Don\u2019t look only to the police to solve the problems of high poverty communities, Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn told a capacity audience Thursday in the Appellate Courtroom at Eckstein Hall.<\/p>\n
Flynn pointed to the need for better services to help people with mental illnesses and to deal with issues such as child abuse as steps that would help reduce crime.<\/p>\n
And when it comes to crime specifically, he pointed to what he saw as failings of both the state and federal systems for prosecuting and punishing criminals. Many criminals don\u2019t face punishment that discourages them from offending.<\/p>\n
During an \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d program, Flynn was asked if he\u2019d like to see more police officers on the force.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to see 50 more prosecutors,\u201d he answered. He said the practices and capacities for handling prosecution of defendants and sentencing those who are convicted leads some criminals to think they can get away with stealing cars and other crimes without paying much of a price.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to work really hard to go to prison\u201d in Milwaukee, he said. He said he was holding in his hands papers listing people with multiple criminal convictions who had gotten off with little or no time in prison.<\/p>\n
Referring to some federal sentencing practices, Flynn said that programs that offer criminals a choice between getting treatment for problems or facing substantial punishment have not been effective here because \u201cwe haven\u2019t been able to deliver the sanction\u201d of enough prison time to discourage those who continue to offend.<\/p>\n
Gousha asked Flynn about his strong criticism of Wisconsin\u2019s law passed several years ago allowing people to carry concealed guns. Flynn said he was not opposed to a \u201cconcealed carry\u201d law in itself, but he was opposed to Wisconsin\u2019s law which makes carrying an illegal gun a misdemeanor, no matter how many times a person is arrested for that. The law also doesn\u2019t \u2013 and should \u2013 bar people from getting concealed weapon permits if they have enough misdemeanor convictions to meet state law\u2019s definition of a career criminal, Flynn said. As it stands, the law denies permits to those who are convicted felons.<\/p>\n
Flynn said he wanted to be careful about saying the concealed carry law was the cause, but crime has gone up in Milwaukee in each year since the law passed, and that led him to be strongly concerned about the law\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n
Flynn spoke at length about the large increase in murders in Milwaukee this year, suggesting that there was not a simple answer. Similar increases are occurring in neighborhoods characterized by multi-generational poverty in cities including Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., this year, he said. The victims, he said, are overwhelmingly young African American men with criminal records. The same is true of the perpetrators, and they are often using illegally purchased guns.<\/p>\n
Is Milwaukee safe? Flynn responded to Gousha\u2019s question by saying people live in specific neighborhoods, not the city as a whole, and there are large portions of the city that are very safe. But some neighborhoods, he said, are dangerous, especially for those who engage in behaviors involving guns, drugs, gangs, and lifestyles where disputes are often resolved by violence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don\u2019t look only to the police to solve the problems of high poverty communities, Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn told a capacity audience Thursday in the Appellate Courtroom at Eckstein Hall. Flynn pointed to the need for better services to help people with mental illnesses and to deal with issues such as child abuse as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,47,122,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","category-milwaukee","category-public","category-speakers","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}