Photo Credit: Tom Jenz
Vaun Mayes, Tory Lowe, Tracey Dent
It is a warm spring Saturday. You live in a thriving neighborhood in Brookfield, Mequon or Cedarburg. What might you be doing? Barbecuing with kids and neighbors, planting your garden, relaxing with a beer, playing volleyball, tanning on the beach? Anything resembling violence is furthest from your mind.
Yet, several miles from your house in crowded Black neighborhoods, crime is a nervous subject. In fact, crime is the biggest issue in urban Milwaukee and other old industrial cities like Detroit, Chicago, and St Louis. I think it’s the number one issue for most inner city Black voters. Milwaukee city leaders, police and non-profits have been fighting violence for too long. These organizations include the well-funded Office of Violence Prevention, the Milwaukee Police Department’s Violent Prevention Plan, Safe & Sound, 414 Life, Crime Stoppers, The Asha Project and many more.
How are they doing? According to the MPD Crime Statistics as of May 23, year to date 2023, there have been 51 homicides, 192 rapes, 662 robberies, 2,549 aggravated assaults and 285 non-fatal shootings. Meanwhile, in late May, 61 adults and 30 juveniles were arrested and prosecuted for a three-year-long crime spree that resulted in more than 100 shootings, 25 that were deadly.
The noted organizer Mandela Barnes, former U.S. Senate candidate and Lt. Governor, once told me, “When violence becomes what people expect, it only gets worse with each generation.” Sadly, for many years, violence has been expected in many of Milwaukee’s North Side Black communities.
Leaders on the Ground
Not long ago, the three top Black community organizers held a rally in the heart of the central city and instituted a plan to control violence in their neighborhoods. They are Vaun Mayes, Tracey Dent and Tory Lowe. If you watch the local news, you’ve seen them quoted as to the latest violence incident - a reckless driving death, a shooting, a homicide, or a domestic violence incident. The three activist organizers had assembled to announce their action plan, United We Stand Against Violence.
In the heart of the central city, near the busy intersection of 27th Street and West Center, I listened to what they had to say. They were surrounded by followers preparing to walk the Black neighborhoods, knock on doors, and educate residents on how to report a crime or head off violence.
Vaun Mayes
Vaun Mayes spoke first. He heads up Community Task Force Milwaukee, a group of youth leaders, activists, and faith-based organizations seeking peace and progress. ComForceMKE also acts as a violence prevention platform and a source for what Mayes calls, “true community news apart from the mainstream press.”
Carrying non-violence signs, followers formed a circle around him. He said, “I thank the front-line volunteers that came today. We will be knocking on doors and spreading the message of our stand against violence. If you don’t appreciate the people who are on the front lines, you are probably the problem. In the Black community, we often ask questions about why there is so much violence, but the solution is right in our mirrors, what you are doing in your own neighborhoods. How can you make positive change? Hit the block where you live and get your neighbors organized. If we don’t reduce the violence, it ain’t gonna get done.”
Tracey Dent
Activist Tracey Dent spoke second. He is head of Voices Against Violence, and a charter member of Crime Stoppers. In recent years, Tracey has dedicated his efforts to controlling reckless driving. With the help of local artists, he produced two music videos that draw attention to the problem, actually re-creating a terrible crash in which a little girl was killed by a driver in a stolen vehicle. Anyone who regularly drives the city streets has probably seen the careless drivers. Speeding, road rage, passing on the right, jumping the curb, running a red light, ignoring pedestrians, tailgating. The most chilling incident happened recently when a reckless driver was speeding and ran a red light, causing the deaths of five people including a 1-year-old and three teenagers.
Dent told the volunteers: “The work out here is hard because the hardest thing to do is the right thing, and the right thing is taking a stand against violence. I urge you to stop being afraid. As violence is constant, the solution should be constant. Our goal today is awareness. Tory Lowe, Vaun Mayes and me are out here on the streets and doing good work to create peaceful neighborhoods. You need to motivate people on your own block, in your own neighborhood. Get to know your neighbor. If there are arguments, the solution is to talk it out, not to hurt one another.”
Tory Lowe
Tory Lowe spoke third. For the past 13 years, he has worked by request as a volunteer to mediate domestic violence issues. If somebody was in need, he responded. For over two years, he has hosted his own afternoon talk show on 101.7FM Black Talk Radio where he discusses issues relevant to the Black community. He keeps the talk lively and controversial. He later told me, “Now that I have a daily radio talk show, I have a broader voice. Off the air, I get involved helping with broader violence problems.”
Lowe told the circle of volunteers, “Did you know that one in four people suffer from depression? When you are in a fog, it affects the quality of the decisions you make. Some people find different ways to cope like substance abuse—drugs and alcohol. Those things can lead to crime and violence. There are a number of organizations you can call, but sometimes it’s just picking up the phone, calling a friend or relative and saying I’m not feeling like myself today. If you get that call, you need to respond, tell the person you care about them, love them, that their life matters. If you can change the mind, you can grab the heart. You can also volunteer in the classroom, make sandwiches for a picnic. People may forget what you say but won’t forget how you make them feel. In a few minutes, we are going door to door. Be genuine with your handshakes. And we got the police helping us here today. They are our brothers and sisters, too. Show them some love.”
The Street Leaders Need Help
When I spoke to each of the three activists privately, they did not let me down.
Mayes told me, “The truth is that most of us at ComForceMKE do not get paid. We are volunteers. The Office of Violence Prevention, the city, the county and the state need to provide funds for community activists like myself. There needs to be more innovative ways to help the people on the streets, especially since so many volunteers are doing the work for free. We don’t get salaries or pensions.”
Then, I asked Lowe, “What would you do to help get people united against violence, get the word out?”
“There is a lot of money coming into government agencies and big nonprofits,” Tory said. “It’s just not hitting the right avenues. 40% of Milwaukee residents are Black. That’s around 250,000 people. Where is the money going to resolve the issues? It’s not going to the frontline leaders who have been volunteering for years. I’d get that money to the front room, the upfront community organizers.”
I asked, “Do you discuss the violence issue on your radio show?”
“Yes, I do,” he said. “I love doing my talk show. It’s amazing to be able to talk about relevant issues on the air. I’m an advocate for what I believe in. (laughing) Yeah, I’m the Black Rush Limbaugh.”
Dent added to the discussion. He said, “The goal is to make Black residents aware that we are tired of turning on the news and seeing somebody get shot or killed. Going through the summer, we are gonna be out here reminding people to stop harming each other. Let’s talk about different solutions as an alternative to violence. I am a Board Member on CrimeStoppers. We’ve been trying to work with the police department. We want to get people to speak up, speak out and take action. If you see something, say something.”
Your Voice Matters
Part-way into walking the blocks, volunteers knocking on doors and chatting with residents, Mayes said, “Saving and affecting lives is my goal and only agenda. The faces and smiles, even tears of these residents seeing the love and force come down their block, tells me I did it right. We did it right. Their voice matters, and their lives matter!”
And so, if you do live comfortably in suburbia where violence is far away, you might consider volunteering to help Black community organizers bring peace to their neighborhoods.
