… Because the mayor proposes more free stuff
Maria Milsted has had enough. Which means the bums, druggies, and shake-down thugs infesting upper State Street — just one block from the state Capitol — are on notice. One week ago (09-02-19) Maria issued this four-alarm alert:
Ok! Done! No more! I am going to the media. This is not a threat, it is a promise! They will listen. It’s time we support our police who have their hands tied and all of this. No more empty promises. NO MORE!
Those of us who treasure this native of Madison’s Greenbush neighborhood know Maria Milsted turns words into action. The result was the Page One, top-line headline in Sunday’s Wisconsin State Journal:
“Despite efforts, ‘party’ hasn’t ended.”
Eight weeks after Madison’s mayor declared “the party’s over” there’s little sign those involved in troubling behavior at the top of State Street — including fights, aggressive panhandling, drug dealing and prostitution — are ready to call it a night.
In one particularly stark example of how bad the panhandling has become, police report that an employee at Ian’s Pizza at 100 State Street — which has its own list of people banned from the establishment — was recently chased down and “sucker punched” by a panhandler whose plea for money she declined.
… “It’s a matter of time,” Milsted said. “There’s going to be a homicide up there.”
Nike Martin of Ian’s Pizza e-mailed Maria on September 1, “The victim you read about … was an employee of mine at the State Street location. … this is the second employee assaulted this year. I’m grasping at what we do to actually move the needle on this. It’s time to get something done.
Reaping the bitter fruits …
… of Madison’s victim mentality. East Towne Mall, Hilldale, etc. are private property so they can enforce public decorum so shoppers feel safe. The City of Madison owns State Street and its sidewalks and parks. Which means visit at your own risk — especially after dark.
⇒ The root of the problem is Madison’s terribly woke ambition to be another Portland Oregon or San Francisco. Police, doncha know, are the problem. More free stuff is their answer. Indeed, The Emerald City’s lady mayor “has emphasized the need for increased services for Madison’s homeless population.” Public toilets, for instance.
Which means the other shoe will drop, according to WSJ reporter Chris Rickert. “Downtown neighborhood officer Kraig Kalka acknowledged at the Mifflin neighborhood meeting that residents and business owners may well be seeing fewer police on the streets.” They’re too tied up working crimes.
Will take their business elsewhere
Over at Caffeinated Politics, Greg Humphrey reports “Madison’s State Street has serious safety issues.”
James and I grabbed a malt from a shop, and as we sat for a moment, soon realized that the area was not suited for us. One person was clearly having a drug (whatever) episode and fell back on the pavement while in a sitting position. Another person nearby laughed and said the person was “wasted.” That was more than enough to witness and we moved to enjoy our ice cream elsewhere.
Greg then describes witnessing a drug deal before continuing.
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway is playing to her progressive base when she says the homeless population is not to blame for the behavior which alarms business owners and frustrates police. But those of us who are not wedded to a mere slogan that sells at election time knows the criminal and violent behavior is created by a cast of characters who need to be dealt with in a fashion that will end the problem.
… Perhaps a policy that does not cater to people who are classified as homeless would also be an answer. Sometimes putting forth a tough and strong policy is better than adding toilets.
Vigilante action
Also on 09-01-19, Victor Villacrez of a property management company wrote of being panhandled. “To my surprise and dismay the woman started to follow and started to harass me calling me a “bitch” etc. …
It appears to be individuals and maybe groups deliberately trying to intimidate, bullying, people into giving them money. This is unacceptable criminal behavior and should not be tolerated like we do when the same people sleep on the streets or defecate in open public. …
Madison has changed and I for one am not going to be intimidated by individuals who do not give a rat’s you know what about our downtown and am willing to do what it takes to make change. Working together in a coalition we have a better chance in getting something done. … a “Force to be Reckoned With,” I’m sorry to say, is what is needed right now. Who’s with me?
Maria and Dan Milsted’s call to action:
Blaska and Maria Milsted
We have to stand up and demand this city administration allow the police to do what they have been trained and hired to do.…to PROTECT US. I am pleading to our downtown business peers and residents to stand up and speak up. Stop complaining. Do something. I’m tired of those who complain & then “kiss up” to city Administration & Legislature & and sit and wait for them to do something. Wake up! They are NOT going to solve this problem! All the city has done for us is to deem the homeless a “protective class” and allow panhandling and raise taxes and special assessments.
Dear Alder Verveer, I have a request.
In addition to your sponsoring to pass an ordinance to protect the homeless and allow panhandling, why don’t you pass an ordinance to protect businesses & downtown residents? Perhaps it might be more important to spend time on helping get rid of crime in downtown Madison than promoting the Mifflin Street party every year!
— Maria and Dan Milsted
Blaska’s Bottom Line: What do you expect from a city that has been investigating the police for the last four years?
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
“allow the police to do what they have been trained and hired to do”
But, but, but, but, but, but according to the porcine purveyors of pathetically petty prejudice populating the FreeDUMB Inc/Derail the Jail idiocracy, the police are trained to do one thing:
*kill Black children and
*EXCLUSIVELY harass-n-harangue communities of color with habitually hurtful hostility.
I guess that’s two things.
The reason some people (like the talented Ms. Toriana Pettaway) can’t count is because there exist community members and virulently racist teachers that want to do all kinds of things to black students: punish them, humiliate them, hurt them, silence them, suspend them, expel them — pretty much anything but teach them.
Another problem, in a loooooong line of ’em, where the 77 Square Miles Surrounded By A Sea Of Reality has tap-danced around a problem (and reality) until it’s WAY out of control, and then throw up their hands and bemoan:
Well; what do you expect US to do?
