McGee: Public Corruption, Potential for Violence

Ald. Michael McGee: "I don't have a birth certificate."

I wonder.

Who snitched on Michael McGee?

An investigation by federal and state authorities resulted in his arrest.

Someone must have cooperated with officials. That's against the McGee Stop Snitchin' Creed.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

McGee is under investigation on potential public corruption charges, according to sources familiar with the probe, which has been placed under seal. Further details are expected to be announced today during a joint news conference by U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm.

It was unclear late Monday where and under what circumstances McGee was arrested, but sources said the arrest was made earlier than planned because investigators suspected the potential for violence.

That's weird.

True, "McGee" and "potential for violence" are synonymous; but it's still weird.

What was McGee doing that his arrest was necessary to ward off violence?

What did authorities think might happen?

...At the request of the Milwaukee County district attorney's office, a secret John Doe investigation was launched in December to look into matters related to the [McGee] recall effort. Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf, assigned to the district attorney's white-collar crime unit, was placed in charge of the investigation. The Journal Sentinel has independently confirmed the existence of the John Doe but not the target of it.

At the time, McGee attorney Mike Maistelman alleged fraud on the part of recall organizers. Another possible focus may be on why Joan Hollingsworth, who initially was paid to assist recall organizers, later said she misled recall signers about the purpose of the petition.

The recall also prompted a Milwaukee County court commissioner to issue a restraining order against McGee after former Milwaukee School Board member Leon Todd, who was running Jordan's campaign, told the commissioner he feared for his life. McGee said during a radio broadcast that Todd should be "hung" for his "betrayal of the community," resulting in a flurry of calls cursing and threatening Todd.

At the time, another McGee attorney, Bill Baldon, said McGee was not urging violence but was simply engaging in political discourse.

McGee also caught authorities' attention in May 2006 when he petitioned to legally change his name to McGee, saying that his name at birth was really Michael I. Jackson. He later withdrew the petition, but by then the state Department of Transportation's fraud unit had launched an investigation. The department determined that the alderman had held driver's licenses in both names. His license with the Jackson name had been revoked in March 2000. When the state determined that McGee and Jackson were the same person in June 2006, the McGee license was revoked, as well.

Read about McGee's adventures here and here.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!"

Things get messy when we threaten to hang someone from a tree, too.

Monday marked the third time McGee has been arrested in the past year and a half.

Three arrests in eighteen months.

THREE ARRESTS!

The man is an alderman!

A recall election gave the people of his district the chance to get a decent representative on the Milwaukee Common Council, but they overwhelmingly voted to keep McGee.

It's really hard to grasp that the voters have so little respect for the law and such low standards in terms of leadership that they're willing to accept McGee's antics and elect him.

TMJ4 reports:

We have also learned that police used search warrants to search McGee's Trostel Square apartment near Commerce St. on Monday night.

I wonder if police came across any smoking guns.

I can just imagine how this is playing out with McGee's supporters.

I'm sure they're rallying behind him, with the elder McGee leading the charge. The bigot will encourage violence in response to his son's arrest. Same old, same old.

There also will probably be protests and vigils, accompanying the accusations that McGee is being harassed.

That's all likely to come.

And why was Junior McGee arrested?

Even though more information won't come until later today, we don't need details.

It's a vast racial conspiracy. First and foremost, McGee's supporters will frame his arrest as racially motivated.

They'll paint him as a victim and a hero, a martyr.

No matter what the charges, no matter what the evidence, his diehard followers will still follow.

That's the pathetic part.

McGee is a thug. Lots of people in Milwaukee are thugs, so that in itself is not unusual. What's revealing is that a majority of voters in McGee's district either don't see it that way or they do but don't mind.

The thing that really disturbs me is that so many people are willing to stand behind him. You'd think by now that the people of his district would have had enough.

Instead, they can't seem to get enough McGee.

It's really a sad commentary on the state of the city.

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be Michael McGee.