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NAACP Convenes Panel Of Leaders To Discuss Gun Violence

Ideas Floated By Members Include Bringing New Bucks Arena To City's North Side

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The NAACP convened a panel of local leaders Tuesday to discuss ideas for what to do, or not do, to reduce gun violence in Milwaukee.

Several leaders want to revive the inner city by locating more construction jobs there. Reverend Willie Briscoe of Milwaukee Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope said that instead of putting a new pro basketball arena in downtown Milwaukee, the city should build it in on a northside property once used by the AO Smith Corporation.

“That’s where it should go if we are serious about lifting the economy of the inner city,” said Briscoe. “But everybody tells me that doesn’t make sense, because they would have to build roadways, they would have to make it safe … Well that’s what we need. Somebody to think outside of the box and say that we need to do the absurd.”

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Briscoe also said that there needs to be more rail transportation to get unemployed black people to jobs in the Milwaukee suburbs.

While hoping that improved employment would help reduce gun violence, other panel members said they want city and state leaders to nix a proposal to boost penalties for felons caught with guns. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Social Welfare Dean Stan Stojkovic said mandatory minimum sentences do not work.

“We should have learned in the last 15 to 20 years what doesn’t work. This does not work. If anything, it will exacerbate and make the situation worse,” said Stojkovic.

The NAACP is promising to keep pressing the issue of reducing gun violence in Milwaukee.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Wisconsin Public Radio year-long series tracking all gun-related homicides in Wisconsin.