Milwaukee's Feral Children

Is there hope for the city of Milwaukee?

Is its future bright?

Look at its children. Look at the generation coming up.

It's a discouraging picture.

I hope that the good kids grow up to stand up to the bad ones, because at present, Milwaukee's future seems very bleak.

Currently, there is a shocking lack of leadership and a level of incompetence that is mind-boggling. You can count on one hand the Milwaukee leaders willing to acknowledge that the city is in crisis and offering solutions to tackle its problems.

Mayor Tom Barrett is AWOL.

In the meantime, high schoolers fight inside and outside the classroom.

Kids assault their teachers.

An 11-year-old boy was taken into custody Tuesday at Elm Creative Arts School, 900 W. Walnut Ave. after he hit a teacher on the head with the phone, bit her and then kicked and punched an educational assistant in the chest, police and school officials said today.

MPS spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin said the student became unruly and angry during a class and took a phone receiver located in the class and struck the teacher in the head three times. He then bit her, she said.

An educational assistant who was making an effort to restrain the child was kicked and punched in the chest, she said.

Kids commit murder.

Antonio Jones, murderer of 44-year-old Scott Huggins, is 16!

Today, two more kids were taken into police custody for their involvement in a murder.

A 15-year-old and a 16-year-old are in police custody in connection with the killing of Cardell Bonslater Sr. in February, police said this morning.

Bonslater, 63, was shot and killed during a robbery Feb. 5 at his appliance store located in the 3600 block of N. Martin Luther King Dr.

From a February 6, 2007, report in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Two masked men - one with a gun -- entered Magic Furniture Variety Appliance Store, 3611 N. Martin Luther King Dr., at 7:19 p.m. and demanded money, said department spokesperson Anne E. Schwartz said. Bonslater was in the store with two other people moving an appliance.

After the men got cash, they fled and Bonslater followed them out. That is when he was shot, police said. Because the investigation is ongoing, no other information was released such as where on his body Bonslater was hit.

Are the 15 and 16-year-olds the masked men that killed Bonslater?

Read more about Bonslater.

Cardell Bonslater Sr. made a major career change a year ago, from hairdresser to appliance store owner, his daughter said Tuesday.

It was at his store - Magic Appliance in the 3600 block of N. King Drive - that Bonslater, 63, was killed Monday night in a robbery, police said.

Bonslater was in the store with a couple employees about 7:15 p.m. when two masked men, one armed, came in, said Anne E. Schwartz, department spokeswoman. The robbers got cash. Schwartz said Bonslater followed them and was shot outside, where he died.

...Bonslater's daughter Samantha Smith, 29, said her father was killed inside the store and didn't follow the robbers out. She doesn't believe her father would let masked people in the store after it was closed.

"I think it was someone already in the store with him," Smith said. "They asked him for money, and they shot him anyway."

Bonslater moved to Milwaukee from Chicago in 1996, Smith said. He cut hair in Chicago and Milwaukee, but he also was good at fixing appliances, she said.

"He was a jack of all trades," she said.

He opened his store a year ago and worked many hours there, she said, but he never had been robbed before Monday.

Bonslater, who was divorced, liked playing pool and belonged to a league, she said. But mostly he enjoyed spending time with his 10 children and 30 grandchildren, she said.

"Anyone who met him would have loved him," Smith said.

My heart breaks for the victims of these ruthless murderers. My heart breaks for their grieving families and friends.

Are the children that committed these crimes and brought so much misery victims?

Should we feel sorry for these kids gone astray?

If these children truly don't know right from wrong, if they don't know that assault, stealing and murder are wrong, then I guess one can't blame them for what they've done. In that case, they have no guidelines to follow when exercising their free will.

I don't buy it.

I don't buy that they don't know that killing someone in cold blood is wrong. Of course they know that taking someone's life is wrong.

The violence isn't caused by guns or a lack of jobs or poverty. Individuals choose to commit the crimes.

Milwaukee's children are all too routinely committing serious crimes. There's no excusing that.

This is about morals and the depths of the soul.

Are these young criminals animals, without any understanding of values and rules of society?

No.

Whatever our circumstances, we are each responsible for our actions.

We each should be held accountable for what we do; and in the case of Milwaukee's Mayor Tom Barrett, for what he DOESN'T do.