Just a little while ago, a federal jury found three former Milwaukee Police Officers guilty of federal civil rights violations for their role in the beating of Frank Jude, Jr. outside an off-duty police party in Bay View in October of 2004. A fourth man currently on suspension by the Milwaukee Police Department was found not guilty of the two federal charges against him. Jon Bartlett, Andrew Spengler, and Daniel Masarik were all found guilty of conspiring to violating Frank Jude’s and Lovell Harris’ rights and of assaulting Jude as police officers, while the jury acquitted suspended officer Ryan Packard. Masarik and Spengler were taken into custody pending sentencing in November, while Bartlett was returned to state custody, as he’s currently serving prison time for a state conviction that he called in a bomb threat to a Milwaukee Police district station. After hearing the verdict, Frank Jude issued a statement:

“I’m happy. The truth has been told today, what they did and how they did it.”

The conviction of the three main actors in the Jude beating has to come as a small bit of vindication for former Milwaukee District Attorney E. Michael McCann. After all, McCann’s loss in the state case against the three men was the only felony jury verdict McCann ever lost in more than 40 years of prosecuting. Shortly after that verdict McCann retired, and from what I’ve read and heard, he felt that case was the ‘one that got away.’ No doubt McCann had been hoping for a conviction in the federal case, and I’m sure this verdict will serve as a small measure of vindication for him.

What really infuriates me about this situation is the fact that until they are sentenced, Masarik and Spengler will continue to be paid under existing state law unique to Milwaukee which requires the city to pay fired officers until their criminal appeals are exhausted. City officials are pushing to change the law, but I don’t expect any significant progress towards changing the law, since some state legislators seem to be firmly in the pocket of the powerful Milwaukee Police Union. The current state law does say police officers convicted and sentenced for a felony can be removed from the payroll, but until such time as Masarik and Spengler are actually sentenced, they’ll continue to collect fat paychecks from the Milwaukee Police Department. In a statement earlier today, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said the city has paid Masarik, Spengler and Bartlett $475,000 in pay and benefits since they were fired. Now while I’m not a taxpayer in the City of Milwaukee, the fact that these guys are still collecting paychecks absolutely galls me.

According to the MJS, three more individuals have been charged in Federal court as part of a heroin ring whose drugs killed at least four people in Ozaukee County. This has been an ongoing story here in the Milwaukee area, as the drugs that killed the people in Ozaukee County were purchased on our streets. Benjamin Stibbe, the main dealer in Ozaukee County, is already serving time in state prisons for his role in the deaths of the four people, and he’s plead guilty to Federal charges as well, so he won’t be seeing the light of day any time soon. What’s most disturbing about this whole story is the fact that Benjamin Stibbe’s mother apparently played a role in his drug dealing enterprise. If I’m not mistaken, Benjamin Stibbe’s mother drove him into Milwaukee to pick up heroin from his source.

Timothy Milton, Stibbe’s source in Milwaukee, got his heroin from a childhood friend in Chicago, and apparently Milton was making forty thousand dollars profit on every 100 grams of heroin he sold. Now I don’t condone drug dealing one bit, but with those kinds of profit margins, I can start to see why some folks in Milwaukee’s inner city are willing to take the risk and sell drugs. Mr. Milton’s also serving some time in the Wisconsin State Prison system, but unfortunately I’m sure someone has stepped in to take his place, because there always seems to be no shortage of demand for illegal drugs.

So apparently, Scott Walker defines compromise as getting everything he wants, while giving up nothing in return. Right now there’s 91.5 million dollars in Federal transit aid that’s going unused (and has been unused for several years), and rather than see that money get used productively, County Exec Scott Walker would rather see the money sit if he can’t get his way. Scott Walker wants to use the money to pay for express buses, while Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett wants to use the money for streetcars. According to All Politics Watch, Mayor Barrett proposed a compromise that would use half the money for streetcars and half the money for express buses, seemingly giving both men what they wanted. Unfortunately, Scott Walker doesn’t seem to want real compromise - he’d rather just take all the money for his plan and call it a compromise.

