Posted by CometStarMoon on June 28, 2007
The Capital Times has an article this afternoon covering Madison Police Chief Noble Wray’s heavily attended breakfast with Downtown Madison Inc. In the article Wray acknowledges what many have suspected based on news reports concerning brawls and group muggings around town - gangs are making a comeback in Madison.
Wray told the breakfast:
“We still have the African-American gangs that arrived in the first surge of gang activity here in the late 1980s and 1990s,” he said. “We have Asian gangs. The latest surge that began in 2004 and is still continuing has brought an increase in Latino gangs and young girl gangs, with girls more violent than they used to be.”
He says there is a great deal of gang activity in the schools - which could explain all of the reported violence at our area schools in recent months. Madison Parents’ School Safety Site has been doing a good job covering this end of violent crime in Madison. As MPSSS pointed out on the 24th <i>Isthmus</i> recently ran a short piece concerning school violence by the numbers. MPSSS broke it all down by school and incident using Dabble (note: this is all violence, not specifically gang violence).
Wray also tied the rise in gang activity to the increase in graffiti. He said the police only have two categories for graffiti, “gang and tagging.” He encouraged business owners and citizens to report the graffiti as soon as possible and to remove it if possible.
Posted in Gangs | 3 Comments »
Posted by CometStarMoon on June 21, 2007
Checking recent releases from the Madison Police Department shows a disturbing trend of alleged drive-by assaults. The first two involve a group of individuals in vehicles lashing out at civilians they pass. The first reported case was on June 19 shortly after midnight near the 3700 block of Speedway Road:
On Tuesday morning, a little bit after midnight, Madison Police received a call about an injured bicyclist. The victim said he was eastbound on Speedway near the funeral home when he detected headlights coming up behind him. The next thing he knew a passenger riding in the back of a dark colored van reached out and grabbed him by his bike helmet. The victim says he was first pulled toward the van, and then pushed strongly away from the vehicle. The push caused him tumble over several times. The victim had a red flashing light mounted on the seat post of his bike, which was illuminated, and flashing at the time of the crash. Additionally, a headlight mounted on the bike’s handlebars was turned on. The bike has reflectors on its pedals. The victim was also wearing a reflective yellow vest. He reports hearing male voices laughing as the van drove off. He was transported by ambulance to a local hospital for injuries listed above. The assailants were driving a dark colored van.
The second incident occurred on June 20 just before midnight on the 5000 block of Camden Road:
On June 20, at 11:23, Madison Police responded to a local hospital where a stabbing victim was being treated. The victim reported that he and his brother had been driving on Buckeye Road that evening, listening to a new stereo system the victim had just installed in his car. He says another car, with five men inside, pulled up, and someone hurled a beer can at his car. Angry, he and his brother followed the offending vehicle to Camden Road. There parties from both cars got out, and a fistfight broke out. At some point the victim’s brother noticed the five they were fighting had knives. Additionally, another individual, apparently a friend of the five arrived on scene with what looked like a rifle. At this point the brothers decided to get back in their car and leave the area. It was after that the victim realized he had been stabbed. His brother drove him to the hospital where he was treated for non-life threatening cuts. The assailants were driving a green Intrepid.
A third case that does not involve personal injury but does involve damaged property occurred on June 20 after midnight between the 1200 and 1400 blocks of Rutledge Street:
On Wednesday morning, shortly after midnight, Madison Police received a call from a Rutledge Street resident. The resident reported a car driving down the street shooting out windows of parked cars. The responding officer located seven vehicles with windows shattered by what appeared to be BB pellets. The suspects were possibly driving a “Newer light blue mid-sized 4-door sedan.”
Anyone with information on these cases is urged to call Crimestoppers at 266-6014. Callers can remain anonymous, and maybe eligible for a cash reward.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Posted by CometStarMoon on June 21, 2007
Isthmus’ The Daily Page seems to have stepped up their coverage of crime in Madison in recent weeks. The website has already established itself as one of the leading websites for information and coverage of Madison’s Halloween. Shortly after we posted our write up on lewd and lascivious behavior in Madison Isthmus reporter Kristian Knutsen posted a article including an interview with Madison Police Department Public Information Officer Joel DeSpain explaining why we are seeing so many more releases concerning lewd behavior (a correction was made to this post at 1:02 p.m. at the request of Knutsen).
