Milwaukee leaders clash over crime, violence prevention and recent BBC documentary

Aldermen clashed Monday at City Hall over crime, violence prevention and a new BBC film about homicides in the city.

The recent documentary and the city's new "Blueprint for Peace" plan spurred a familiar debate about crime, one that's frequently tinged by race.

Is crime, and who is victimized, a matter of personal responsibility and individual choice or a function of inequality and other structural systems? Is it both?

The hour-long documentary, "Dark States: Murder in Milwaukee," from the British Broadcasting Corp., showed interviews with city officers, gun-carrying residents and close-up footage of two homicide victims.

Critics of the film say it lacked balance because it showed none of the ongoing, community efforts to curb crime.

Council members and the city's Fire and Police Commission have questioned the filming process, including who signed off on the crew's access to crime scenes and if all department policies were followed.

Police Chief Edward Flynn said he was lied to about the film's purpose and was offended by the portrayal of Milwaukee. He also said he signed off on the access and agreed with some of the aldermen's suggestions, such as having officers debrief with supervisors after ride-alongs.

RELATED: BBC documentary 'Murder in Milwaukee' sparks outrage, prompts questions about crew's access to crime scenes

RELATED: Flynn says police followed media policy during filming of BBC documentary, 'Murder in Milwaukee'

Near the end of the discussion, Ald. Terry Witkowski defended comments officers made in the documentary, saying a lack of fathers, morals, a no-snitching culture, the willingness to use guns to settle dispute and hopelessness factor into crime.

In the criticism of the documentary, Witkowski said he felt he heard "we can't blame the community, so we're going to blame the Police Department."

His remarks prompted a sharp response from Ald. Milele Coggs.

"You're going to act like we don't come down here every day and fight these homicides?" she said.

It's possible for communities affected by crime to care deeply and work to address those problems — and to ask for accountability from the department's leadership, she said.

Aldermen also clashed earlier during Monday’s Public Safety and Health Committee meeting over the Blueprint for Peace, a new plan to lower violence. The proposal takes a public health approach, looking at causes of violence and strategies in other cities.

RELATED: Milwaukee unveils 'Blueprint for Peace,' a plan to prevent violence in the city

Ald. Mark Borkowski voiced concerns about the blueprint and other violence-prevention efforts, raising questions about costs and effectiveness of nonprofit and other community programs.

“We owe it to the taxpayers," he said. "We owe it to the community. We’re putting gobs and gobs of money in programs that we have no clue whether or not are working."

Some of those criticisms rankled Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton.

“I think it’s important for everybody listening to understand the tremendous amount of work, and implementation, and testing of strategies, that we've already done to even get to a point where we're talking about a damn blueprint," Hamilton said.

"And I’m not going to let anybody step on, hell, my life’s work about what's been done in this community,” he continued. “We are in an impossible fight, and we're going to win anyway.”

Ald. Bob Donovan, chairman of the committee, questioned Health Department officials about why the plan did not have more specifics, including a total cost estimate to implement it.

Ald. Chantia Lewis said she was shocked by some of the comments she heard during the meeting, saying it appears some of her colleagues are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on police but not increase investment in violence prevention.

"Black lives are the ones that are dying by the droves," she said. "So I can't even make my comments without saying black lives matter, too."