The Gotch
LikeLiked by 1 person
The economic truism is that if you want less of something, tax it. If you want more of something, subsidize it. It may not seem obvious to the Mayor, but providing porta potties is subsidizing the behaviour. You will now get more of it.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Yepper, “Portable toilets and storage lockers… tagging belongings left on the sidewalks…. the removal of four benches…..” That’s what a brilliant lass trapped in a dogsbody job as the Mayor of Madison suggests. If being mayor was her full-time job, would she pay more attention to the real problem? How’s about more cops & enforcement -and perhaps ending the revolving door in the county courts. But I suspect she’s preoccupied with her image and safeguarding her political base of clueless, yet “woke” constituents….
LikeLiked by 1 person
History repeats itself.I remember the Marielitos who occupied upper State St. after leaving Castro’s prisons. Same thuggery until one of them murdered another. One said, ‘I do this in Cuba and the police beat me. I do it in America and the police give me a cup of coffee.”
Meanwhile, Make Madison Berkeley/Oakland/SF/Portland!
The important thing is that you have a LGBTQWERTY mayor. Now if only Chief Koval came out as a Trans Gender he’d be acceptable.
LikeLiked by 1 person
An “LGBTQWERTY mayor”! Ha!
LikeLike
A Mark Steynism.
LikeLike
Satya could use the slogan, “Make Madison Less Great.”
LikeLike
“The important thing is that you have a LGBTQWERTY mayor. Now if only Chief Koval came out as a Trans Gender he’d be acceptable.”
Would be useful to learn if the Madison cop hating crowd would overlook the uniform if the cop inside it was perceived as marginalized and discriminated against and if so then only staff school SROs with LGBTQWERTY.
Poof! Problem solved.
LikeLike
Anyone recall what Mao, Stalin, Castro, and more recently Maduro, did/do with the troublesome folks that show no interest, ability, & desire to tend themselves?
Howse about a free bus, or gratis B-Cycle BIKIES, for those people to go out to the trouble-free Tree Lane Shangri La?
The Gotch
LikeLike
The going rate for a Greyhound to San Francisco tomorrow is $223.00. I wonder if we could get a group rate? The only caveat is it can”t stop for at least 12hrs and Satya must chaperone the derelicts!
LikeLike
You hit the nail on the head when you said that the homeless problem in Madison stems from a desire on the part of those in charge to remake it along the lines of Portland, SF, and other cities where bums, derelicts, druggies, winos, panhandlers, and assorted misfits are allowed to roam freely, intimidating and occasionally assaulting ordinary citizens–what could be a clearer sign of the boundless compassion of the clueless elites who run this town? Unfortunately, the problem isn’t limited to upper State Street. A couple of months ago, I witnessed one fine upstanding member of Madison’s homeless “community” violently assault another one outside the Walgreen’s at State and Lake. The cops did in fact arrest him (probably not for the first time, since they knew him by name), but a few days later he was back at his usual haunt, none the worse for wear after his brush with the law. When I pointed this out to an officer, he replied that it was the result of the revolving door justice system in Dane County.
I would have considerably more compassion for Madison’s homeless if they weren’t living in a city where the unemployment rate is zero, meaning that anyone who wants a job can find one–or if they weren’t living in a city where every social service under the sun is available free for the asking. My own policy regarding panhandlers is to ignore them (or to meet their requests with the best sneer I can muster). If the panhandler is young and able-bodied, my standard response is “Get a job, you lazy f*ck.” At a certain point, one must utter the phrase guaranteed to get Madison liberals foaming at the mouth: “personal responsibility.” If you refuse to look for a job or decline to avail yourself of opportunities to overcome your “addictions” (you know, what used to be called bad habits) or mental problems, then you have no one to blame but yourselves–though I grant it’s difficult to resist the siren song of those eager to enlist you in the army of victimhood and smother you with reassurances that you are powerless to take control of your own lives.
LikeLike
“Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway is playing to her progressive base when she says the homeless population is not to blame for the behavior which alarms business owners and frustrates police.”
Useful information because it implies our good mayor (secretly) knows who or what is to blame and will fix it, but why has she waited.
Is it a sign of being indecisive when a woman hyphenates her name? Asking for a friend.
LikeLike
I’ve seen where this stupidity leads, it’s… not awesome. At one time, my employment was a block from a major homeless enclave. I called them the RV-bums, because they lived in busted up RVs with piles of stolen bikes on the roofs and buckets of human waste outside their doors. The RVs were orbited by a constellation of lower on the food chain bums living in tents on the sidewalk. Their pastimes were breaking into cars, stealing everything not nailed down, and scattering needles across the neighborhood. It was like Night of the Living Dead, just with fewer teeth and more methamphetamine.
San Francisco spends $241 million on the bums and continue to fail. That is because all that money funds a horde of public employees and private organizations. They are not about to let that gravy trains stop chugging down the tracks. It’s like the WPA, for people who got useless degrees or don’t want a real job. In short, the people Democratic politicians want to cultivate. A great example of the Democratic gift for turning taxpayer dollars into patronage.
The same thing is going to happen here. There will be a committee, which will generate a task force, which will create an agency, that will that will enact policies and support community organizations that perpetuate the problem. Ensuring bums will be a growth industry in Madison.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And all the while, those responsible for this farce stick their snoots in the air and demand adoration for their boundless compassion for the “less fortunate”–as if their policies aren’t perpetuating the problems they’re supposedly designed to solve.
LikeLike
Sprocket nails it! As always, follow the money.
A sure fire way to ascertain exactly how a politician genuinely feels about street people enclaves is to transport a good number of them to the area right in front of their residence and/or place of business.
Not really too difficult a task for some motivated folks with a couple vans.
Seems only fair to spread the lefty good cheer around.
LikeLike