Milwaukee Cops

[BarryBobPosthole]

I was lucky enough to catch the full press conference remarks of the Milwaukee Sheriff yesterday. They're lucky to have him, IMO. His name is David Clarke.
The one thing that stuck out in my mind that he said was that police can't be held responsible for failed urban policies that produce the kind of ghettos that breeds crime and violence. He didn't say what those were but he is right as the mail. It isn't the fault of law enforcement that there are concentrated high crime areas in cities like St Louis and Milwaukee. But because its where the rubber meets the road that's what gets all the attention when we see the consequences of what is usually a chain of bad decisions made by those in government, and most of those issues are local decisions when you get right down to it.
Its time we make our leaders treat recognize the difference between a symptom and a problem!

BKb

[Hombre]

The failed urban policy is making people think that no personal responsibility exists for actions, and rioting / violent protests are an acceptable action / reaction. I knew people that lived in St Louis, sure you did too, and what I heard was "nope things are fine where we are at", all the rioting and looting was concentrated to very certain areas. So, I think I get what your saying but what's the right urban policy? Many municipalities have talked about building low income housing in upscale neighborhoods, but the response has largely been the same "Ok, just not my neighborhood". I'm not sure I blame people for wanting their neighborhoods to remain safe.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Well, there have been a lot of studies done for many years even going back to the race riots in the 60's. The three big problems all big city local governments face are employment, housing, and education. Poverty isn't on my list because, again its a symptom and not the core problem. And of course those three things cost money, but if you don't care for those things you get what we have in some cities now.
If you thnk about it, its a perfect Maslow's pyramid.

BKB

[Hombre]

Can't disagree with Employment, Housing, Education. But I'm not really sure the answer. Is the problem that Employment and Education aren't readily available or that people don't take advantage of what is? I think the answer is probably somewhere in the middle of providing more opportunity but with incentives to people who actually leverage those opportunities.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Well, First off I don't think spending a bunch of tax money to rebuild urban ghettos or to create some kind of government housing is going to solve anything. Even if you look at cities like Oklahoma City and Tulsa, relatively small 'big towns', the inner city schools are problematic. Lots a race issues in Tulsa in inner city schools. Magnet schools and charter schools have helped some, but there are still for all purposes all black schools and all white schools and (surprise surprise) that's where most of the problems are. I think if there's one thing we learned from the social programs of the sixties is that school integration helps to solve a lot of those knds of problems and kids that come out of those enviroments are more socially skilled when it comes to race relations. Instead of busing kids though, we need to do it by spending more money on those schools to attract better teachers and admin there and attract parents to want to bring their kids there. Those schools still have to serve their community but they need more help than the typical schools if we want a better result from them. to me, its that simple.
Housing is a tougher nut to crack.

BKB

[Hombre]

I don't disagree but the idea hasn't been to rebuild urban Ghettos the idea has been to move the housing to more affluent areas where there would be more school integration. I am in complete agreement that we need to overhaul how we address teachers and schooling. That being said I still think that it has a lot to do with early role models. Remember the Junior Achievement thing we did at MCI? That was hugely eyeopening to me. I taught / facilitated a 1st or 2nd grade class. The teacher was awesome and it was clear he held the kids to a high standard of acceptable behavior. These were young kids so in my opinion still very impressionable and not bad kids....but it was still clear in discussions that some of the things they looked up to could lead them down a bad path later...One of my lessons was about future goals, and how jobs worked.....I asked what they wanted to be when they grew up....One of the answers was Judge, so I can get my dad out of jail, one was dealer to make lots of money....We have to figure out the education / employment thing but I think the real fix will come a generation later when kids see the proper role models.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Oh heck yes. There are no short term answers.

And that's pretty much what the sheriff said.

BKB