DeSpain told Knutsen:
“It was brought up at a detective briefing that there’s been a lot of lewd and lascivious conduct in the last few weeks,” says DeSpain, who joins a daily teleconference of detectives from all five of the MPD’s districts, where they discuss events around the city and look for common trends. “When I’m in these detective briefings, I’m trying to listen to what they’re saying and pick up on these trends.”
The next day Knutsen followed up with a profile of Madison’s new Public Information Officer who was previously a reporter with Channel 3.
Wisconsin State Journal Columnist Melanie Conklin also recently sat down with DeSpain over Guinness.
Posted in Media | No Comments »
Posted by CometStarMoon on June 18, 2007
Something has been in the air in Madison. In the recent two weeks a number of exposures and sex crimes have been witnessed around town. One involved a suspect taking pictures up skirts, another involved a man masturbating in his car, and a third - as previously discussed on MadCrime101 - involved a man masturbating at James Madison Park. As the trend continues with more reports from police this morning, it is rather disturbing and unsettling.
This time, they made an arrest for Lewd & Lascivious Behavior. It is important to take a moment to remind readers that our information comes from the police report. Anyone who is charged with a crime is still innocent until proven guilty. Tyler J. Schmidt, 21, was picked up due to the alleged following circumstances in the police report:
“…a woman walking near Langdon Street reported that while walking past an open garage in the 600 block of Howard Court she saw something that disturbed her. A man had dropped his shorts and was standing inside the garage watching her while masturbating. The suspect was still in the area when police arrived and was arrested for L & L.”
It is unclear if Schmidt was the perpetrator in an incident roughly two miles away on June 13:
| Address |
100 Block N. Dickenson St. |
| Arrested person/suspect |
Male, White
5′9″
Short brown hair, trimmed beard
Wearing an unknown shirt |
| Victim/Injuries |
Female, Age 17 |
| Details |
On Wednesday of last week, a 17 year old young woman reported that she was walking along N. Dickenson street, around a quarter past eight in the morning, when she heard someone coughing loudly. She turned and looked and observed the suspect looking at him. He was naked from the waste down. She says he remained in this state of undress following her for 1/2 a block. |
Schmidt, at the age of 21, does not match the description of the perps described in the cases posted in the first paragraph. Citizens are encouraged to be alert - and heck, if you see some jerk creepily rubbing one out in public and he doesn’t look too dangerous (especially if his pants are around his ankles and he is far enough away), put your camera phones to use.
Posted in Miscellaneous Sex Offense | 1 Comment »
Posted by CometStarMoon on June 15, 2007
On June 13 Michael Gerald Pullum, 33, was taken into custody by Madison Police after allegedly “masturbating near bikini clad women.” Pullum was charged with the following:
|
1
|
944.20(1)(b)
|
Lewd, Lascivious Behavior-Exposure
|
Misd. A
|
|
|
2
|
947.01
|
Disorderly Conduct
|
Misd. B
|
|
|
3
|
946.41(1)
|
Resisting or Obstructing an Officer
|
Misd. A
|
|
|
4
|
946.49(1)(a)
|
Bail Jumping-Misdemeanor
|
Misd. A
|
According to the police report “several families with children were also in the area. Witnesses pointed out the offender to police. He began running, and a resulting foot chase temporarily stopped traffic on busy East Gorham St. This phase of the pursuit involved 6 Madison Police Officers. A short time later the suspect jumped into Lake Mendota. A crew from UW Emergency Boat Services, with a Capitol Police Officer also on board, persuaded the suspect, now 100 yards out in the lake, to join them in the watercraft.”
Pullum has a long history with Madison Police and the court system spanning all the way back to September of 1991 when he was found guilty of Burglary and October of 1991 when he was found guilty of retail theft.” In both of the cases he was sentenced in March of 1992. His sentence for the burglary was three years probation and two years probation for the retail theft.
Pullum spent most of 1992 in and out of the courts for theft and in one occasion resisting an officer. His jail time for various offenses was 10, 20, and 30 days.
Then in 1993, now labeled as a habitual criminal by the court system, it was more of the same. Throughout the year Pullum was found guilty of retail theft, battery, disorderly conduct, and theft of a movable object. In each of these cases he was sentenced to three years probation.
Then in 1994 Pullum was sent to state prison after being found guilty on two counts of forgery. For the first he was sentenced to eight years and for the second two years.
