City of Milwaukee voters aren't necessarily famous for getting it right. After all, this is the electorate that gave us Charlene Hardin, Michael McGee Jr. and mandatory paid sick leave. That said, the voters sure did the right thing last Spring when they overwhelmingly rejected politically ambitious State Representative Pedro Colon in his run for Milwaukee City Attorney.
I guess blind squirrels really do find acorns every once in a while.
Despite being rejected in his bid for higher office, Colon continues to represent his near-south side Assembly District. He also serves as one of the Democrats on the notorious Joint Finance Committee.
As everyone knows by now, the proposed State budget contains lots of items that have absolutely nothing to do with the budget. Rather, these provisions are typically either nods to political correctness or generally horrible policy ideas that wouldn't withstand scrutiny had they been considered individually - or both. One such provision is the requirement that all local police departments begin compiling data on the race of every person they stop.
As reported by Mike Nichols for WPRI, during the "debate" on this proposal, Colon took to the microphone and made the following statement:
"[Racial profiling] seems to exist primarily in the suburbs, I mean at least to the Latino community. I don't know how it is in the African-American community but all the guys complain. It's all Greenfield, Greendale, you know, the northern suburbs. And you can bet that you're going to be stopped. And that's just the way it is, this unwritten rule. After a certain hour nobody gets to come in. We all know what the rule is. We all know these guys are getting stopped. And God forbid they might have a beer on the way there because then they're going to be in prison or jail for five days."
What a shameless race baiter!
First, where is Colon's evidence? If Greenfield, Greendale or any of the northern suburbs are engaging in the systematic illegal detention of minorities, I assume that he has plenty of evidence to support his position. If not, it would be grossly irresponsible for any elected official to make such claims.
Accordingly, it's time for Pedro to put up or shut up. Give us the names of the people thrown in prison for five days by Greenfield, Greendale and other local authorities because of their ethnic background - or apologize!
Second, I think I speak for most law-abiding citizens when I say that I like police to be pro-active. If somebody - white, black, brown, green or purple - is driving repeatedly around my block at 2:00 a.m., I'd like to have the police investigate. Chances are that the driver is simply lost - in which case, the cops can help. If the driver's goal is somewhat more nefarious however, I'd like the police to try to deal with the situation before it escalates.
And if, in the words of Colon: "God forbid they might have had a beer on their way ... ", I want the cops to be especially vigilant - regardless of who "they" may be.
Colon obviously thinks that unsubstantiated, inflammatory racial rhetoric is the way for him to get ahead. Time will tell but I tend to doubt it.
In any event, the silver lining is that Colon is making his irresponsible remarks from the relative obscurity of the State Assembly as opposed to the Milwaukee City Attorney's Office.
Let's give Milwaukee voters credit for getting at least one election right!
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