveedfund.org/

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Posted by HmongkeyHmongsta on Oct. 17, 2009 at 9:21 a.m. (report)

Just look at Current Events and History if you want to know how well Law and Law Enforcement can do with controlling or banning anything that a large part of the population actually want. Alcohol Prohibition? EPIC FAIL. Marijuana Prohibition? Cough, Cough, EPIC FAIL. They already have a black market for guns, and the more laws that are made banning various types of guns or that make gun purchases more difficult will only make the black market more lucrative and attractive to organized crime and the modern day Capones. There are literally hundreds of millions of guns in the United States, and if you think law makers or law enforcement will ever get that many guns out of the hands of criminals... you are a naive idealist liberal, and you are more dangerous to society than any unmarked hand gun on the street. Large American cities are the world's epicenters for violence and gun violence, but if you study the statistics there is no real connection between how many guns in any area and how much gun violence in that area. It's the minority of American's who live in the largest and most violent cities who see guns as a problem. While, the majority of the rest of the country in the smaller cities, towns, suburbs, and rural areas don't see guns as the problem, and they are right because it's the uneducated, uncultured, morally corrupted, disenfranchised urban people who can't handle the freedoms and responsibilities of being an American. That said, this is obviously about a divide within our own country. While small town America may reflect the past, our country's largest cities must then reflect the future, but it would be a dangerous mistake not to recognize that the violent difference between the two is the result of socioeconomics and the generations of morally, socially, culturally corrupted and disenfranchised people--NOT gun control law. I don't think the old Wild West approach of handing your gun over to the Sheriff when you come to town will work in this Dark Future of ours, so we have to address the real problem, THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES. Too long liberal society has been blaming "the system" it's time to realize "the individual" has failed with the responsibilities of freedom.

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Posted by corrina252 on Oct. 16, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. (report)

ATTENTION CLUELESS LIBERALS/SOCIALISTS: you cannot legislate morality. In other words, it does not matter how many gun control laws you have on the books, if a thug wants to get a gun and commit a crime with it he will do so. The entire premise behind the gun control lobby is that the easy availability of firearms contributes to crime. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH.

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