Photo by Tom Jenz
Stop the Violence couple
In Part One, writer Tom Jenz spoke with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Office of Violence Prevention Director Anitta Holliman and others about the growing problem of violent crime in Milwaukee
Working the Neighborhoods
I spoke to the Violence Interruption Program Director and Violence Interrupter Derrick Rogers about hands-on experience. At 56 and retired from the Milwaukee Public Schools, Rogers has a long history of helping Black youth in alternative school settings, students who were experiencing challenges in the traditional school situations and who returned to school after being incarcerated. There are 12 Violence Interrupters on his team, and their job is to de-escalate and mediate conflicts. He explained, “When we get word from our network of people or from our hotline that there might be a conflict going on, we respond to that, get ahead of the potential violence.”
Rogers and his team also work daily with high-risk teens and young adults to provide mentoring, modeling and exposure to positive experiences. Each Violence Interrupter has a caseload of 12 to 15 individuals to spend time with. Another Violence Interrupter assignment is public education, changing the norms around violence.
“If there is a shooting in certain priority neighborhoods, we do a crisis response within 48 hours, do canvassing, bring positive education materials, meet with residents, check the collective temperature,” Rogers said. “Sometimes, we do pop-up events in the neighborhoods, barbecues, music events, block parties. Most of our work revolves around reciprocal or retaliatory violence such as youth groups that bond around trauma, what used to be called gangs. We’ve had some success in shifting their mentality. We also work in 10 different schools doing workshops on violence interruption and restoration of consciousness to shift young people’s attitudes around gun violence.”
In addition to the Violence Interrupters, the 414LIFE staff includes Outreach Workers and Hospital Responders. Outreach Workers deal with prevention, canvassing neighborhoods and building relationships with residents, especially mentoring young adults ages 15-35. They connect these at-risk individuals with resources, job openings, and schools. In contrast, the Hospital Responders react to gunshot victims, most of whom who end up at the Adult Trauma Center at Froedtert Hospital, a partner of 414LIFE. According to Reggie Moore, “Since 2019, over 800 gunshot victims have been referred to the 414LIFE program. Over the next year, we will be hiring four more Hospital Responders.”
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Funding Violence Prevention
That led me to the subject of budgets and funding, how taxpayer money is spent to support all these employees and programs. Moore explained, “Originally, the 414LIFE program was funded by the city, but recently we have gotten additional financial support from local and national philanthropy—Everytown National, Annie E. Casey Foundation and the influx of federal money from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Our annual budget is $1 million, but we will be receiving an additional $3 million over the next five years from ARPA.”
OVP Director Arnitta Holliman later told me that her Office of Violence Prevention would be receiving $8.4 million through ARPA over five years in addition to the present $3.7 million budget. Some of the $8.4 million would be provided to 414LIFE. When it comes to government programs, money distribution can be multi-layered.
But recently, Governor Tony Evers stated that the state is investing covid relief money to help reduce violent crime, stating $6.6 million will go to the Medical College of Wisconsin's Violence Prevention Project, another $8 million to Milwaukee's Office of Violence Prevention.
In other words, a considerable amount of money is being spent to prevent violence. I told Reggie Moore that I had written quite a few stories about residents and leaders in the central city, mainly Black people. In the last couple years, there has been a big increase in criminal acts, shootings, homicides, assault, reckless driving. I wanted his opinion on the cause of all this violence.
“People in Milwaukee should understand there has never been an equitable investment in prevention,” he said, “that every family has access to resources to help them thrive: living wage jobs, food, quality housing and schools. Violence is often the manifestation of an unmet need. If you grow up in a neighborhood where violence is prevalent and normalized, then residents might be acting out of that trauma. Then, there are individuals who have been neglected or abused, and they take their trauma into the world. But I do believe violence is preventable because violence is not a natural state of behavior. Right now, we all have to work harder to prevent violence in our city.
Grassroots Leaders
Those who do work harder are the grassroots leaders and small community organizations, Black influencers who patrol their neighborhoods and communities and who are rarely paid for their efforts. I spoke to several of them for their opinions on violence prevention. They come with varying views and even a trail of cynicism.