After returning to public life, Pullum had his first run in with the law on May 4, 2007 when he was charged with theft of movable property. That case is still open.
Pullum will appear in court for the June 13 charges on June 28.
Posted in Miscellaneous Sex Offense | 2 Comments »
Posted by CometStarMoon on June 13, 2007
The Madison Police apprehended the youth alleged to be involved in a rash of East and North Side burglaries. Press release is below:
| Address |
North & East side burglaries *** UPDATE *** |
| Arrested person/suspect |
Male, 15, Madison |
| Victim/Injuries |
|
| Details |
As previously released, the north and east side of Madison had a rash of residential burglaries. The suspect would ring doorbells to see if anyone was home and if not, search the house for the easiest path inside (unlocked doors, open windows, etc). Madison Police warned this part of the city of the rash of break-ins and to be observant and notify police of suspicious behavior. This warning paid off. On Sunday 6/10 a suspect was arrested and that male was taken into juvenile custody. After being released, the suspect began to commit more burglaries via the same method. On Monday an alert resident noticed this male suspect in the neighborhood, ringing doorbells. As the suspect walked around the house, the observant neighbor called police. The suspect was caught inside the house, befriending a pitbull. The juvenile is now in an unsecured location under court order not to leave. At this point, the Madison Police Department is investigating how many burglaries this individual may be responsible for. |
Posted in Burglary | No Comments »
Posted by CometStarMoon on June 10, 2007
One of the inspirations for this blog was the tragic shooting on State Street nearly a month ago. We hoped to keep that discussion alive and running as we explored what went wrong and how Madison should address it. More details emerged this morning through the Wisconsin State Journal’s investigation into the shooting death of Austin Bodahl. The trigger was pulled by Daniel Kelly, a man who is reported to have a history of schizophrenia and has been in and out of mental institutions. The WSJ reports that Kelly was able to obtain his gun legally:
He could buy the gun because under state gun law those with mental illness can be barred from buying a gun only if a judge has ordered them involuntarily committed to a mental institution and barred them from possessing a gun. Though Kelly has spent time in mental institutions, he has never been involuntarily committed.
Posted in Homicide | No Comments »
Posted by CometStarMoon on June 9, 2007
The U.K. leads the world when it comes to surveillance of citizens with roughly one camera for every 14 citizens. With 400,000 cameras London has one on nearly every street corner and according to Engadget they aren’t simply the type of cameras that film you, they also are equipped with “mics, speakers” and have “the intelligence to detect violent behavior and see through clothes.” A new set of camera currently being installed will now feature the ability “to talk.” (the U.K. cameras acted as a supporting actor in a Scottish film that showed at the Wisconsin Film Festival called “Red Road“) New York City and Chicago are the least camera shy American cities with 3,000 and 2,200 respectively. In Chicago, they have cameras equipped with microphones that can “detect gunshots.”
Madison hasn’t been big on the camera mounted surveillance and currently there are only a handful of cameras downtown with extras added on special occasions such as Halloween. According to a report by The Capital Times that could soon start changing with new cameras intended to assist in stopping traffic scofflaws.
In Madison’s case the cameras are specifically “red light enforcement cameras” and they hardly come close to comparison with the U.K.’s 4 million cameras (I just want to write that again so you know it isn’t a typo, “the U.K.’s 4 million cameras”). However, when the word “surveillance” comes into play, especially when turned onto city streets, privacy questions are sure to rise. It is important to understand how these specific cameras will work before Joe Paranoia looks up while crossing the street and starts thinking we are headed in the direction of the U.K.
The Cap Times writes:
The Madison Police Department is interested in using cameras to catch drivers going through red lights in an attempt to reduce the number of accidents in intersections. The red light-running cameras would be integrated with the traffic signal system to detect when a car enters an intersection on a red. The camera then records the license plate number. Police trace the license number and a ticket is mailed to the violator.
The paper quotes District 16 Alder Judy Compton as one of the biggest supporters of the surveillance systems, “We don’t have enough officers to be in every place in the city that we need to be. This is a help for that.”
So What About Privacy?
Compton is fairly straight forward and essentially says she doesn’t have time “for those who complain and say it’s a privacy issue.”
