Soglin: City’s 8th homicide jump-starts neighborhood training program

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Recent gun violence in Madison prompted Mayor Paul Soglin on Tuesday to jumpstart a new plan aimed at reducing violence by building community leadership within neighborhoods around the city.

Soglin announced the plan during a news conference at the City-County Building. The mayor planned to have staff review the proposal later this week, but the shooting death sped up his announcement to the public, he said.

A 29-year-old man was shot Tuesday morning on Madison’s west side . The man died, making eight homicides in the city this year, Madison chief Mike Koval said.

“We have a young victim (who) was shot multiple times in otherwise a very nice, sedate, normal west side neighborhood,” Koval said. “It shocks our sensibilities, our community is offended by yet another instance of this, and we’re just trying to pick up the pieces and continue to find leads.”

Soglin said that in order to stop the violence, he believes that the people who live in Madison’s neighborhoods where gun crimes are taking place need to take leadership. He is proposing a plan that would train and provide assistance to enable them to take the lead.

“We need the cooperation of people who know the gangsters, know where the guns are, those guns are in cars they are in homes,” Soglin said. “(Guns) are being carried. We need to know who they are.”

The one-time training program–intended to provide permanent neighborhood leadership–would target eight to 10 neighborhoods to help initiate projects to build community and provide a sense of ownership.

“More police officers, more social programming will not make a difference in terms of immediate challenge,” Soglin said. “What we need is people in the neighborhood to come forward, speak up (and) to know that they are not alone.”

The Focused Interruption Coalition, led by Anthony Cooper, has been tasked with responding to violent events in the city including this latest shooting.

Cooper said one program simply isn’t enough.

“One neighborhood is not going to be able to do everything themselves. We have to — and when I say we, I mean everyone has to — come together and work together on these issues,” Cooper said. “Madison is changing. This needs to be all hands on deck.”

The program is estimated to cost around $35,000 to $40,000. Those funds would be taken out of the city’s existing $400,000, which was approved as part of the 2017 budget.

The proposal would have to receive council approval. If approved, the program could start in the fall and would last until next spring or summer.

City Alder Paul Skidmore said Soglin’s program is a start, but there also need to be more officers to combat crime that’s happening now, and more quickly.

“The people who are shooting and murdering, they need to know they can’t get away with it with impunity,” Skimore said. “The police department is very good. They catch the shooters, but it takes a while. We need to interrupt that. We need to get there sooner, we need to have more eyes on the streets.”

Neighbors on the west side are meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Elver Park Neighborhood Center, 1201 McKenna Blvd., to discuss the violence.

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