GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The community came together with Green Bay Police to discuss the rise in gun violence in the city during a forum at the Neville Public Museum on Wednesday night.
Both sides had a lot of questions for the other.
“Really, I want to hear from the community about its expectations so I can make better decisions,” Chief Chris Davis told WTAQ News.
One resident question seemed to be pervasive among most attendees – and received a lot of head nods: “What can we do to help? What do you need from us? Besides calling every time we hear a gunshot, what else do you need from us?”
“One thing that you can do that really really helps us is this right here,” Davis responded. “This engagement on this issue is a huge help. What it does is a few things: One, it gives people like me, who work for you, a really clear sense of what your priorities are…Hold us accountable. And when you’re not so sure you’re thrilled with what you see from us, let us know. Because we have to make sure that we do our job the right way…Really at the end of the day, our authority is entirely based on our legitimacy and the way in which we follow the rules ourselves.”
“Thank you for your integrity,” another audience member shouted out.
Davis says the issue Green Bay is facing doesn’t have a single, straight-forward answer. That’s why it’s important to have the community input.
“A lot of times, people don’t see the problem in all of its complexity. I think it’s really important for us to understand a problem from multiple perspectives, and then build a preventative response based on a complete understanding of the problem,” Davis explained. “There’s a comprehensive gun violence assessment from an outside group called the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform. That will provide us with more insight into the problem…I would like to see us find ways to do the very important work of reducing crime and preventing crime and public safety issues in our community without the collateral damage that marginalizes often whole groups of people in the process.”
But when it comes down to actually addressing the issues, members of the public weren’t all completely sure what kind of recommendations to make – only knowing that they all hoped for a solid solution.
“Violence in our community is something that both sides of any political aisle need to come together on,” said Mike Shea. “We need to focus on the cause of the violence, and have less focus on the means of the violence…[we have to make sure] the focus is on what’s causing this violence and what we can do as a community to stem the violence.”
“If they’re proactive and they can dragnet out an area, root out people that maybe are out of place, that would be the way to go, maybe? I’m not sure,” said Matthew Roeser.
Roeser and his wife Polly are both life-long Green Bay residents, and both of them expressed serious concern over the rising issues.
“Green Bay has always been a very safe place to be. You could leave a bicycle sitting outside, you could leave your car unlocked most of the time when I grew up. But it’s changed,” Roeser said. “The last 2 years? 3 years? It’s really concerning, and it’s just not a safe place right now. My wife actually said she doesn’t feel comfortable getting gas, and that’s not the place that we grew up in.”
The Roesers and Mike Shea agreed that police transparency and honesty is key.
“They’ve been able to kind of keep it under wraps, not really letting us know what bad things are happening in our city. And I feel like they’re unable to keep it under wraps any longer, and now we just need to know and understand what’s really going on,” Polly Roeser said. “I think we are not kept informed as we should be.”
“We need real-time information as to what’s going on. We need a dedicated leadership in our own communities to initiate the conversation and any action that needs to be taken,” Shea added.
Watch the full meeting right here:
Circling back to the cause of the issue – the chief was able to shed a little light on some of the conflicts that led up to people pulling triggers over the past few weeks.
“This tends to be between social groups, social networks – and what we’re seeing a lot of times what this looks like is someone disrespects somebody else, who they already don’t get along with, on social media,” Davis told the group. “Somebody disses somebody on social media, on Snapchat or Instagram. That someone feels the need to retaliate, and sometimes that comes in the form of a physical altercation or a heated argument.”
Recently, he says, it’s come in the form of people firing weapons. Another issue, he says, is that the retaliations become cyclical – and both sides try to counter the other. That cycle is what Davis is hoping to break by making arrests and making it known to those groups that there are consequences for their actions.
“Can you speak a little more to the demographic of those fine, upstanding citizens that are causing the problem?” said Jane Rising, a Green Bay resident who lives down the block from the Hubbard Street incidents.
She also asked whether the shootings were gang-related. Davis says it’s not that simple.
“Sometimes it’s over a drug ripoff or something like that, but often it really just comes down to the matter of respect rather than furthering criminal activity,” Davis said.
The conversation between Chief Davis and residents went on for nearly two hours. Other area leaders also chimed in from time to time. Most shared the belief this is an ongoing conversation that needs to remain in the forefront of the community’s attention.
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