The Milwaukee Post

May 30, 2014 • Milwaukee County Post • 9 In all the talk ... talk ... talk about the wave of violent crime in Milwaukee one word is almost never mentioned: drugs. Whether it's because the media and police don't want to talk about it or because it's easier to blame a different inanimate object – guns – the incredibly lucrative street drug trade in Milwaukee is the most undercov- ered story in the city. Tom Barrett and Chief Ed Flynn can hold all the indignant news conferences they want and "community organizers" can have yet another march or candlelight vigil but the reality is that until somebody gets tough on the street drug dealers, the vio- lence will continue. Read the last 50 stories about murders, drive-by shootings, innocent crossfire victims or any other Milwaukee violence in the city's daily newspaper and you might find the word "drugs" mentioned three times. It is not possible to more badly miss the point. Some corners and some neighborhoods are more profitable for drug dealers. In the illegal narcotics trade, like most every other retail business, the key is location, location, location. The street gangs that dominate the drug trade all want the best spots. When one gang tries to sell on another gang's turf, exe- cutions are ordered. Rival dealers aren't told to shoo. They are shot at. Often those bullets hit people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Only last week, an innocent girl on a school playground was hit by a stray. Playgrounds are the promised land for deal- ers. Odds are the shot that hit Sierra Guyton was coming from the gun of a guy protect- ing his turf. Many of the buyers come from well out- side the inner city. The drugs that are chok- ing Brookfield, Waukesha and West Bend are usually obtained in Milwaukee. One dealer heads to the central city to load up and brings his stuff back to the burbs and sells it. This is how almost all the heroin around here is sold and most of the mari- juana. Everyone knows this and nobody knows it. The Milwaukee mayor doesn't want to admit that his city's residents are dealing drugs to all of southeast Wisconsin. The media would prefer to blab about guns. But the reality is, as every cop in this corner of the state will tell you, that the drugs are coming from Milwaukee and are sold on the street to people who bring them back to the suburbs. Law enforcement sources tell me the Milwaukee drugs mostly come from Chicago. Have you noticed the recent spate of arrests on I-94 in Racine County? The speed trap is paying off. Dealers stupid enough to speed are being caught driving cars packed with Chicago wholesale drugs headed to the Milwaukee street retail mar- ket. The heroin problem is especially toxic. Heroin is unbelievably addictive and is the drug of choice of nice suburban kids who can't get highs anymore from OxyContin because of cost, availability and the difficul- ty of crushing the pills. So they use heroin in killer amounts. That heroin may ulti- mately be purchased in Muskego but it sure didn't start there. To not connect the remarkable demand for pot and "H" with the violence on Milwaukee corners is to entirely miss the point. Milwaukee doesn't have a dominant drug gang right now. So turf wars are under- way. The turf is the central city. The war is being fought with guns. The politicians are all screaming "enough is enough." Yet, vir- tually none of them are demanding a crack- down on the Milwaukee drug sellers that are the cause of the entire problem. * * * Every couple of months the Journal Sentinel or some community "leader" pops up and whines about the high level of incar- ceration of young black males. Other times they bemoan the fact that many black males are not employable because of the felony convictions they hold for drug dealing. But only days later, the same crowd gets up and bemoans the violence. They literally can't have it both ways. The only thing that deters street drug- selling is heavy police enforcement with lots of arrests and stiff sentences. The gangs lit- erally get hassled out of town. Unable to freely deal drugs, their money supply is cut off. This tactic has worked wonders for 20 years in New York (although is now being tragically reversed by the new mayor). But this means lots of arrests and lots of jail time for mostly black offenders. In Milwaukee, we don't have the will to do that. The politicians who demand an end to the violence are the same ones unwilling to start a massive lockup of black teenagers who are the majority of the street-corner dealers. The gang bosses, most of whom are in their 30s and 40s, rarely dirty their hands with drugs. The hands-on dirty work is usu- ally done by juveniles. Everyone knows how soft Milwaukee is on juvenile offenders. So the guns and the drugs are put in