3 aldermen announce support to stiffen carjacking sentences
Bills proposed by GOP lawmakers
WEST ALLIS - Three Milwaukee aldermen announced their support Wednesday for a package of bills being pushed by suburban Republican lawmakers aimed at toughening penalties for violent offenders and sending more teenagers to a state prison under federal investigation.
At a news conference at the West Allis Police Department, Alds. Bob Donovan, Mark Borkowski and Tony Zielinski cited concerns about recent carjackings by Milwaukee teenagers.
“The crime is spreading out of Milwaukee. It is like a cancer and, unless steps are taken, that cancer will continue,” Donovan said. “These legislators get it, but sadly there is a segment in this community — a segment of individuals, and also a segment of elected officials — who don’t get it, who are literally in denial about how bad some of the things have gotten in a growing number of neighborhoods in the city of Milwaukee.”
Speakers specifically mentioned the recent death of Greg “Ziggy” Zyszkiewicz, a widely respected city home inspector who was shot and killed while on duty during an attempted carjacking. The young men arrested in his death all had criminal records.
“That really dramatizes what we’re dealing with here in Milwaukee and other communities, and that is that there are a number of very serious criminals roaming the street who are violent and who are dangerous,” Zielinski said of the case.
He added that if people don’t take action now “it’s going to be coming to your neighborhood.”
The package of bills is sponsored by Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-West Allis) and Sen. Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa). Sanfelippo said the eight bills introduced so far were the result of two years’ worth of work involving meetings with judges, district attorneys, police officers and others.
“There is a place for rehabilitative programs, alternatives to incarceration programs, but we also have to put an equal emphasis and remember that there is also a place in the criminal justice system for a focus on crime prevention in the first place,” Sanfelippo said. “We are not doing people any benefit by allowing them to continue to remain on the street and commit crimes without any penalties.
He added that some offenders “are only going to learn through stiff penalties.”
In the first 10 months of 2016, more than 80 teenagers were arrested for armed carjackings, according to Milwaukee police data. That is a sharp increase from previous years.
Overall, there were 464 carjackings in the city of Milwaukee in 2016, down 9% from the 2015 level of 512 but still up sharply from 2014, when there were 354, according to police statistics.
“We are allowing violent criminals to victimize our communities. At what point does safety become a priority? Who is speaking up for our victims?” Vukmir said. “We are doing a poor job of distinguishing between violent and low-level offenders.”