Milwaukee's homicide rate surpasses 1991 record
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“It’s painful to drive around, walk around some of our neighborhoods to see these makeshift memorials on roadsides, it’s like driving through a cemetery," Common Council President Cavalier Johnson said.
He says policing is only part of the solution.
“Obviously you can’t have a police officer on every block, certainly can’t have one in every house," Johnson said. "We need people in our community to step up, we need people in our community to say this is inappropriate behavior.”
He also says violence prevention should start early on in the home. Families should build a foundation around employment and education.
"When folks have that, it creates stability in their lives, in their children lives, which spills out into the streets, it creates stability in our neighborhoods making them safer."
He says it’s about individual responsibility.
"You’re not just hurting, potentially killing the person you are beefing with, you're killing that person's mom a little bit, you’re killing that person’s sister or brother."
Vanessa Maldanado can relate. Maldando's brother, Jason Cleereman, was shot and killed on September 22 after an altercation with a man on a bike near Holton and Brady Streets.
“I am so angry still I can’t even get to the point I can grief my brother’s death," Maldanado said.“It’s just so crazy and so senseless that that’s the first thing people think of is to have a gun and shoot somebody."
Johnson says it’s time for families to have real discussions about violence prevention
"We need the people around them to do that, we need friends to do that including their moms and dads.”
Cleereman’s shooter is still on the loose.
CrimeStoppers is offering a $10,000 reward for info leading to a capture and an arrest.