From Milwaukee freedom fighter Alan Shultz:
If you want to know the real reasons behind the rebellion in Milwaukee just look at some of the numbers on Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the nation -know why people become so outraged before passing judgement on them.
*Black people make up 40 percent of the city of Milwaukee.
*The state of Wisconsin has the largest achievement gap between black and white students in the country.
*Milwaukee has the most black students in the state and is the biggest contributor to Wisconsin’s achievement gap.
*Wisconsin ranks last in reading comprehension tests among black fourth-graders.
*The Milwaukee public school system has been plagued by federal and state funding cuts and a 20-year-old school choice program that diverts public tax dollars to private schools through vouchers.
*The unemployment rate for black people in Milwaukee exceeds that of every other state in the United States, where the unemployment average is at 10%, while Milwaukee’s is at 22%.
*For black people, approximately one out of every two men in Milwaukee is unemployed, while only 18.1 percent of white men and 22.1 percent of Hispanic men are without employment.
*The city of Milwaukee is the fourth-most impoverished major city in America.
*4-out-of-5 black children in Wisconsin are living in poverty.
*Black children in Wisconsin are six times more likely to live in poverty than white children, as the poverty rate for blacks (48%) is 38% higher than whites (10%) – which is the highest disparity ratio in the nation.
*The poverty rate for black people in the United States is excessively high at 33%, but the poverty rate in Wisconsin is 15% higher than the national average.
*The city of Milwaukee spends $277,233,534 on its latest annual budget for police services.
*Since Mayor Barrett took office the expenditures on police has risen by 54%
*An additional $32 million yearly is added on to that $277 million cost for police services since it goes to pensions and duty disability pay.
*The city of Milwaukee’s total budget for 2016 is $615,568,884.
*The costs for policing in Milwaukee are about $309,233,534 for this budget or over half of the entire budget of the city which directly takes money from educational budgetary increases and job creation efforts.
*The homicide rate plunged 42 percent nationwide. Violent crime decreased by one-third. Crime has steadily declined since 1990.
*Child gun-related deaths had increased by 31 percent from 2008-10 and 2012-14.
*In 2011, 88,895 handguns were sold in the state. Before concealed carry, the state averaged 40,000 to 50,000 gun sales a year. As of *Nov. 1, 2012, more than 100,000 handguns have been sold.
*There were 145 homicide victims in Milwaukee last year.
*It was the highest number of homicides since 1993, when 160 people were killed in the city.
*The spike was a nearly 69% increase from 2014 — a year-to-year increase higher than the headline-grabbing changes reported in Baltimore, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.
*The yearly change in Milwaukee is so stark, in part, because the city recorded one of its lowest homicide totals in a generation in 2014: 86 victims.
*Wisconsin has actually invested more in public and private prisons over the last 20 years while most other states have opted to go in the other direction.
*The Wisconsin state budget now allots more funding for corrections than it does for higher education.
*Wisconsin also incarcerates the most black men in the country.
*Wisconsin incarcerates more black men than any other state in the nation – 32% more than the next highest state
*The Wisconsin black population makes up 6.2% of the state population, but 45% of the state prison population.
*In Wisconsin one in eight black men in the state have been incarcerated.
*White males are incarcerated at a rate of one in eighty-one in Wisconsin.
*In Milwaukee County, more than half of all black men in their 30s and 40s have been incarcerated.
*In the 53206 Zip Code alone, 62 percent of all men have spent time in an adult correctional facility by age 34.
*The prison population in Wisconsin has more than tripled since 1990, fueled by increased government funding for drug enforcement (rather than treatment) and prison construction, three-strike rules, mandatory minimum sentence laws, truth-in-sentencing replacing judicial discretion in setting punishments, concentrated policing in minority communities, and state incarceration for minor probation and supervision violations.
*Over half the predominately black neighborhoods in Wisconsin are state prisons.
*Even though Wisconsin has 72 counties, almost 50 percent of our state’s prisoners come from one county—Milwaukee.
*Milwaukee County is divided along racial and political lines, and the city is the most segregated in America.
CITED SOURCES
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/03/05/390723644/why-is-milwaukee-so-bad-for-black-people
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/6/29/1220042/-Milwaukee-A-Third-World-City
http://www.citylab.com/crime/2016/08/half-of-wisconsins-black-neighborhoods-are-jails/495152/
http://city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/User/crystali/PublicSite/2016adoptedbookwebsite.pdf
Milwaukee August 14, 2016
![Coalition For Justice protest August 8, 2015 in Milwaukee [Photo Credit: C.M. Despears]](https://wibailoutpeople.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/coj_milwaukee_august_8_2015.jpg?w=168&h=126 "COJ_Milwaukee_August_8_2015")