Tory Lowe is a one-man show, and his performance is about helping the victims of domestic violence. He calls himself a victims advocate and heads up Justice Wisconsin, the most requested advocate in the state of Wisconsin. For over 10 years, Lowe has been tireless in his task. He told me, “I’ve helped victims in 63 lawsuits against the state of Wisconsin across the whole state.” He is also the talk show host of “The Tory Lowe Show,” which airs weekdays 1-4 p.m. on 101.7 The Truth radio. Tory grew up on North Avenue in the central city and attended North Division High School, one of the roughest schools at the time. He has five children.
When I brought up the subject of violence prevention, he came on strong and was very critical. “Solving this problem of violence is about putting in time and energy. Time plus energy equals a result. Forget the police, they do not prevent violence, they respond to violence. We need strong grassroots leadership willing to put in the time and energy. Political leaders do not do that. Black city leaders put together these big organizations like 414LIFE, and they get the money for the funding, but what are the results? Violence is still bad.”
I told Tory Lowe that Arnitta Holliman has been head of the Office of Violence Prevention since last spring and asked if he thought the OVP could be effective.
“The OVP needs to involve the street leaders, the community activists who know the neighborhoods,” he said. “If you build a house, you need to bring in workers who know how to construct a foundation, lay the concrete, do the masonry, the electric, the plumbing. But this is not how Milwaukee’s been doing the job. It’s a buddy buddy system among the elected and appointed, and the buddies do not know how to lay foundations. Some of these aldermen who have been around for years? What have they done? What has the Common Council done? I don’t see good results.”
The grassroots community leader, Elizabeth Brown of Justice Wisconsin, sometimes partners with Tory Lowe. She was raised in the heart of the central city. She knows the territory. She calls herself an advocate, not an activist. “I’m a survivor of child rape,” she told me, “and so I deal with human sex trafficking. I am also the author of a children’s book on childhood trauma. I’m an advocate for women who have been domestically abused, and an advocate for fair housing, nonviolence, and sexual assault victims. I don’t think there actually is violence prevention. That name is misleading because most of what is done about violence in Milwaukee is reactive. I would call it ‘violence reaction.’ For instance, the police react to violence. They don’t prevent violence.”
Brown added, “A while back, we talked with Arnitta Holliman on Outlaw Radio. I asked her where the OVP monies go. She says that some money goes to non-profits, but yet we don’t get specifics, don’t get the names, and don’t get the results. We individuals that are not getting paid are the ones doing the work, and we get zero credit. When you consider mental health, mass incarceration, sexual trauma, divorce, and child protective services, the majority of victims are Black. You can’t blame the fruit for being rotten if you didn’t take care of the tree. The victims are not to blame. People at the top have the responsibility to take care of those at the bottom.”
Soft on Crime
Black activist Tracey Dent, whose organizations include Peace for Change Alliance and Voices Against Violence Coalition, has been focusing on reckless driving. He has produced several music videos about stopping potential reckless drivers in their tracks. Over the past year, he has met with judges and district attorneys regarding what can they do about taking reckless drivers off the streets.
“The judges are soft on crime” Dent said. “When they see the young juvenile violators in front of them, they don’t have the heart to give out stiff sentences. They also say they are understaffed and they get pressure to move things along. I hear the same things from the prosecutors and public defenders who have big caseloads. They also say the county jail is filled to capacity. The result is that many reckless drivers don’t get punished. Young offenders think the court system is a joke. They get arrested and hours later they are right back on the streets. I think we have to be tougher on crime.”
Veteran Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm offered an explanation. “This is 2022, and we are in the wake of a public health hurricane,” he told me. “For violence prevention, the priority needs to spread across the whole spectrum of entities that are helping reduce violence. Our office has a backlog of 10,000 to 11,000 cases. We have about 900 jail beds available and almost 200 of those are occupied by people charged with homicide. The key is trying to get a jury trial for people who are charged, and that’s been disrupted for the last two years. We are backed up.”
