'Violence is a learned behavior': Arnitta Holliman on community and reinforced longstanding youth curfew

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MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- On Wednesday, MPD reported five citations in regards to the reinforced youth curfew. Reaction to this has been mixed in tackling city violence.

Arnitta Holliman, director of the Office of Violence Prevention, said it's going to take the city healing together in order to see change.

"I think what's critical is what do we think about, how do we speak about young people in our community," said Holliman.

On Tuesday, city leaders addressed the weekend violence, stating that they will be enforcing its longstanding youth curfew. The policy requires children under the age of 17 to be off of public property or escorted by a guardian by 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. Friday to Saturday.

This comes after the youngest victim hurt in the shootings from Friday was just 15 years old. Business operator of Old German Beer Hall, Hans Weissgerber, said he sees it as a good move by the city.

"Should they be blamed on what happened last night? No, but I think there's a bigger picture here that they're addressing with it. It's not just what happened last night but it’s the broader challenges that we have in our entire community," said Weissgerber.

But a witness to the triple shootings, 20-year-old Daphne Milkert, said it won't hold the right people accountable.

"Like people under 21 shouldn’t be out anyways, so I'm not sure its affecting, targeting the right people, but I'm not sure what a better solution would be at this point," said Milkert.

Holliman made the point that statistically, children aren't committing most of the crime in the city.

"When we look at the data, it's primarily adults, sometimes young adults, but still primarily adults that are doing some of the shootings and other things happening in the community," said Holliman.

She said this move is just a way to keep teens out of harm's way, saying they're taking a healing approach to curbing violence in the city.

"Violence is a learned behavior, but just like it was learned, it can be unlearned," said Holliman.

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