With organizing movements for change, there comes loss, explains co-founder of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Omar Flores. “Whether it’s lives or a general rejection of what we're fighting for,” he says.
However, the Milwaukee Common Council’s decision to reject the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant on Tuesday morning was a win for activists who have been fighting for reform, ultimately demanding community control of police. “This whole summer, thousands of people have marched asking to defund the police, asking for less enforcement and things like that, because I think what people have realized is that enforcement has not been helping our communities,” Flores says. “The budget since 2010 for policing here in Milwaukee has increased massively and we haven't seen a huge decrease in crime. So, I think that shows that policing is not the answer to solving crime.”
After an hour-long discussion, the council rejected the funding of the $10 million three-year grant with a 6-8-1 vote. The grant would have allowed the Milwaukee Police Department to hire 30 new officers. The grant’s acceptance had been previously delayed since Nov. 22.
Lengthy Discussion Leads to Rethinking Amendment to Grant
During the council’s meeting, Alderman Ashanti Hamilton explained an amendment to the grant, seven conditions that would monitor how the Milwaukee Police Department would allocate the funds from the COPS grant. The seven requests from the council included improving response time, adopting a performance-based approach for police staffing and cooperating with the Department of Administration to conduct a civilian-sworn patrol resource analysis of the department. However, this was met with concerns.
Chief Michael Brunson explained that, because of the department’s new budget for 2021 causing the department to lose 120 officers, meeting the seven requirements would not be a guarantee. “It’s going to be a challenge to decrease response times if we lose 120 personnel,” Brunson explained to the council. “That’s just, to me, common sense.”
Brunson attempted to assure that he was not pushing back on Hamilton’s requests; rather, he was making the council aware of the reality that they may not be able to meet their requirements. Alderwoman Milele Coggs found irony in Brunson’s apprehension. Coggs said that, as she’s been lobbied by community members and stakeholders, those in favor of the grant have brought the rate of crime and response times to her attention, many of which the amendment to the grant would address. “It’s just ironic to me that we’re having what feels almost like pushback for very things that everyone has said the grant would help to achieve,” Coggs said.
|
|
After the council’s conversation with Attorney Tom Miller about whether the amendment would deter the federal government from providing the grant, Hamilton ultimately decided to remove his motion to amend the file.
Hamilton reminded the council of the difference in this year compared to ones prior. “The only reason that we're having this discussion about a grant that we have received numerous times before with unanimous support is because the time period that we are in is requiring us to demand more and to request more from those that have the responsibility of enforcing the law in our communities,” he said.
After his decision, the council voted to reject the COPS grant, which means that the police department would lose a total of 150 officers in 2021 rather than just 120.
Activists Say This is a Step in the Right Direction
Vaun Mayes, well-known Milwaukee activist, has just participated in day 200 of The People’s Revolution’s Black lives matter protests. Mayes says the council’s decision today is a step in the right direction. “We've offered a list of demands since the beginning of the marches. A lot of that stuff has not happened, and this is one of the things that has been listened to,” Mayes says.
Mayes explains that more officers does not equal less crime. He says that fixing issues with law enforcement does mean having more officers, “but just being more efficient and effective with the ones that we do have.”
Mayes hopes that, rather than adding more funds to the police department, Milwaukee can fund ways to respond to crime that don’t include law enforcement, including 414 Life and his organization Community Task Force. “We have numerous programs––we do community patrols, we do incident de-escalation, we do DV intervention, and these are non-police, non-weaponized alternatives,” he explains “They are very effective and efficient at reducing crime and preventing gun violence and escalation of situations.”
Flores also hopes to see more done for Milwaukee rather than an increase in policing, such as an end to evictions, fair housing and more access to healthcare. “It’s clear that crime is driven by people’s needs. People are stealing food. People are stealing necessities. People should be provided those things. People have a right to their livelihood and dignity,” Flores says.
According to Flores, the hundreds of protests and increase in activism have served as a wake-up call for the common council. However, he hopes that with this step in the right direction, change can eventually come without constant protests. “While this is a win right now, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and it shouldn't take people protesting constantly and taking up a lot of their daily lives to demand this and get it,” he says.
After originally rejecting the grant, Alderwoman Nikiya Dodd has made a motion to reconsider, which means the council will vote again in January.
If the common council still rejects the grant, Sgt. Efrain Cornejo of the Milwaukee Police Department says that their “sworn strength will be reduced by an additional 30 officers, resulting in a total loss of the funding of 210 officers over a two-year period.”
Regardless of the decision, he says that the police department will continue to provide first-rate services based on the resources allocated. “We thank the countless community members, block watch captains, BID executive directors and elected officials who have supported this grant,” Cornejo says.
