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Dr. Robert S. Smith, Harry G. John Professor of History and the director of the Center for Urban Research, Teaching & Outreach at Marquette University, challenges Milwaukee residents to read the Milwaukee Blueprint for Peace, calling it “informative” and “concise.”
Let’s make the goal of this piece clear up front. I dare you to read the Milwaukee Blueprint for Peace! Matter of fact, I double-dog dare you. (I hope that phrase isn’t offensive now.)
Trust me Family, as a so-called academic I know how hard it is to read through policy reports and other wonky documents. One of the reasons so many bills in state legislatures and Congress slide through with disastrous provisions is simply because nobody wants to read all that junk; except the overly ambitious intern who probably does a cursory skim at best.
The Office of Violence Prevention though deserves a shout-out for the Milwaukee Blueprint for Peace. It’s deeply informative, while also digestible and concise. It was informed by an exhaustive number of community experts leaning in to address a vexing problem, but does not absolve government of its roles and responsibilities. And, most importantly, it calls for a re-imagination of how to address the myriad forms of violence that weaken our families and communities, while also acknowledging how massive a job the Office of Violence Prevention is called upon to do.
Many of us are going to say, “I know that information already…” Maybe. Others of us won’t even bother making the false promise. Much appreciated. Nonetheless, here are three reasons why we each should take a few minutes and read or reread “The Blueprint.”
#1 – The Blueprint Educates
The Blueprint synthesizes and contextualizes data and information that explains – indeed complicates – our collective understanding of violence. The Blueprint defines and highlights the collective toll exacted by gun and gang violence, domestic violence, sexual violence, child abuse, drug-related violence, self-inflicted violence and structural violence. For many, the inclusion of structural violence alongside the other types is a welcomed, albeit longstanding, critique of our broader society.
Because structural violence “refers to harm that individuals, families and communities experience from economic and social structures.” The Blueprint is therefore implicating the very structure of government in which the Office of Violence Prevention rests. More so, The Blueprint states that “structural violence in Milwaukee includes institutional racism and other forms of oppression such as sexism and classism.” Props!
This more sophisticated understanding is profoundly important because the path to a healthier, less violent city requires the appropriate redress of issues that go well beyond demanding young people behave better or administering token reforms within the criminal justice apparatus. Explaining these disparate forms of violence as part of a larger social exhibition confirms this as a vast American problem and public health crisis. Few will disagree that “The injury, pain, and trauma that results from violence can severely impact the physical and mental well-being and sense of worth and safety of individuals and communities.” For those living in poverty, they know all too well that “Poverty is traumatic. Segregation is traumatic. Experiencing life as a ‘have not’ among ‘haves’ is traumatic.” The Blueprint outlines the depth of violence we experience in our lives, both seen and unseen, immediate and gradual, personal and structural.
#2 – Cross-Sector Implementation is the Only Way
No singular office or agency can address this hydra. Police forces have failed to significantly reduce violence despite the criminalization of masses of people and despite full scale militarization. Government has failed to undo patterns of structural violence, and will continue to double down on the practices that propel structural violence given its never-ending appetite for capital.
A defining value of The Blueprint is its commitment to mobilizing existing strategies while making space for emerging alliances and creative ideas to thrive. In this respect, The Blueprint maximizes the knowledge housed at the grassroots level, calling on the vast array of more imaginative community reservoirs. This approach allows it to be “a living guide that can be responsive and updated as issues, priorities, and effective ideas emerge.” The Blueprint also focuses its implementation efforts on priority neighborhoods, improving the likelihood of an impact.
#3 – Immediate Involvement
You can click here and join the effort. The OVP leadership team has and will remain open to collaborators, and we can each take part in the community programs and events currently underway. We can each make the decision to take part right now, in whatever ways we can contribute to the solution development process.
