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As Crime Spikes, Wisconsin's Governor Says He's Too 'Busy' to Meet with Families of Murder Victims

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  March 04, 2022 1:45 PM

Since Democrat Governor Tony Evers took office in 2019, Wisconsin has experienced a spike in violent crime, especially in and around Madison and Milwaukee along with the corridor that stretches southward to the Illinois border and Chicago. 

Rather than crime rates or victims of violent crime being the focus of Evers' liberal administration, it's the criminals behind bars that Evers is worried about — and it turns out he's not even sure when he last met with the families of Milwaukee's murder victims.

In an interview segment on rising crime and proposed solutions, Evers refused to say whether or not he supported ending cash bail, one of the radical left's favorite "reforms" to pursue, usually with disastrous effects.

Evers also couldn't give an answer when he was asked when he last spoke with families who lost loved ones to violent crime in Milwaukee: "I did in the Waukesha occasion," Evers said of the Christmas parade attack that killed six and wounded more than 60 holiday revelers. "I met with several of the families there," he continued. "I may have before that, but I, you know, I've got a busy schedule."

Ah, a "busy schedule." Right. 

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The interview in which Evers refused to make the wise choice of condemning attempts to make it easier for criminals to get back on the streets and then claimed he was too busy to meet with murder victims' families is hardly the first time he's had missteps on the issue of law and order.

On the campaign trail, Evers said his "goal" was "cutting the state's inmate population in half." In 2020, Evers publicly fretted that "Either we find a way to have robust criminal justice reform or we will be building a new prison" that Evers said would cost "$600 million," something he characterized as "unacceptable" and "a tragedy for the state of Wisconsin." 

So Evers wanted to empty out Wisconsin's prisons through "reform" rather than face the "tragedy" of having to build another prison? What about the tragedy of the crimes that necessitated prison space? Ensuring justice is served is apparently a tragedy to Evers. That, and he's usually too "busy," apparently. 

By 2021, even Wisconsin Public Radio was publishing stories about how "The law is on hold in Milwaukee" while homicide rates continued trending upward. 2021 saw Milwaukee record one of the highest murder rates in the United States. And it all followed the Evers "goal of eventually cutting the state’s inmate population in half."

In his 2022 State of the State address, Evers didn't even mention rising crime. 

Wisconsin's former Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, a Republican looking to unseat Evers in November, pointed out the current governor's flawed "liberal priorities:"