Chisholm went on, “I put the public safety issue in two buckets. The first is juvenile offenders, a huge problem. One of the approaches would be to develop a one-stop location called the Juvenile Reception Center. The police officer takes the juvenile offender to this one location, then he writes up his report. The officer leaves, parents get contacted and they are connected to the needed services like addiction, mental health, Milwaukee Public Schools, and so on. But if the juvenile offender has done something terribly violent, he is sent to a detention center for assessment. Second, on the adult side, the priority would be to spend some of the federal ARPA money to help clear our backlog issues.”
Too Many Solutions
Another well-known activist leader is Vaun Mayes who covers the Sherman Park community through his nonprofit groups CommunityTaskForceMKE and Program The Parks which helps young people. He has been an activist since 2012.
Mayes said, “We cannot have ‘business as usual’ in violence prevention, the broad plans with the 10-point solutions. Communities and neighborhoods don’t respond to broad plans, no, they respond to practical applications, jobs and resources. The people closest to the problem, to the solutions, are not prioritized by the city, and the city leaders tend to stray away from us. I believe in the Office of Violence Prevention. I have worked with Reggie Moore and his 414LIFE and with Arnitta Holliman, the OVP director. But you have to remember that they oversee city programs, and they are restricted in their abilities to work with community leaders. They need to be working with me, community neighborhood leaders, and other activists because we live in the neighborhoods where violence might occur. Any budget money coming our way should be non-restrictive, or the city leaders should be given leeway on who they can fund and support.”
I told Arnitta Holliman that these grassroots leaders feel that the OVP and the city should help fund their own small nonprofit organizations, especially if you consider the large amount of funds coming in soon from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
She said, “Oh, I absolutely agree, and I understand their needs. We love it when we can contract with the small grassroots organizations. We know they are on the ground doing work, that they don’t have the resources. The problem has to do with what is required to receive a grant contract from the city. To receive grant funding, neighborhood activists are required to head a group that meets city contract requirements, or they need to partner with a larger group that already meets the requirements.”
I looked into what is required to receive a grant from the city, much less write a grant. It falls under the Community Development Grants Administration and includes a complex 15-page list of guidelines which are foreign to the average citizen. It also includes guidebooks as long as 60 pages. Therefore, grant applications are created by professional grant writers, and that could be why the large nonprofits receive the grant money. They know the grant writing system. Then, there is the time element. By the time the grant money is distributed, violent crimes continue to proliferate.
Political Solutions
What about the politicians and the police? Where do they stand on this controversial topic of violence prevention?
Police chief is Jeffrey Norman has held the office for about 14 months, 11 of those months in a limited role as acting police chief. Chief Norman would like to see more police officers to help control violence. He told me, “In the last couple years, through attrition, we’ve lost about 200 police officers, and we still continue to lose some. Based on what I’ve been told and even with the replacement of 195 officers in 2022, we will be under 25 officers in authorized strength. Adding that number of officers involves the process of hiring and also six months of training. This all takes time. Our public needs more police officers to do sworn things.”
Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson is presently in a temporary role. To become Mayor, he must finish in the top two candidates in the primary election on February 15th and then win the general election on April 5. Not long ago, he told me, “Public safety should be holistic public safety—including violence prevention, mental health services, opportunities for young people, and the redesigning of our roads to curb reckless driving. But public safety also needs enforcement, accountability for those people who cause us harm. If someone harms people, the families of their victims need to trust that there will be justice served.”
I told Mayor Johnson that when it comes to accountability and punishment, there are so many layers in our justice system—judges, juvenile justice, prosecutors, lawyers, do-gooders. Is there anything the Mayor can do to see that accountability takes place, that justice is actually served?
“I think that the city does do its part,” he said. “The reason people end up in the justice system is that they have been captured by the police. The police are city employees. Yes, we do need to see that justice is served. We don’t want people taking matters into their own hands, which makes our neighborhoods less stable and safe. Criminals should spend time behind bars, but it’s not the be all and end all. There are also restorative practices, and those depend on the severity of the crime. Non-violent criminals might need restoration, not incarceration. But ultimately, there has to be accountability in place so that true justice is served.”