Look Fam’, our nation is deeply committed to violence. It is a defining narrative in the American experience beginning with examples like chattel slavery and even with our celebration of the American Revolution. Indeed, our nation’s commitment to violence is put on display every weekend throughout the fall and winter. So, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday as we boldly celebrate that bloodlust, it is possible for those truly interested, “…to join together to meet this moment of urgency and opportunity to make Milwaukee one of the safest cities in the country,” because we can read The Blueprint.
What happens if Juvenile Detention Centers, Jails and Prisons become intense places of Healing as all those incarcerated have suffered abuse and trauma and in all likelihood from multiple sources. Yes all the parts of the Plan are important as responses to immediate issues and crisis confronting individuals and therefore that community. What needs to be added is the Individual HEALING that each person must experience, in order to escape the injury that that the abuse and trauma has caused to the brain. Read The Deepest Well to understand the injury to the brain.
Thomas, I am the Director of the Office of Violence Prevention and agree that incarceration factories—especially for youth should be dismantled and redesigned to live up to modles
of healing and rehabilitation they should be and our society deserves.
Hi Reggie What if the City “demanded” that the State turn its Prisons into places of intense healing as Ms Walker who spoke before you seemed to be saying that the State was going to be “trauma informed” while the guards were tasering the kids at Lincoln Hills.
As part of the plan to come up with a list of healing opportunities for those incarcerated.
You know of Community Building Workshops and its benefits another program is the work of Lee Gerdes Brain State Tech A very good video on YouTube and I am sure that there are others as well What I do know is that anger management is an oxymoron and used extensively in the prison. Know a kid who at 18 killed his 6 weeks old daughter and NEVER grieved her death in the 10 years he was in Prison much less dealt with the abuse he suffered as a kid. Came out the same way he went in.
Thanks for responding
Peace
Tom Spellman
Can you include a link to the Blueprint for Peace?
Thanks Dr. Smith,
your double dare is interesting. I am on Center Street and realize that data was pulled from existing structures, however, am wondering what elements from my particular area was utilized?
Dr. Smith, Thanks for calling attention to this important document.
I read the Blueprint for Peace a few months ago and shared the following thoughts with Reggie Moore, the Director of the Office of Violence Prevention.
I was struck by how the Prevention Institute, which is funded by a major health care provider, Kaiser Permanente, was able to control the direction of the effort and steer it away from a Criminal Justice System Approach to a Public Health Approach. No surprise there.
The terms “War on Drugs” and “Drug War” do not appear in the Blueprint for Peace. Drug abuse and drug crime are mentioned peripherally but, because the Criminal Justice System was not included in the approach, the core issue of the impact of law enforcement on violence and crime in the context of the Drug War was not addressed.
On page 15 of the Blueprint For Peace it says:
* There were 6 (6.9%) drug-related homicides in 2014, 17 (11.6%) in 2015, and 6 (4.3%) in 2016. There were 29 (5.0%) drug-related shootings in 2014, 35 (5.5%) in 2015, and 16 (2.9) in 2016.
Milwaukee Homicide Commission reports cited to document these numbers differentiate between drug-related and drug-related-robbery homicides and drug-related and drug-related-robbery non-fatal shootings. The Blueprint for Peace only includes drug-related homicides and drug-related non-fatal shootings in the tallies listed above while failing to include the drug-related-robbery homicides and drug-related-robberies non-fatal shootings.
If we rewrite the Drug-related violence paragraph noted above to include drug-related-robbery homicides and drug-related-robberies non-fatal shootings we get the following:
* There were 13 (15.1%) drug-related homicides in 2014, 25 (17.2%) in 2015, and 15 (10.8%) in 2016. There were 60 (10.3%) drug-related shootings in 2014, 68 (10.7%) in 2015, and 36 (6.4) in 2016.
We can only guess how many argument driven, gang-related, retaliation or unknown homicides or non-fatal shootings were actually drug-related.
When homicides and non-fatal shootings from drug-related-robberies are included, the numbers show that War on Drugs is having a much more substantial impact on the level of gun violence in the City of Milwaukee than that portrayed in the Blueprint for Peace, which includes only drug-related homicides and non-fatal shootings.
