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Comment by yesimahuman | Hacker News Reader

I grew up in Milwaukee, and I agree, it only serves to support the strong division in that city.

I wonder if this is related to hiring problems? The glorification could help find new candidates. I hear the MPD is always hiring...

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> I grew up in Milwaukee, and I agree, it only serves to support the strong division in that city.

Can you elaborate on this? Wisconsin has never struck me as a state with a particularly conservative streak.

I won't speak for the OP, but he/she is probably referring to the fact that Milwaukee consistently ranks as one of the most segregated cities in the US:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/milwaukee-wisc-is-most-segre...

http://www.salon.com/2011/03/29/most_segregated_cities/slide...

Recently more so, for example they recently legalized concealed weapons, and the current VP candidate Ryan and also their current governor are both pretty extreme.

Historically Wisconsin has been a pretty progressive state, similar to its neighbors Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota.

Milwaukee, like most big midwest cities, is highly segregated with some pretty frightening ghettos and areas of poverty, although not as bad as cities whose economies have done worse like Detroit, Cleveland, etc.

States are pretty large entities. My state, Washington, is coastal and unquestionably liberal, but we have huge groups of conservatives. When you actually squint, though, you'll notice that there's a political West versus East divide in the state itself that maps pretty well to Left versus Right... or urban versus rural.

Similarly, I grew up in California, which used to be famous for how liberal it was, until the Republicans got their act together and actually used their majority some uh.. 7 years ago? Ish? (I might also be mischaracterizing this; I'm basing this off memory rather than stats.)

California conservatism goes way back. Despite its liberal image, there are parts of that state that are legendarily, ferociously conservative; the most famous one has been Orange County (see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/us/politics/30orange.html), which was a seedbed of conservative activism for fifty years. The campaign to pass Proposition 13 in 1978 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_%2819...) became a model for 1980s anti-tax conservatism. Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan both came out of California. Etc.

I grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee. As a city, it is probably one of the most segregated in the country. While the city has been making great strides in improving itself, its still rare to see people of different ethnic backgrounds living next to each other.

Additionally, there have been some bad incidents involving racial prejudices in recent history. A few years ago, there was a small riot between blacks/whites after the state fair. Which was then followed up with a neo nazi march countered by an anti-protest. Tensions still seem a bit high when I talk to my parents.

That's probably a big reason why the first two pictures portray ethnically diverse members of the force.

> small riot between blacks/whites after the state fair

Uh, that's one way to describe it.

A large group of black teenagers/20-somes started fighting with each other and then just started jumping white people, beating on them, then moving on to the next victim.

A similar scene took place after July 4th fireworks were several white people were beaten and a convenience store trashed.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/126828998.html

The division is segregation, not conservatism. That being said, I find Milwaukee to be more conservative than some Wisconsin cities, especially Madison (where I live now).

Of course, Madison is one of the most liberal cities in any state. I've lived in both Madison and Milwaukee. Now I live in San Francisco. I don't think Madison is any less liberal than SF. The big difference is that most of the areas immediately surrounding SF are pretty liberal as well, whereas rural Dane County certainly isn't.

As you and others have said, the segregation there is really shocking. I grew up during the heyday of personalities like Alderman Michael McGee (Sr; I was out of the state before his son was elected) when there was talk of the black areas seceding from the city entirely: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yGcaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o...

The MPD has a rather, uhm, spotty record with the minority community. I don't know the state of that these days, but the militaristic motif of this website definitely seems to hark back to the dark days of the Harold Brier years. Given their history I think they should be more careful about the tone they project.

Is there a single Republican/conservative in any elected position in Milwaukee?

I realize that the city elections are technically non-partisan, but there are clearly no conservatives in positions of power here.

The only cities Milwaukee would be more conservative than (in WI) would be Madison and possibly Racine. All you have to do is look at the results from the recall election to see that Madison and Milwaukee are the 2 centers of liberal votes.

That said, you are absolutely correct, the division is segregation, not conservatism. The overt racism against whites (by blacks) has gotten violent in the last decade. There is a large Hispanic population here too, while it does have Mexican gang problems, that part of the city is far far safer than the black parts. Lots of Hispanic business in Milwaukee are thriving, plenty of white people as customers. You won't see many whites on the north side unless they're cops.

My threshold for conservatism is rather high. Milwaukee is a liberal city, but not as liberal or progressive as Madison.

Depends on where you go. The news concentrates on Madison and Milwaukee, which tend to vote liberal.

Up state, out of the cities, tends to be more conservative. We just never get on the news.

I grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee and diversity just isn't a thing here. As a white dude there are just some areas you are not allowed to go in the city.

Hell there was a race riot after the state fair last year. This segregation definitely contributes to negative stereotypes on all sides.

Now that I live in SF I understand what diversity really means. Poop everywhere...

> Now that I live in SF I understand what diversity really means. Poop everywhere...

The public urination/defecation problem SF has is connected to its large homeless population, many of whom are mentally disabled. The reason for SF's large homeless population is not only because of its liberal views, but also because of its year-round mild weather. If it were burning hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter (as it is in many parts of the Midwest), living on the streets simply would not be physically possible.

The Milwaukee police department has an ugly history. Some of its excesses are the result of institutional traditions dating back a century, when it was seen as a bastion of civil order against anarchists and, later, political progressives. Milwaukee had Socialist mayors from 1910 to 1960; unlike most American cities, the state legislature had authority over the city police and appointed police chiefs who often were hostile to the city Socialists. The police department had a reputation for harassment and intimidation of the political left, gay people, and the counterculture. Police officers were linked to a firebombing of The Bugle-American alternative newspaper in the early 1970s. In January 1981 Milwaukee police officers arrested and beat Wendy O. Williams, lead singer of The Plasmatics, when the punk rockers visited the city on tour. Some of the police department's institutionalized prejudices are tragic, like the two police officers (one who later became head of the police officers' union) who found serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer's victim 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone nude on the street, and returned him to Dahmer, later laughing about how they had reunited two gay lovers (Dahmer killed and dismembered Sinthasomphone). It is also dangerous to be black in Milwaukee. In the 1970s, when I lived in Milwaukee, I remember repeated news stories about black men who were arrested and died in custody. I assumed by now that the police department's violent institutionalized racism had been cleaned up by improved training and diversity in hiring but I was surprised to learn that "black man dies in police custody" is still a common local news story (just google it: "dies in custody milwaukee").

Among US states, Wisconsin has a reputation for "good government" and efforts to eliminate cronyism and institutionalized corruption. The state is known for a history of Progressive politics from an era when Liberalism and Socialism were admired by many. At the same time, Milwaukee has long been one of the most racially divided cities in the US, more segregated than many cities in the South. The state has long been politically and culturally divided. Its divisions, fear and violence, reaction and repression are as much part of the state's history as is its reputation for liberalism, though not as well known.

What does this have to do with a website that promotes the Milwaukee Police Department? Maybe not much at all.

Ah yes, progressives. The folks whose vision of the future hasn't changed since the early 20th century, when they had their greatest political successes, such as "he kept us out of the war" Wilson, who pushed segregation at a national level after southern successes. Despite judicial approval ("three generations of imbiciles is enough" as their hero Oliver Wendell Holmes put it, in a case that didn't involve any imbiciles) they weren't as successful with their other big project, eugenics, and their great regret is that Nazis made it unfashionable.

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