One of Milwaukee's crime victims, 84-year-old Norma Haddad, is talking about her nightmare.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
On the day after being carjacked on the streets of Milwaukee, the diminutive bead shop owner from Toledo, Ohio, was back at the Bead & Button Show inside the Midwest Airlines Center on Friday, looking at the wares and recounting her terrifying experience.
She lost her car - a metallic gold 1999 Chevy Malibu with tiger-striped front seat covers - a purse that contained $1,000 in travelers checks, $500 in cash and a cell phone, and hundreds of dollars worth of multicolored beads stashed in the trunk.
But she survived, aided by quick thinking and a few swift kicks to get away from the assailant who forced her to drive a circuitous 45-minute route from downtown Milwaukee to Washington Park.
"I kicked him between his legs with both feet," she said.
The carjacking of a tourist rattled local convention and visitors officials who maintain Milwaukee has one of the safest downtowns in the country. One tourism leader called for a meeting with police and city officials to ensure safety remains a priority.
"We take this very seriously," said Doug Neilson, president and chief executive officer of Visit Milwaukee, the city's convention and visitors bureau.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett suggested it may be time for Visit Milwaukee to share in the cost of providing police services.
"(Visit Milwaukee) gets $4.6 million a year in room, and food and beverage taxes," said Barrett, who had asked his budget staff - even before Thursday's incident - to determine how much of that could be tapped for city services.
"It's time some of that comes back to the city. Let's put that money into public safety," he said.
As for the victim, if she was rattled, well, she brushed it off pretty quickly.
A little bruised - Haddad said Epsom salts would take care of that - she was back shopping at the convention Friday.
"You name a town in the U.S. this couldn't happen in," Haddad said. "My mistake is I should have jumped out of the car as soon as I saw him jump in."
Mrs. Haddad is being very forgiving.
I don't think I would be.
Mayor Barrett sees Mrs. Haddad's ordeal as an opportunity to ask for money from Visit Milwaukee, to be spent on policing.
With the gun violence and mayhem at RiverSplash, the bar and restaurant owners were to blame.
Now, in this case, Barrett gets on Visit Milwaukee's case.
Why won't he place blame for the chaos on the gang members, the thugs, and this carjacking scumbag?
...Barrett called on city residents to help police find the carjacker.
"We need to act as a united front," he said. "Somebody knows where this guy is, and if people have information, they should come forward."
Barrett, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz and Visit Milwaukee's Neilson all stressed that the downtown is safe.
Schwartz said only three robberies have been reported downtown in the last two months. And Neilson said it's the first time in his seven years at the bureau that he's "had to deal with something like this."
Still, Neilson said, even the perception of crime could undermine efforts to attract visitors.
"We need to make sure the new chief recognizes the importance of downtown and that it's a safe place to be," Neilson said.
Yes, if people have information, they should come forward.
All too often, they don't do what they should.
Four-year-old Jasmine Owens was murdered, caught in the crossfire, while she played outside a year ago in May.
NO ONE has come forward with information to solve the murder of this precious little girl.
The most difficult issue facing Milwaukee in terms of its crime problem is that it has a population of lawless thugs protected by their conscienceless family and friends.
As long as there are so many people like that around, the law-abiding Milwaukee residents and visitors shouldn't feel safe.
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