OT: Milwaukee Crime

[847badgerfan]

Ok, then my Dad was correct.

I hope Milwaukee is "enjoying" the Chicago influx. Maybe they could name it North Chicago, and take even more.

Oh.. wait... That is already taken, and sucking by itself, much to chagrin of its affluent neighbor, Lake Bluff. Waukegan don't care. 

Kenosha cares. 

[MarqHusker]

There's no doubt a lot of spillover into those pockets.  As I noted above, I'm years away from that life where it was my job to know about all of this stuff, but there's a lot of trafficking, victims and criminals that are found causing trouble on both sides of the state line.    

Some time Badge I'll have to tell you about a fascinating drug case I worked, hugely complex trafficking network.  You had dimwitted straw man drivers (mostly women) paid to drive cars between points A, B, C,  repeat.  Always a different car supplied by a 'key master' (this guy was a unforgettable witness), always told to pack light, keep personal bags in the back seat, never look in the trunk, under the hood.  No phones, no passengers.  These may have been the dumbest adults I have ever seen in my life.   One driver (a govt witness who flipped on a plea deal) her testimony was incredible.

[Hawkinole]

Not to belabor this, but last weekend in Chicago, 72 people shot , 13 killed, nobody arrested.  Nobody snitched either. Combine this with much less aggressive policing, and it isn't any wonder who runs the neighborhood.

This is disturbing, but I am not scared to go to Chicago, or for my friends who live there. 

I am no expert on Chicago neighborhoods. I would be scared perhaps if I got off on the wrong exit. I would like to see municipal leaders do a better job at fighting crime, but I don't claim to have particular expertise on what that might entail, other than police presence.

One night after a White Sox game, I was a bit distraught having difficulty finding our car in the lot. There were plenty of lights on, and there were White Sox employees around, but the cars were thinning out. We finally found it farther south than I expected. I since have seen neighborhood crime stats and it surprised me that Wrigleyville is one of the higher crime areas, and the area around what I call Comiskey Park is one of the lower crime areas.

[847badgerfan]

Bridgeport is actually a very good neighborhood. It's when you get South from the ballpark that things change - quickly. Always stay North of the park and you're fine. I walked that entire area many times, with my wife and kids when they were little. It's an even better area now.

[betarhoalphadelta]

My grandmother lived at 61st and Pulaski. The "south side" is known to be the bad part of town, but my grandma's neighborhood was mostly old Polish people...

Cross 63rd, and it gets bad. But 61st was fine. Nice neighborhood.

Now, I haven't been there in over a decade, so maybe things have changed somewhat, but it was definitely the case of there being a clear "do not cross this line" boundary.

[847badgerfan]

That area is still decent, but it's changing as the older folks move on.

[CatsbyAZ]

On Milwaukee...


My Dad told me a long time ago that a lot of Chicago people fled to Milwaukee because it paid better in the welfare and food lines. I don't know this to be true though. I never looked and I doubt I could even find anything online to support it.


Perhaps MH could weigh in on this.

I wondered about exactly this. The plot thickens: I was in Cedar Rapids Iowa two years ago, having just gotten there after driving across absolutely nothing but corn land from Kansas City, through Des Moines, Marshalltown, and finally to Cedar Rapids & nearby Marion. With a big grain elevator in the center of town everything and everyone looked like the the same Iowa I’d seen at all stops between, gassing up or taking a smoke break. Except where my old Marine buddy met up with me was the parking lot of McDonald’s and Walgreens. In the lot were several dozens boys anywhere from 10-30, shooting hoops, skipping around and looking less like the Iowans I’d seen and more like, let’s say, city kids? Police officers were escorting two handcuffed youngsters from the McDonald’s and putting them in police cruisers, lights blazing. 

My buddy ended up explaining that they were all from Chicago. Illinois had paid them 10K to agree to never use the Illinois welfare system again, and in turn they’d come to Iowa, Indiana, and Wisconsin to collect welfare there. And the politicians of those receiving neighbor states knew full well what was going on but “didn’t want to hurt anyone feelings by bring it up as an issue.”

Urban legend? I don’t know.

[FearlessF]

well, we all hope the welfare system isn't abused like this, but fear it is

[Entropy]

that sounds like an urban legend.   But who knows anymore.