the hands of a lot of 15- and 16-year-olds. Until they murder someone, their wrists are slapped every time they run afoul of a cop. The leaders of the gangs, many of whom are worth fortunes (look at their cars and bling), are outsmarting Milwaukee officials. They are running a violent business and arming teenagers to do the work. In the meantime, many of them are being killed along with a few innocents. None of this will change until the drug gangs are targeted and the crackdown starts with the kids on the street. (Mark Belling is the host of a daily WISN radio talk show. His column appears weekly in the Milwaukee Post.) MARK BELLING STANDING UP for MILWAUKEE OPINION Drugs at root of urban violence By OWEN ROBINSON A variety of law enforcement depart- ments around the state are receiving new equipment and it is raising eyebrows as the line between the police and the mili- tary continues to blur. As the military continues to scale down under the administration of President Barack Obama, the armed forces have been left with thousands of surplus pieces of equipment of all varieties. Some of the equipment is brand-new since it was ordered before the drawdown. Specifically, there are thousands of Mine- Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles sitting on bases in the South rusting under the hot sun. To get rid of them, the Department of Defense launched the 1033 surplus program that allows local governments to have an MRAP for the cost of shipping. The cost to ship an MRAP to Wisconsin is about $4,500 to $5,000, so natu- rally several law enforcement agencies jumped at the opportunity to own one. MRAPs, which comes in several vari- eties from several manufacturers, are impressive vehicles. They stand more than 10 feet tall and weigh as much as 30 tons. They are fully armored and can protect those inside from everything but the most powerful weapons – certainly from any- thing available in the armory of crimi- nals. They are vehicles designed for war, and that is what has some folks on edge. Why do the local police need a vehicle designed to move troops through a war zone? In speaking with a county official from a county that is getting an MRAP, the rationale is quite sensible. They use a civilian armored car that is more than 20 years old. It is armored enough, but just like all vehicles, the age has taken its toll and it needs major work to keep it func- tional. For less than $5,000, the county can replace this vehicle with one that is far superior and will last for decades. As for use, law enforcement will use the MRAP for tactical situations to protect police forces and possibly civilians. Also, because the MRAP has a very high floor and is designed for adverse environments, it lends itself well to flood and storm res- cues. As I said, it sounds sensible, but there is something about seeing a massive military vehicle being used by law enforcement that seems to be an acceleration of the mil- itarization of our police that has been hap- pening for decades. Where is the line now? Where should it be? The vast majority of Americans sup- port law enforcement and want them to have the tools necessary to protect and serve their communities. Over the years, the "tools" necessary for law enforcement have evolved just as American society has evolved. When the gangsters of the 1930s started arming themselves with Tommy Guns, police upgraded their .38 revolvers to something more powerful. When police were being gunned down in the 1980s, they started wearing body armor. When pedophiles began hunting chil- dren from their computers, law enforce- ment acquired technical equipment and personnel to catch them. Law enforcement has been keeping up with the bad guys for generations and perhaps the MRAP is just another step in that evolution. Our local law enforcement already uses full-body armor, automatic weapons, night vision, armored vehicles, snipers and many other imple- ments of war. We have become accustomed to it and, in many cases, appreciate it when they are equipped with such things when bad things happen. So where is that line between a law enforcement agency and just an enforcement agency? The answer is in the question. It is the law. The tools that they use – even an MRAP – are just that, tools. As long as a law enforcement agency is acting within the law and acting in their communities with the ethos of service and not rule, the tools they use are immaterial. There is still something unsettling about a militarized police force. The force behind those tools can be abused at any point. It is up to the citizenry to remain vigilant against such shifts to tyranny. (Owen Robinson's column runs weekly in The Milwaukee Post.) Military surplus another step in evolution Robinson

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