The Milwaukee Post

August 16, 2013 • Milwaukee Post • 9 OPINION Liberals have no answers for urban violence If the subject weren't so deadly serious, it would be comical watching Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (yes, he still has the job) trying to muster up some response to the deadly spree of violence in Milwaukee. First, Barrett ordered his police chief to join him for a public roll call on the streets. I guess this was to let people know we still have police. Then, a day later, Barrett called for "tougher penalties for those who commit crimes with guns." And, as if Scott Walker is somehow to blame for all of this, Barrett asked the state for money to pay for police overtime. Barrett made all these inane pronouncements because he knew he had to say something. Anything. But the liberal playbook doesn't have any calls in it for getting tough on crime. So Barrett just threw some tired old canards out there hoping it would be enough. At least he did something. Other than fighting Bob Donovan, not a single Milwaukee alderman has offered a peep about the murder spree, including the ones in whose districts the killings are occurring. They don't know what to say either. Big cities are under total liberal rule in America. It is not a coincidence that the most violence, the worst schools and the most societal dysfunction is in those cities. Sixty years of liberal social policies have left us with chaos that is ripping up Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago and other cities where killings are a way of life. Years of coddling criminals and throwing money at horrid schools have caught up to these cities. The tolerance of the sociopathic trend of black fathers abandoning their children has produced two generations of angry males lacking moral codes and acting out depraved lives. Liberals, incapable of condemning anything in black America, are mute. So, the killing continues and Officer Barrett goes on the street and blows his whistle. Puh-leeeeeaaaaase, stop killing each other. Can't we all just get along? Tell the governor to give me more money What . a tired, and pathetic, refrain. As for the substance of Barrett's hackneyed proposals, we already have tough laws on gun violence. But, as Sheriff David Clarke points out, liberal Milwaukee judges routinely hand out soft sentences or issue harsh terms only to suspend the sentence so the thug stays on the street. Gotta give the guy his 847th chance, you know. As Clarke also points out, whenever we do crack down on urban violence and start jailing people on gun charges, activists years later wail about all the black males that are incarcerated and how it is hard for any of them to get jobs when they get out because of their criminal records. In other words, the calls today for tougher sentences are followed years later by condemnations of those tough sentences. It's the liberal way . And finally the begging for money , . Walker has already lined Milwaukee's coffers with millions because of the savings from Act 10, the law Barrett has blasted but nonetheless takes advantage of. State taxpayers already give Milwaukee disproportionate sums of aid and spend a fortune on the failing public school system. There is no reason to believe any more money from Chilton, Chippewa Falls and Chenequa will result in Barrett ending crime in Milwaukee. *** With the exception of the provocative Alderman Donovan, no Milwaukee officials have anything to offer on the breakdown of civility and the rampant crime in Milwaukee. That's what makes Sheriff David Clarke such a treasure. Clarke not only is an eloquent advocate of law-and-order principles, he calls out the awful mothers and absentee fathers producing the hordes of violent gangsters and robbers. That he is black isn't merely symbolically poignant. The fact that virtually no STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE MARK BELLING other black leaders are willing to do it is what makes Clarke special. It is also what drives liberals crazy . Blacks aren't supposed to say these things, they fume. They are supposed to talk like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Gwen Moore, obediently towing a liberal line of race hustling and Republican-bashing. But Clarke keeps talking ... and talking. He runs radio ads calling for ruthless selfdefense. He criticizes Barrett's lame responses. He calls out the parents who have failed. It's bad enough for the lefties when some suburban white guy says these things. They can't abide it when it comes from a prominent black man. They especially can't abide that a county as liberal as Milwaukee keeps electing Clarke, giving him this platform. Clarke relishes this. He is offering some of the most provocative commentary on urban pathology in America and he is doing it from the same Milwaukee in which the mayor responds to such troubles by calling roll calls. (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post. Send your personal correspondences to Mark Belling at Clear Channel Communications, c/o WISN, 12100 W. Howard Ave., Greenfield, WI 53228). LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Robinson should brush up his knowledge of unions To the editor: Owen B. Robinson writes a lot of fiction in his opinion column, however, he writes his column as truth and that's the rub. It is said that many people believe anything they read in print, especially when they don't know the facts of a matter. Well, it is evident that Mr. Robinson knows very little about the intricacies of unions, how they are formed and how they work. If he is going to write about something he should learn about that particular subject before embarking on a writing career. He is sorely lacking in knowledge when writing about unions. In addition, it is a disservice to the Post's readers to print articles, by anyone, that are factually inaccurate, such as Mr. Robinson's Aug. 2 article. It is a fact that many people in the teaching profession, and other Wisconsin workers in other fields, are taking home 15 to 20 percent less pay than they were before Act 10. Maybe Mr. Robinson and others of his ilk would be happy if the Wisconsin state Legislature would pass a law reducing the take-home pay of everyone in the state – not just Wisconsin state workers. In other words, maybe Mr. Robinson would be happy if the Legislature passed a law putting a cap on all wages and salaries in Wisconsin, including the legislator's pay . (Now there's a novel idea; reducing legislator's pay .) Act 10 did one thing for the state; it reduced the buying power of a huge chunk of Wisconsinites which will, eventually , reduce the state's economy And if Gov. . Walker and his Republican colleagues pass a right-to-work law for all union workers in Wisconsin, should Walker be re-elected to a second term in 2014, you'll see a decline in the living standards of the middle class – which will probably include Mr. Robinson, which, in turn, will cause an acceleration of the decline in Wisconsin's economy You can't buy products if you . don't have the money to buy them. (Has anyone noticed a reduction in the cost of goods lately? I haven't.) Then we can have only the rich and the poor – no middle class – which would set the state back 100 years. Casper T. Green Franklin Marijuana legalization would have its benefits The Marijuana Policy Project, an organization that fights to reform and repeal our nation's absurd marijuana laws, had an ad canceled at last month's Brickyard 400 race in Indianapolis. It was to have been on a jumbotron as fans entered the stadium. The ad talked about how marijuana is safer then alcohol, which it clearly is in fact. But, the MPP and no marijuana legalization activists that I know of (I included) want to outlaw alcohol. In fact, the history of Prohibition is one of the reasons that we oppose keeping marijuana illegal, because it caused so much violence, as does marijuana prohibition now. If not for Prohibition, then the name Al Capone would be meaningless today instead of , infamous. Indeed, it was bootleggers who basically started up race car driving in the U.S. So, maybe some good came out of Prohibition. How can we have a debate on the issue of marijuana legalization, if the pro-legalization side is silenced by outside pressure groups when it tries to make its voice heard? By the way a child was killed in , foster care by her foster parents after she was taken away because her real parents possessed marijuana. I am sure this won't be the last time this kind of thing happens, along as we continue to fund a war that is becoming grossly unpopular with the American people, as it well deserves to be. So if you are a foreign drug cartel member, you surely want to keep this war going, but for everyone else, let's end it now. By the way when are we going to have, at the , very least, medical marijuana in the state of Wisconsin? Is it too much to ask that our government stop lying to use about its benefits? Shaun Slack Franklin

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