Crime Around UWM

The story today in Milwaukee is definitely crime.

Mayor Tom Barrett, Police Chief Nan Hegerty, and other officials can spin the numbers as furiously as they wish.

The fact is residents are troubled by what they perceive to be a disturbing trend. People are no longer as comfortable as they used to be in their neighborhoods. Formerly safe areas of the city are becoming less safe.

Things are changing for the worse.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The shooting of a student near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Monday night comes as assaults have leaped 67% in neighborhoods surrounding the campus, the Journal Sentinel found.

Although campus officials and Milwaukee police have responded by boosting patrols in the area, some students have become more fearful, and at least a few of them are considering a change.

"I'm moving," said Jacob Goodall, 19, a UWM sophomore from Black Creek in Outagamie County who has lived on N. Murray Ave. since August. "I'm out of here. It's not worth it anymore. I have to walk places in the dark."

The Journal Sentinel analyzed crimes in the area bordered by Edgewood Ave., North Ave., Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River. The analysis compared Jan. 1 though Sept. 30 of this year to the same period last year. Assaults were up from 43 last year to 72 this year. Burglaries and robberies were down.

A Journal Sentinel report found in October that a stepped-up summer patrol effort by Milwaukee police had reduced violent crime in targeted areas, but that some crimes, such as aggravated assaults, had risen in other areas, including the east side, that previously had little crime.

This is really bad for the city. Really bad.

When crime begins to spread to areas previously seen as safe, and people bail out, that's a problem.

Who will fill the void when the law-abiding residents move out?

Here's a clue: Not other law-abiding citizens.

..."We take incidents like the one that occurred (Monday) night very seriously, and it causes us to redouble our efforts to encourage safe practices by our students and also to deal with the causes of crime that do occur," said UWM spokesman Tom Luljak.

...Monday's shooting victim, 21, was pistol-whipped and shot in the leg as he fled from two people who demanded money as he walked toward his home in the 2700 block of N. Murray about 11 p.m., Schwartz said. Police recovered suspected marijuana from the victim. He was reported in satisfactory condition Tuesday afternoon at a hospital.

Police said the assailants were described as two African-American men in their 20s, one about 5 feet 11 inches tall, wearing dark, baggy clothes and carrying a small, silver handgun; the other man was about 5 feet 9 inches tall and wearing dark, baggy clothes and a white do-rag.

11 p.m. isn't that late. It's not like the streets are deserted at that hour.

The assailants are brazen thugs. It's worth noting that the victim was carrying pot.

Schwartz said year-to-date crime for District 5, including UWM, is down 7% compared with 2006.

That's little comfort to Angie Franke, 21, a UWM communication major. Originally from Beaver Dam, she said other people back home chose to go to smaller schools "because their parents didn't feel safe sending them here."

...Students such as Franke can't help but notice the increase in campus safety alerts. From Oct. 2 to Nov. 5, the university posted a dozen alerts, including the shooting, an armed robbery, an attempted armed robbery, two attempted strong-arm robberies, two reported incidents of battery and several other arrests.

..."For many years, there were virtually no incidents of assaults or robberies occurring anywhere in the immediate campus area," Luljak said. "So whenever there is any uptick in that, it is troublesome."

It really bugs me when the crime stats are dragged out, as if they are some sort of shield so officials can take cover.

Who cares about numbers? Numbers can be so easily manipulated.

It's personal experience that counts.

This reminds me of the question that Ronald Reagan posed when he was running against Jimmy Carter in 1980 for the presidency, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

With crime in Milwaukee, the stats are irrelevant in the end. It's perception that counts.

What matters is this: Do people feel safer than they did a year ago?

No.