Common Council Makes Things Worse, Again

“We understand the circumstances,” said Velarde. He said the day before the homicide an employee was shot at by a customer. “It’s a problem and it is bigger than us [this Burger King].”

Spoken by Cave Enterprises CEO Adam Velarde owner of a Burger King that the Milwaukee Common Council recently voted to close by denying renewal of their food dealer license. This seems like a burgeoning trend in town. 

The city is helpless as many of our fellow citizens regularly harm others or their property. The politicians appear to believe it's their responsibility; that they hold the levers that will eliminate violence; they must do something. So they shutdown local businesses after they become the victims of reckless violence. It's something they can do. They can close places people go to eat or drink; they can remove jobs from a neighborhood.

What metric do they use to make these decisions? Is their cost benefit analysis gut based or do they have some statistics that demonstrates forcing closed a business lowers an area's crime levels? Will this be applied evenly everywhere in town since this is not a targeted problem? Do Milwaukee residents feel politicians are responsible for Burger King shootings? If so, what's the relationship?

To me it seems obvious the local government cannot fix what ails Milwaukee. The problems and solutions lie within the bodies and perceptions of those that continue to carry out these terrible acts that drag us all down. In the meantime, expect more businesses to be closed in neighborhoods that badly need more of them. Look at the map below; the Burger King death of Niesha Harris-Brazell is circled in red; each black marker represents another murder within the surrounding area as of June 24, 2022. Oddly enough, murders continue to happen right near the businesses the Council closed in the past.

Does anyone honestly believe that Burger King is the problem?