This is just another example of Scott Walker’s utter lack of any tangible leadership qualities. Rather than work towards a real compromise that would benefit all the residents of Milwaukee County - and not just those folks who live in the suburbs - Scott Walker seems content to take his marbles and go home.

On August 7, we here in Milwaukee County Supervisor District 8 will get to choose who will serve us as our next County Supervisor replacing Ryan McCue, who was elected Mayor of Cudahy. Two candidates emerged from the primary - Chris Kujawa and Patricia Jursik. While I wasn’t able to vote in the primary, I do have every intention of voting on August 7. I’ve been following this race closely, and I’ve decided to support Patricia Jursik. Unlike her opponent, who seems to want to do away with as much county government as possible, Patricia Jursik seems to have realistic objectives for improving the quality of life for residents of the Eighth Distric while maintaining the level of services folks have come to expect. While Jursik’s opponent Chris Kujawa has managed to rack up an impressive list of endorsements (impressive depending on who you talk to), I don’t see much on his website to warrant getting my vote. His website talks a lot about the endorsements he’s received and how members of his family have served in Cudahy’s city government, but in my opinion that’s not really what matters most when it comes to deciding who’s most qualified to serve as a County Supervisor. Sure, a long list of endorsements is impressive, but I’d rather know what a candidate stands for, and there’s not much information on Chris Kujawa’s website that tells me much about what he stands for - or what he’ll do as County Supervisor.

To be honest, I’m worried that if elected, Chris Kujawa will end up being nothing more than a “yes-man” for County Executive Scott Walker, which is the last thing the residents of the Eighth District need. We don’t need someone who’s going to continue to support Scott Walker’s mismanagement of Milwaukee County government - we need someone who’s going to work to change the status quo.

To update an entry of mine from yesterday, Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines has said he’s definitely out as a candidate for Milwaukee Mayor in the next election. However, Hines didn’t rule out a run in the future, saying, “It would be a joy, probably, to serve in a greater capacity, and I would welcome that opportunity.” Sheriff (and possible Mayoral candidate) David Clarke had mentioned Willie Hines as being someone he’d like to see run against Mayor Tom Barrett in the upcoming election, so I can’t help but wonder if Hines begging off for this election will give Clarke a reason to run. Personally, I’m not opposed to Sheriff Clarke running against Mayor Barrett, because I’d like to see Clarke get crushed. Sheriff Clarke’s always been one of my least favorite DINOs, and I can only hope that one of these days folks in Milwaukee are going to wake up and recognize the fact that the ‘D’ next to his name doesn’t make him a Democrat.

Getting back to Hines’ decision not to run against Mayor Barrett, I’d have to say it’s a smart decision, simply because while he’d certainly draw a good deal of support from the community, I think he’d have an increasingly difficult time raising the money that would be necessary to mount a serious challenge to Mayor Barrett.

Now I know there are some folks in Milwaukee County who think County Executive Scott Walker’s the best thing since sliced bread, but I just don’t get it. A big part of Scott Walker’s campaigns has been his constant talk about fiscal responsibility in our county government, which is why I’m so floored by reports in the MJS that multiple county departments are reporting probable year-end budget deficits, to the tune of 4.2 million dollars. Now of course Scott Walker’s first response is to call for county departments to tighten their collective belts, which leaves me to wonder what Scott Walker was doing while these multiple county departments were building budget deficits.

For someone who’s touted his record of fiscal responsibility, it seems more than a bit curious that Scott Walker’s had so much trouble balancing the county’s books year after year. After all, this isn’t the first year that there’s been a budget deficit, and while I’m sure lots of folks in Milwaukee County appreciate the fact that Scott Walker’s trying really hard not to raise taxes, I’m sure a lot of folks aren’t happy that he keeps cutting county services in order to balance the books. Here’s what Walker had to say about the budget shortfall:

Walker said all county departments should immediately halt any non-essential spending, including travel and to hold off hiring whenever possible. He also asked other elected officials to take action to save money.

