Speedway Punished For Being Repeatedly Robbed

Earlier this year during a licensing hearing the Milwaukee City Council made a bizarre decision essentially blaming the owners of an Oklahoma Ave Speedway for being robbed multiple times during a month.

Quite frankly, Speedway, this location has utilized the resources of the sixth MPD district way, way too much. You have abused that privilege.

What a confusing notion; being unwillingly robbed by others is abusing MPD’s resources and should be punished. Is there lighting outside? Are there security cameras? Do they have a sign in their window inviting criminal activity? If they follow general best practices for gas stations or commit to doing so then I fail to see how this is anything other than the council attempting to be seen as taking swift action to address a local crime problem. Since they have little ability to actually reduce crime, the victimized business is forcing to close earlier instead.

The Council seems to view the issue as follows,

1. Speedway is open from 12am until 5am.
2. People are regularily robbing Speedway around those hours.
3. If we close Speedway during the night, the criminals won’t have a business to rob.
4. The criminals will instead do something other than commit crime.

My view of the issue is as follows,

1. There are people regularly robbing a local business.
2. We should protect the business by finding and punishing these individuals.
3. We should work with the police department to determine why this area is attracting robberies.
4. We should attempt to address discovered issues without harming local residents and businesses.

It can be argued that the Common Council are using the only tools available to them in an attempt to address crime in this neighborhood. The often repeated mistake from government bodies is believing that they are responsible for correcting any and all societal problems when in fact, they have a very limited ability to do so. Individuals and communities create and must resolve their own problems; the Common Council is unable to do so. Harming an innocent business should not be the byproduct of this limitation.

Alderwoman Chantia Lewis said that restricting the Speedway’s hours in aldermanic district 9 alleviated similar issues there.

As an alder who has a Speedway in her district and seen the alleviation of a lot of issues in the district when the Speedway isn’t open over night I would move renewal of the food dealer’s license but non-renewal of the extended hours based off of the police report, aldermanic testimony and district 9 knowledge.

Alderwoman Chantia Lewis

However, district 9 crime statistics for the last few years show a significant increase in robberies. Between 2019 and 2020 robbery increased by 43% from 88 to 126. Year to date robbery has again increased 3%. Late night businesses are not the issue that needs addressing and robbery statistics do not appear to backup the alderwoman’s claims about the results of limitations placed on her district's Speedway.

Further east on opposing corners of E Oklahoma Ave are a Mobil and BP gas station. I wonder why the Speedway is a regular target while the others are ignored. Speedway appears to be the only business open late on nearby blocks; perhaps that is related? Could Humboldt Park directly across the street be the issue?

Understandably, none of these questions are answered in the article; however, after purchasing bullet proof glass ($100,000) and offering to change their security guard schedule from three days to everyday, Speedway has now been punished (for being robbed) by having their extended hour license revoked meaning they will now lose their right to operate from 12-5am despite MPD writing a letter in their favor.