On Sept. 15, Milwaukee County Supervisor Anthony Staskunas released a letter to County Board Chair Marcelia Nicholson calling to remove Supervisor Ryan Clancy from his position as chair of the Judiciary Law Enforcement and General Services (JLEGS) Committee.
Clancy, a Milwaukee DSA member, has been criticized for saying police officers’ jobs “have neither dignity nor value.” Staskunas claimed Clancy’s comments were were “inflammatory and dangerous,” and said Clancy’s conduct “does not serve the public well.”
We disagree. Ryan Clancy is one of the only supervisors who has consistently called for increased accountability for law enforcement and investing in community safety efforts outside of policing. He has tried to get real answers about the recent string of suicides and the uprising at the Milwaukee County Jail that took place over a month ago, which we still know very little about.
Meanhwile, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office has gotten away with brushing such matters away for far too long, and we need leadership that will hold them accountable. The Sheriff’s Office has systematically denied the public the most basic accountability or transparency in its expenses and its management of the Milwaukee County Jail. In response to increasing public outcry for more transparency and action around inmate deaths and ongoing abuses at the jail, the Sheriff’s Office has asked for more money and has refused to release the full details about how it is spending its considerable budget.
The comments that Staskunas called “dangerous and inflammatory” in fact reflect a longstanding and growing body of research calling into question the value of police work and advocating for the end of policing as we know it. Abolitionist scholars including Michelle Alexander, Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mariame Kaba, Geo Maher, and Alex Vitale have spent decades studying the criminal justice system, and have concluded that policing is an outdated institution that is ineffective at both preventing and solving crime.
Even reports commissioned by the U.S. government have found that our current justice system is ineffective and counterproductive in keeping our communities safe. In 1973, the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals found “overwhelming evidence that these institutions create crime rather than prevent it,” and recommended that “no new institutions for adults should be built and existing institutions for juveniles should be closed.”
Staskunas’ demand that Nicholson strip Clancy of his chairmanship, then, is essentially a call for the County Board to censor opinions that question existing power structures. Clancy represents a substantial and growing movement of concerned residents who have been demanding new approaches to community safety since the 2020 uprisings following George Floyd’s death. These residents deserve a voice.
We must not lead from fear stoked by decades of racist fearmongering campaigns that argue the only way we can keep our communities safe is through overstuffed police budgets, militarization, and a total lack of public accountability for police misconduct. Rather, we must craft evidence-based policies that address the root causes of crime and allocate public funds toward policy solutions proven to be effective at keeping our communities safe.
Increasing the police budget year after year has done little to keep Milwaukee residents safe. It’s time to ask: what will?
We believe it’s time for our public officials to stand up for real community safety, not more blank checks for police departments. We believe real community safety looks like access to affordable housing, food, education, transportation, and health care. It looks like building more public spaces like libraries and parks. It looks like eradicating poverty in all its forms and building toward a truly just society. If our elected officials truly want to make Milwaukee safe for all, they would be proud to stand with Ryan Clancy.
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