Milwaukee police Chief Ed Flynn addresses the Milwaukee Common Council Public Safety committee at City Hall in July. Credit: Mike De Sisti

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has to go.

This is hard for me to say. I have been a Flynn supporter for most of his time here, but after watching the video of a handcuffed Derek Williams begging for help in the back seat of a squad car and arresting officers ignoring his pleas, it's a pretty easy call.

Leadership starts at the top, and it's unclear to me what Flynn's message is to his officers.

Williams, a robbery suspect, died in police custody in July 2011 after being chased by officers. He was handcuffed, placed in the back of a squad car and started gasping for breath and begging for help. Officers ignored him for nearly eight minutes. An officer eventually began CPR; police and paramedics then continued lifesaving measures for more than 45 minutes before the 22-year-old father was declared dead.

The video is hard to watch, and if you have not seen it, I encourage you to view it and make up your own mind.

At a news conference Monday, Flynn said it was clear that his officers did not believe Williams' complaints and that "it's clear to us that we need to do a better job."

That's quite an understatement. Of course, they do. But there are no do-overs in life. Had Flynn's officers listened to Williams' cries, the young man might be alive today.

The officers involved are on desk duty until a new investigation takes place. Not to be too cynical, but does anyone believe they will not be reinstated?

I requested an interview with Flynn, but he did not get back to me.

Williams' death is reason enough for the officers involved to be fired or suspended and for Flynn to be let go. But there is a lengthy list of other missteps over the past two years that calls the chief's leadership into question.

When Flynn took over in January 2008, he said he would use problem-solving techniques and rely on data to identify problems. He said members of the department would be accountable to each other and the community.

That hasn't happened.

A Journal Sentinel investigation in May found that since 2009, the Police Department has reported more than 500 incidents as simple assaults to the FBI when they should have been classified as aggravated assaults. Had the department classified the incidents properly, the violent crime rate would have been higher than previously reported.

Flynn's response? He attacked the Journal Sentinel's Ben Poston for his reporting. Flynn later acknowledged thousands of errors.

There have been other problems with police:

In October, the Journal Sentinel reported that 93 officers have been disciplined for committing crimes but remained on the job - a dozen on Flynn's watch. Since then, at least six more have been arrested for drunken driving.

Seven officers and a supervisor were stripped of their police powers and reassigned after allegations of illegal strip searches and searches of body cavities.

The Journal Sentinel reported last year that black Milwaukee drivers are seven times more likely to be stopped than white drivers and police search black drivers at twice the rates of whites. Those searches didn't lead to higher rates of seized weapons, drugs or stolen property.

Community leaders were upset with Flynn after 13-year-old Darius Simmons was shot and killed outside his home May 31 by his 75-year-old neighbor, who confronted him about a stolen firearm. After the boy was shot, police forced his grieving mother to sit in a squad car for more than an hour rather than join her dying son in the hospital. Flynn defended his officers, saying the detectives' top priority is to gather facts and compassion is secondary.

Flynn has promised transparency but has fought the media repeatedly when reporters request records. It took 10 months for him to release the disturbing video of Williams.

When civil rights abuses are alleged, Flynn's standard response is that it was worth it because it keeps the streets safer, or more training is needed or there was "no intent" of wrongdoing.

So let me get this straight. . . .

There was no intent on anyone's part to change the crime numbers.

There was no intent to stop more minority drivers.

There was no intent to allow Derek Williams to die.

Perhaps all of that is true. But "no intent" does not mean that there is no incompetence.

I've lost confidence in Ed Flynn. He has to go.

James E. Causey is a Journal Sentinel editorial writer, columnist and blogger. Email jcausey@jrn.com. Twitter: @jecausey