The ironically named Captain Cam McLay is with the Madison Police Department Traffic and Support Services Section. The article says:
McLay also dismisses the privacy angle, pointing out that the cameras aren’t running all the time and don’t take photos of people. Instead they take a photograph of the car as it triggers the sensor while entering an intersection against a red light.
How Much Will It Cost?
The article fails to tell us how many cameras the MPD is hoping to install and how much it will cost taxpayers. The article does quote a UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs analysis that found the “societal cost of red light-running is about $14 billion per year in the United States.” the article also cites a report from The National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running. That report found that in “Charlotte, N.C., the red light camera program cut violations by more than 70 percent in the first year, and crashes dropped by more than 10 percent citywide.”
In the grand scheme it would seem the benefits outweigh any cost that the city would incur and any sort of surveillance will be at the bare bones minimum. Red light cams seem like a no brainer.
Posted in Surveillance | No Comments »
Posted by CometStarMoon on June 9, 2007
|
Address |
201 S. Gammon Rd. |
| Arrested person/suspect |
16 year old male
Tentative Charge: Arson to Building |
| Victim/Injuries |
On Thursday June 7 Madison Police took into custody a 16 year old Memorial High School student. He was taken to the Juvenile Reception Center on a tentative arson charge. The teen is accused of setting a fire inside a bathroom at Memorial H.S. Wednesday (June 6) afternoon. Memorial staff and students were instrumental in helping detectives identify a suspect. The fire, which was contained to the bathroom, caused an estimated $2000 damage. |
| Case Date:06/06/07 Case Time: 2:41 PM |
| Release Date:06/08/07 Release Time: 8:32 AM |
| Released By: PIO Joel DeSpain |
Posted in Arson | No Comments »
Posted by CometStarMoon on June 8, 2007
Former Madison mayor Paul Soglin is probably the leading local bloggers tracking Madison crime. You can read all of his posts dedicated to the topic by clicking here.
Soglin doesn’t limit himself to Madison and the peripheral.He doesn’t just focus on Madison, his entries will also take us to Milwaukee and occasionally nationally. Monitoring our larger sister city to the East is important because as we grow we will continue to deal with issues that they are already tackling - or not tackling.
Soglin has spent a great deal of time of late responding to a series of posts by Milwaukee’s Rick Esenberg. Soglin comes from a progressive perspective and Esenberg from a conservative perspective so the dialogue has been very interesting to read. Back on May 24 Soglin made an excellent point concerning the poverty and crime connection - a point we should be mindful of us we proceed with this dialogue. Poverty does not always equal crime. I’ll let Soglin elaborate.
Historically, poor communities, while less safe than wealthy communities, have not always been violent. Similarly, there are many once wealthy, or at least middle class neighborhoods, that fell to the onslaught of both violence and poverty. The very neighborhoods in Milwaukee with the highest violence are examples of the latter.
Many fine neighborhoods with a culture that respected and valued work, community, family, education, and in some instances faith, fell under the pressure of poverty and crime. Good people lived there. They had the culture and the values.
What they did not have was the will. They lacked the will to fight as their community was challenged. Some gave up and fled sooner than others.
We call it middle class flight. It is not white flight; it is not black flight. Anyone with the resources and the means left. And with it, went many of the moral standard bearers. A vacuum was created and a culture of violence filled it.
As the middle class blacks left for the same reason as their white counterparts, they took with them the leadership that is needed in the public schools, the playgrounds and the workplace.
An argument was made to me a few years ago about the successes in education and employment of low income black families that moved into relatively quite and affluent suburbs: their success is attributed to reconnecting with the black middle class. A new standard was set.
No, economics are not the only solution; economics alone does not guarantee a safe community, but it sure plays a hell of a role in providing one.
Families with economic success, families with a step up the economic ladder are stakeholders. They have an interest in exerting their will to set the moral standards and enforce them. But it can be a very lonely battle if one feels isolated, has children who may succumb to drugs and violence, and there is no help from the outside.
Here at MadCrime101 we hope to keep this in mind as we look at all crime that takes place in the greater Madison area. While a great deal of crime occurs because of individuals hitting rock bottom and finding themselves with nothing to lose, Madison also has to cope with “crimes of privilege.” A “crime of privilege” usually deals with white collar crime - business folk swindling the system, but in this case I use it to loosely cover college students or suburban youth who resort to criminal activities out of boredom.
Posted in Crime | No Comments »
