Change in behavior needed

I found the article regarding the forum on violence to be interesting albeit lacking (“What you need to know from last night's forum on violence in Milwaukee,” June 27).

City leaders were asked to be accountable, as well as the police officers who patrol the beat and who put their lives on the line each day to keep us safe. I agree that both of these groups need to be held accountable for both their actions and their attitude; so what was missing in this forum? Once again, two words which make all the difference: personal responsibility.

Those in attendance want the police to change their attitudes and their procedures and their way of fighting crime, yet no one is asking those on the opposite side of the law to make any changes.

A recent James Causey series asked what happened to us, and I find myself asking the same question. What happened to us when, in the course of an evening in which people gathered together in order to solve the problems in the community, we completely overlook and ignore the cause of the problems and look for better ways to react to them, and all the while expect things to be fixed any time soon.

This is the only way that violence will end: by keeping guns out of felons’ hands, by choosing to obey the laws set in place instead of insisting on receiving entitlements that are neither earned nor deserved. All the chats in the world won’t solve any problems if you are not willing to see yourself in the equation as both a cause and a solution to the problems at hand.

What happened to us? Nothing until simple steps are taken, and we didn’t need an out of town specialist to tell us that.

Brian Brehmer Milwaukee