Recently District 5 MPD station at 4th and Locust held an Easter egg hunt for some district children. The hunt was held at Messemer St. Mary’s Catholic School for K4 and K5 students. There were about sixty students involved and the sponsor of the event was the Walmart location at 401 E. Capitol Drive. The children were let outside by class onto the playground area to hunt for the six hundred eggs that were hidden. Students also got a chance to decorate eggs in addition. A raffle was held and 2-3 students from each class were selected to win an Easter egg basket. The basket contained eggs, chocolates, and toys. School personnel supervised the entire event. This is a yearly event, but it takes place at a different location each year.
The Easter egg hunt was a good positive event but then this past weekend occurred. It was one of the first warm weekends of the season and we ended up with twenty shootings and twenty-two victims, which included three homicides. Included in the homicides was a 13-year-old girl that was involved in a triple shooting where her 10-year-old sister was also wounded. In addition, a 19-year-old female was killed in a DV-related incident. The city is in an uproar over these violent weekend events. The Mayor, Chief of Police and the Director of the Office of Violence Prevention all spoke on these events. The mayor stated he has plans in the works to deal with these events and they will be out shortly when asked by reporters. Chief Norman stated this level of violence is not acceptable and the police department cannot do this by themselves. He continued we need the public’s help, and we are in this all together.
Arnitta Holliman, Director of the Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention, for the past year, was asked what her office is was doing with all the money they are getting. She responded there are good stories that are not being reported by the media. They use a public health approach by being in the neighborhoods where they have the most shootings and violence. They have 414 Life respond to resolve conflicts in real time to stop shootings before they happen or even afterwards to stop retaliation shootings. These are volunteers that were trained by her personnel to deal with these situations. She continues that there were no shootings, to her knowledge, in the area where the 414 Life personnel have been working. These are seeds of hope and they hope to expand the program to other neighborhoods including the southside.
We have to get a handle on this level of violence and cut it down before the long hot, summer gets here. Working together we can do this, but it will take a lot of effort from everyone. The work by the Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention gives me hope.