He blamed the worsening budget picture on unexpected increases in juvenile corrections placements, needed hiring of additional staff at the county’s mental health complex and a decline in revenue from real estate fees.

It’s typical of Scott Walker to point fingers at everyone but himself, because apparently the buck doesn’t stop with County Executive Scott Walker when it comes to balancing the county’s budget. I just hope folks in Milwaukee County will wake up and choose someone else to serve as County Executive, because we deserve better than what we’ve gotten from Scott Walker.

So according to campaign finance reports, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has raised more than $1 million and has more than $600,000 in the bank. According to the article, Mayor Barrett’s campaign has also released some results of a poll conducted earlier this year that shows Mayor Barrett with a 66% favorability rating and 71% of respondents saying Barrett is doing a good job. With just over four months until the official nomination period begins, it’ll be interesting to see if any serious contenders to Mayor Barrett emerge. No doubt some folks are going to be scared off by his fundraising totals, but I’d be willing to venture a guess that there’ll still be no shortage of candidates seeking to knock Mayor Barrett out of office.

Any list of potential contenders to Mayor Barrett has to start with everyone’s favorite Milwaukee County Sheriff, “Democrat” David Clarke. I use the term “Democrat” loosely when it comes to Sheriff Clarke, only because he’s Democrat out of convenience, not because of his beliefs. According to everything I’ve read, Clarke’s been poo-pooing a possible run against Mayor Barrett, but I tend to believe his ego’s too big for him to sit this one out. If he were smart, he’d sit this election out, simply because he’s not likely to finish much better this time than he did in 2003, when he finished third. Another likely contender is Milwaukee Alderman Bob Donovan, a man who never met a camera he didn’t want to spend some time talking to. I suppose that’s the nature of a politician, but Bob Donovan just strikes me as being more snake oil salesman and less public servant, and I honestly believe it’s just a matter of time before he’s caught doing something illegal/immoral/improper.

I’m sure there’ll be some less obvious folks who run to try and oust Mayor Barrett, but I really don’t think anyone stands a chance of beating Tom Barrett. Milwaukee loves its incumbent Mayors, and Tom Barrett has done about as well as anyone could have expected since taking office. If I still lived in Milwaukee, I know I’d cast my vote for Tom Barrett.

So I came across an interesting article in the MJS about Michael Monyelle, a convicted sex offender who recently told his parole he was having deviant thoughts about children, including his sister’s young children. In addition to having consensual sexual contact with two underage girls when he was 19 and 20, Mr. Monyelle also had sexual contact with a 9-year-old boy when he was 16. Because of his past history of sex offenses, as well as his admissions of deviant thoughts, Mr. Monyelle is now facing an indefinite commitment to inpatient treatment as a “sexually violent person” under Wisconsin’s Chapter 980 laws.

I’ve come across some folks in the blogosphere who are concerned about the dangerous precedent being set by locking someone up indefinitely for their thoughts - not their actions. While I agree that it’s a slippery slope when you’re talking about locking someone up for their thoughts, the thing to remember here is that in addition to what Mr. Monyelle was convicted of, he’s admitted to having recent deviant thoughts about young children. Now granted, he hasn’t acted on those thoughts, which is obviously a good thing, but if he’s having those thoughts it’s probably just a matter of time before the opportunity presents itself for him to act on those thoughts. The important thing to remember here is that the common belief is that once a pedophile, always a pedophile. In fact, sex offender treatment isn’t so much about “curing” sex offenders as it’s about risk abatement. Sex offender treatment is all about helping teach sex offenders to recognize their triggers and urges, as well as teaching them coping mechanisms to deal with those urges.

Another important thing to remember is that if a guy like Mr. Monyelle is telling his parole agent he’s having deviant thoughts, that agent is obligated to act on that self-report. The primary duty of probation and parole agents is to protect the community from the folks they supervise, and failure to act on something like Mr. Monyelle’s admission would be a failure on the part of that agent to do his or her job.