The links below are to the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Milwaukee Homicide Commission Reports referenced in the Blueprint. If you want to check my numbers please note that the 2015 report had updated numbers for what happened in 2014 and likewise, the 2016 report had updated numbers for what happened in 2015, so I used the later reports to come up with my counts and percentages.
2014 https://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/cityHRC/reports/2014AnnualReportV.2.5.pdf
2015 https://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/cityHRC/reports/2015AnnualReportFINAL.pdf
2016 https://www.wpr.org/sites/default/files/2016%20MHRC%20Annual%20Report%209-29-2017%20FINAL.pdf
By inaccurately reporting “drug-related” homicides and non-fatal shootings, completely ignoring the War on Drugs and explicitly NOT including the Criminal Justice System in the report, the document is a Blueprint for Failure, not a Blueprint for Peace.
I read the Blueprint for Peace a few weeks ago and shared the following thoughts with Reggie Moore, the Director of the Office of Violence Prevention.
I was struck by how the Prevention Institute, which is funded by a major health care provider, Kaiser Permanente, was able to control the direction of the effort and steer it away from a Criminal Justice System Approach to a Public Health Approach. No surprise there.
The terms “War on Drugs” and “Drug War” do not appear in the Blueprint for Peace. Drug abuse and drug crime are mentioned peripherally but, because the Criminal Justice System was not included in the approach, the core issue of the impact of law enforcement on violence and crime in the context of the Drug War was not addressed.
On page 15 of the Blueprint For Peace it says:
* There were 6 (6.9%) drug-related homicides in 2014, 17 (11.6%) in 2015, and 6 (4.3%) in 2016. There were 29 (5.0%) drug-related shootings in 2014, 35 (5.5%) in 2015, and 16 (2.9) in 2016.
Milwaukee Homicide Commission reports cited to document these numbers differentiate between drug-related and drug-related-robbery homicides and drug-related and drug-related-robbery non-fatal shootings. The Blueprint for Peace only includes drug-related homicides and drug-related non-fatal shootings in the tallies listed above while failing to include the drug-related-robbery homicides and drug-related-robberies non-fatal shootings.
If we rewrite the Drug-related violence paragraph noted above to include drug-related-robbery homicides and drug-related-robberies non-fatal shootings we get the following:
* There were 13 (15.1%) drug-related homicides in 2014, 25 (17.2%) in 2015, and 15 (10.8%) in 2016. There were 60 (10.3%) drug-related shootings in 2014, 68 (10.7%) in 2015, and 36 (6.4) in 2016.
We can only guess how many argument driven, gang-related, retaliation or unknown homicides or non-fatal shootings were actually drug-related.
When homicides and non-fatal shootings from drug-related-robberies are included, the numbers show that War on Drugs is having a much more substantial impact on the level of gun violence in the City of Milwaukee than that portrayed in the Blueprint for Peace, which includes only drug-related homicides and non-fatal shootings.
The links below are to the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Milwaukee Homicide Commission Reports referenced in the Blueprint. If you want to check my numbers please note that the 2015 report had updated numbers for what happened in 2014 and likewise, the 2016 report had updated numbers for what happened in 2015, so I used the later reports to come up with my counts and percentages.
2014 https://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/cityHRC/reports/2014AnnualReportV.2.5.pdf
2015 https://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/cityHRC/reports/2015AnnualReportFINAL.pdf
2016 https://www.wpr.org/sites/default/files/2016%20MHRC%20Annual%20Report%209-29-2017%20FINAL.pdf
By inaccurately reporting “drug-related” homicides and non-fatal shootings, completely ignoring the War on Drugs and explicitly NOT including the Criminal Justice System in the report, the document is a Blueprint for Failure, not a Blueprint for Peace.
What is your point Paul. More Lincoln Hills or ??? For the first time folks are working together and the energy in making change is significant. What drug related or unrelated seems to make little difference. You seem to be critical but what are you saying?
Yes I want to make sure that ALL individuals who are incarcerated receive the healing therapy that they need and have a right to.
Peace Tom Spellman 414 403 1341