Photo credit: Tom Jenz
Veteran MPD Officer Lawson Murrell
In these troubled times, it seems like the cops are now the bad guys. The politicians who hired them now question them. The protesters want them debunked. Even ordinary working folks are wondering about the roles of cops. Are cops protectors or fascists? Should they be tough guys or social workers? Are they out of control? All this controversy made me wonder what life must be like as a police officer working in Milwaukee’s controversial central city.
Lawson Murrell is 41 and a veteran black police officer. He works out of District 7 in the heart of zip code 53206 symbolizing the most segregated neighborhoods in the United States.
I met Officer Murrell in a spare room of a spare building on N. 36th St. He looks the role of a cop you want watching out for you, tall, powerful, fearless and independent. He has a strong, purposeful expression, but his face will collapse into softness when talking about family, friends and community. Most of the time, he doesn’t show his strength. He shows his kindness. I even detected an undertone of pure sentimentalism and a range of sensitivity.
One of three children, Murrell grew up in Berryland, the public housing project on 42nd about five minutes from Sherman Park, most of the residents African American. He went to John Marshall High School, class of 1997. There was segregation. The minority students were white. His dad worked two jobs and his mother also had a job.
“I was lucky I came from a good family,” he said. “But as a teenager, I did get into a little trouble. I had some traffic tickets, cops stopped me a number of times, and I even got arrested for petty marijuana possession, but I managed to stay pretty straight for the most part. Growin’ up in the projects, you can take a wrong turn.” Officer Murell’s best friend was killed two years ago, a victim of homicide. “We’ve been dear friends since we were kids. Most of his life, my friend had been in and out of criminal activity, but he kept me out of it.” He paused, thinking, then, “OK, full disclosure. My older brother is in prison right now.” His brother had taken that wrong turn.
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A year out of high school, the young Lawson Murrell enlisted in the Marine Corps. His grandfather and father had both been Marines. He was stationed in Camp Pendleton, Calif., and made two deployments to Asian countries. Just before the second Iraq war began, he got out of the military. “The Marine experience is a tough lifestyle,” he said. “It taught me a work ethic, routine, consistency and discipline, principles I carried with me later as a policeman and also as a family man.” Officer Murrell has three teenage children.
Dangerous Duty
A year and a half after he got married, he returned to Milwaukee. For over three years, he worked as a guard at the Milwaukee House of Corrections. Then, he was accepted to the police academy. “After I got my badge,” he explained, “I worked 3rd shift, that means night duty when most normal people are asleep. In the dark, you get people who are into the night life, bar goers, partiers, 3rd shift workers. That duty can be dangerous, even tough, but not always. You are also fighting fatigue. But we were well trained to be alert and handle most any situation.”
Next in his career, Murrell became a school patrol officer. The program was called Students Talk It Over With Police or STOP. “This was part of police community outreach,” he said. “I’d talk to kids in a classroom setting and I’d tell them how to interact with police, how to respect the police. But the Milwaukee Public School Board shut down that program. I was sorry that happened. I know when I was a teenager, I could have used the STOP program.”
In 2016, Officer Murrell became a community liaison officer shortly after the Sherman Park civil unrest that devastated the neighborhood. “In my job, I give talks to faith-based and community groups,” he said. “I help organize block watches, block cleanups, put on events, host a haunted house night, the Easter egg hunt and a Christmas party. The idea is to give back to the community.” With humble pride, he added, “It’s professionally gratifying work.”
I told him that I’d been walking the central city streets for a number of years, talking to the residents, doing their photographs, telling their stories, and trying to understand a culture different than my own as a white man. I said I’d seen a deterioration of houses, stores, streets, even some people. I asked what he thought should be done to help get the central city back on its feet.
Without a pause, he said, “Funding, investment. I’d like to see businesses being incentivized.”
Support for Strong Neighborhoods
I said if you look at the history of how communities and neighborhoods thrive, you will see that it is always driven by successful businesses that offer jobs and opportunities with the government providing the support, protection and infrastructure and with families and churches providing the structural and moral support.
He agreed. “Yeah, always. In Milwaukee, the business funding has been super concentrated downtown, big corporations, upscale stores, condos, restaurants, even a streetcar. In our neighborhoods, we need incentives to build businesses. We want to share the sugar.” He paused, adding, “This would help the city curb the stigma of this area, the zip code 53206 that has a reputation of criminal activity. Then, maybe outsiders would want to spend time in our area.”
I pointed out that many people in the suburbs have a prejudicial view of the central city as full of criminals and dangerous behavior. He said, “That’s probably based on the news media. The inner city gets publicized when a crime or a murder has been committed. The truth is inner city people are great, sweet, hard-working people, and many have been here a long time and they’ve seen businesses leave, schools and churches close, seen buildings and houses boarded up.”
He brightened. “I’d like to see Milwaukee shed the reputation of being such a dismal place for African Americans. I want a safer, more integrated city where all Milwaukeeans are comfortable enjoying every thriving neighborhood of the city I love so much. It would also end the stigma of this being a crazy violent part of Milwaukee. It’s not. Inner city people love Milwaukee. It would be cool to see some of that love reciprocated.” He smiled, adding, “As a policeman, my role is to uphold the public’s trust, keep peace and reduce crime, but also be an ambassador and pass along civic pride when I can."
When we parted, Officer Murrell said he was meeting his wife on Vel Phillips Ave. to participate in a protest for Black Lives Matter.