One politician who may not agree with Mayor Johnson is 4th District Milwaukee County Supervisor Ryan Clancy, a socialist and outspoken lifelong activist. A former Peace Corps volunteer, he holds a masters degree in conflict resolution. He has also taught in Milwaukee Public Schools. I asked Clancy about his ideas on Violence Prevention.
“I look at the police budget,” he said. “We pay more money per capita on police than any other large city, and police are ineffective at preventing crime. What really stops crime is community investment in human needs—jobs, housing, business, mentoring, medical care, mental health. And not just feeling safe but actually being safe. I’d like to see a 25% cut in the police budget and have that money go to effective programs. At the county level, we have the Cream City Credible Messenger Program. We pair up a troubled youth with an older mentor who may have been in trouble in his earlier life but has reformed. We’ve had incredible success with this program.”
District 10 Alderman Michael J. Murphy introduced an amendment to require the health department and the Office of Violence Prevention to provide the metrics on their different outreach violence prevention programs. “We’ve made a huge financial commitment using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars,” Murphy said. “It’s the responsibility of city government to find out if the programs are working or not. In the past, it was measured by activities but not by outcomes. All too often our city programs had the best intentions but never really accomplished the goals. I think we need to keep track of whether these programs have an impact. With the incredible violence in our community, we need to ensure that these dollars are spent wisely in reducing violence and saving our kids on the city streets.”
District 13 Alderman Scott Spiker agreed, saying, “The article of the Office of Violence Prevention will never be an article of faith for me. I would love if it works, but I want evidence that it works.” To Alderman Spiker, that means concrete data proving the OVP plans are working to decrease violence.
The Problem of Silos
All these large organizations, city departments, community groups, and neighborhood leaders are troubled by the subject of silos. Silos are self-interested groups and non-profit foundations where their leaders are protecting the money and the power source. Last year, then Common Council President Cavalier Johnson told me, “The silos paradigm is one of the things that really frustrates me. A lot of groups and a lot of meetings. It’s like they talk, talk, talk, and talk. I mean, why don’t we do something? Single fingers are not very effective, but they can make a fist.”
Then, recently as the new mayor, he confirmed his opinion with action plans. “It’s going to be my administration working collaboratively with stakeholders including the Office of Violence Prevention, Police Department, and the Department of Public Works. Residents deserve to feel safe. As a parent and as a life-long Milwaukeean, I am committed to turning the tide on violent crime and giving our families and communities the safety, security, and healing we deserve.”
On Jan. 13, the acting mayor released a three-point plan to reduce violence. One: continued investment in law enforcement. Two: a focus on promoting community healing. Three: better supporting neighborhoods to address the root causes of violence. Under his plan, the city would also address the root cause of violence and build up local communities through implementation of the Blueprint for Peace, created by the Office of Violence Prevention.
Stop the Violence Now
Is this possible? To align the many different city, nonprofit, and community silos into a unified purpose and plan, not to mention its execution? Here is the irony. Except for perhaps the unfunded grassroots organizations, almost none of the other city departments or political entities have immediate solutions to stopping the violence. Their plans and goals and funding are designed for the long term. Yet, crimes are immediate, ordinary residents terribly impacted.
What I’ve found is there are many worthwhile government departments, outside organizations and nonprofits working on violence prevention planning through meetings, budget distribution, funding grants and applications, and priority lists. However, in my talks with the residents of at-risk neighborhoods where violence occurs on a regular basis, I have discovered their needs are immediate. Their anthem? “Stop The Violence Now!”
On that cold, dark fateful night of Jan. 23 as I observed the powerful activist Vaun Mayes reach for answers to why six people had been killed in the house behind him, I saw him quietly fumbling for words. Later, I told him that I was so sorry for the victims he tries to help. He said, “Unfortunately it’s like you get used to violence, but then you never get used to it all the same time. But that’s the story of my community. We all deal with a constant bombardment of traumas like this and have to operate as if we are OK.”
