Scott Walker has a habit of lying and even perjuring himself. So it comes as no surprise that he would misrepresent the words of a criminologist whose words were featured in a Tom Barrett attack ad.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) most memorable -- and controversial -- recall ad is one that goes after Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) for a scandal where violent crimes in the city were underreported. But a criminologist quoted in that ad says the governor misrepresented his views and is "absolutely wrong" to blame the mayor for the problem.
"This 2-year-old spent six days in intensive care after being severely beaten," says the Walker ad's narrator. "But Tom Barrett’s police department didn’t consider it a violent crime." The ad then shows crime statistics and asserts "violent crime is up" in Milwaukee.
The ad is based on an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that found more than 500 incidents since 2009 "were misreported to the FBI as minor assaults and not included in the city's violent crime rate." It was enough of a difference to mean that Milwaukee's violent crime rate had gone up, not down, as public officials were touting.
Sam Walker, a criminology professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, was quoted in the piece saying the scandal raised questions about the Milwaukee Police Department's procedures.
"That clearly indicates a systemic problem in the department -- there has to be a failure of leadership," he said. "If (police) do it in one or two cases, it's not a big deal. If they do it in a large number of cases, it's suspicious and probably improper. It's something that needs to be corrected immediately."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
However, there is only one tinsy-winsy problem with the attack piece. Sam Walker’s intentions were given a false-impression, which seemed to implicate Tom Barrett
"The governor misrepresented what I said," he said in an interview with The Huffington Post.
"My comment was about the police department strictly," he added. "Mayors don't understand these things. They just accept what their police chiefs and police departments give them. ... The governor was absolutely wrong in saying the mayor was directly responsible for this."
Neither Scott Walker nor his office could be reached for comment according to the HuffPost.
5:53 PM PT: A great local Wisconsin blog has written a wonderful post related to this attack ad (H/T): Cream City:
"Walker holds as much, if not more, responsibility for these incidents of abuse as he falsely claims Barrett does.
First though, a little history.
A couple of children's rights advocacy groups had filed a class action suit against Milwaukee County and the State of Wisconsin, claiming that foster children in Milwaukee County were having their rights violated. The complaint listed the overly long amount of time children went without a permanent plan, the lack of stability as some children were moved from home to home, and being placed in unsafe foster homes where they were revictimized.
An independent audit showed that it wasn't that Milwaukee County was doing a bad job, per se, but that they were extremely underfunded by the Republican controlled state. The Republicans rebuffed this fact and took it upon themselves to cover up their failings.
In 1996, then Governor Tommy Thompson, included a line in the state budget that said that the state would take over the child welfare system of any county with a population of 500,000 or more. This was ramrodded through by Senator Alberta Darling, then Senator Margaret Farrow and then State Assemblyman Scott Walker.
That law still holds effect today. Thus the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare (BMCW) is controlled by soon-to-be-deposed Scott Walker.
Now, if these children were being abused, or were even thought to be in harm's way, the BMCW should be involved. Wouldn't it be interesting to see if referrals had been made to the BMCW and what actions they took before the incidents Walker used in his ad took place? Based on my experience of being a child welfare worker for six and a half years, I would feel that it would be a good bet that Walker's BMCW was aware of these families but did nothing. All in order to save money of course."
http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/...