liberatemke – ABOLISHmke

Close Youth Prisons Part 3: forty-six million

The people’s revolution marching, September 2020.

This is the last in a three-part series about closing the illegal youth prisons in Lincoln Hills and Copper Lake (LH/CL). Part one outlined the best, fastest way to close these prisons. Part two re-examined the sordid tale of compromises that left the prisons open, and the millions of dollars the democrats are trying to spend on new ones. In this part, we’ll take a look at what could be funded with those millions instead.

The actual needs of Milwaukee youth

Democrats are trying to spend $42-46 million on a new prison in Milwaukee county that would cage 36 children. At the low end, that’s $1.17 million each child. Last February there were 22 kids from Milwaukee county in LH/CL who this new prison would be built for. That’s about $2 million each child. That’s ridiculous.

Testify to Defund MPD Monday!

Milwaukee common council posing in their chambers.

audio version

Milwaukee Common Council is having their annual session for public testimony on the budget on Monday, October 4, at 6:30pm. This is the single opportunity the government creates specifically to get yelled at by residents about what budget priorities should be.

This year the hearing will be virtual, due to the pandemic. Register online now! Registration closes at 4:30 PM on Monday.

Ep. 20- Testify to Defund MPD Monday!

This is an audio version of “Testify to defund MPD Monday!” published at ABOLISHmke.com on October 2, 2021.

Music thanks to snag. snagmke.bandcamp.com

Snitch House Democrats

The aftermath of community defending itself against a snitch house.

There’s a bill working its way through the state legislature that will give police $600,000 to establish snitch houses in many Wisconsin cities. A snitch house, also called a COP or “community oriented policing” house, is a small police department that looks like a house and provides “wraparound services” like after-school programming to the neighboring community in exchange for improved community and police relations. By “improved relations,” they mean snitching.

Senator Lena Taylor brought the senate version of this bill to a public hearing in Milwaukee alongside some other trash. There, residents, including many of her constituents, roundly opposed it. Nevertheless, Taylor went forward, promoting it at a press conference and then seeing it pass unanimously in the senate on Tuesday, May 11.

Now the assembly version of the bill, AB258, is coming up for a hearing in Madison on Tuesday May 18 alongside the assembly version of SB119, the notorious “fund the police” bill. SB119 is an empty republican provocation with zero bipartisan support. Governor Evers will certainly veto it. The snitch house grant is a bigger threat because, without intervention, it will actually become law.

Governor Evers Ignores the People, Funds the Police.

Gov Evers signing money over to the police on April 27.

Today, Governor Evers passed a law that gives money to police. It makes police and firefighters eligible for PTSD worker’s compensation.

Firefighters are fine. Cops are not. They are not workers and should not get worker compensation. The police are, and always have been the sworn enemies of the working class. They are the attack dogs of capitalism. When workers go on strike for labor protections, including worker’s compensation, it is the police who attack them and delay the passage of those laws. Continue reading “Governor Evers Ignores the People, Funds the Police.”