Milwaukee mayor urges residents to reduce violence, reckless driving

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson Tuesday repeated earlier requires residents to do extra to scale back violence and reckless driving of their communities.

This time, his message was to sixth graders at Roosevelt Artistic Arts Center Faculty, who wrote him letters with issues about reckless driving.

“Probably the most highly effective individuals on this room proper now are you,” Johnson advised the scholars. “If you happen to’ve acquired buddies that you understand that is perhaps doing unhealthy issues, you may affect them.”

Johnson, Police Chief Jeff Norman and Milwaukee Public Faculties Superintendent Keith Posley talked with the scholars as the town continues to grapple with a scourge of gun violence, automotive theft and reckless driving.

Metropolis officers have raised issues about younger individuals, together with pre-teens, stealing automobiles and driving recklessly.

“I would like dad and mom to step up and to verify they’re taking accountability for his or her children on this metropolis,” Johnson mentioned Tuesday.

Gun violence can be within the highlight after 21 individuals have been shot and injured downtown after the Milwaukee Bucks playoff sport Friday, and after six juveniles have been shot in separate incidents over the weekend.

“We’re on tempo to see a lethal yr for youths, for younger individuals. And that to me is just not acceptable,” Johnson mentioned.

Extra:Two males are charged within the shootings close to the Deer District in downtown Milwaukee

Extra:‘Extra weapons than we’ve law enforcement officials’: Police used similar technique from final summer time to quell violence downtown, however challenges stay

Town leaders answered college students’ questions on how reckless driving and gun violence affected them personally.

Johnson mentioned that generally, when his spouse is choosing up their son from college with their 4-year-old twins within the automotive, somebody drives immediately at her “like in a sport of hen.”

“I need (my children) to have the ability to go exterior and journey their bikes with out concern of bullets flying round them,” he mentioned. “I need them to have the ability to go exterior and stroll round … with out concern of someone getting within a automotive and driving on the sidewalk.”

Norman thanked the scholars for being “a part of the answer.”

“Please be that voice of cause,” he mentioned. “All of us have a task in our security in our group.” 

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Observe her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.