UWM Student Association Criticized Milwaukee Police Chief Flynn In Local Paper Ad

Edward A. Flynn

Half page ad in local newspaper by the UWM Student Association says, Chief Flynn "took it upon himself to proclaim that UWM students are merely visitors" at the urban university.

By H. Nelson Goodson

October 15, 2012

Milwaukee, WI - On Monday, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Student Association (SA) joined other citywide members of the community in criticizing Milwaukee Police Chief Edward A. Flynn. The SA in a half page ad in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (JS) criticized Chief Flynn for inadvertently saying that UWM students were merely visitors in response to the recent arrest of 30 rowdy students.

Flynn's statement was deemed as a huge slap in the face to students that their student government had to spent a hefty amount of cash to advertise their open letter to the Eastside Community and Chief Flynn in the JS newspaper.

For the most part of the letter, it says that students pay rent, taxes and live in Milwaukee, just like Chief Flynn who most likely will leave the city someday.

The SA ad states, Chief Flynn is trying to use "diversionary tactics to cover up the police department weaknesses, in an attempt to change the public focus away" from Flynn's "department failures, as well as his own."

Chief Flynn and department chose to "instead manufacture over-exaggerations and flat out lies designed to draw police into our neighborhoods to arrest a few dozen students for noise violations. The selfishness displayed through that process demonstrates little respect for other areas of our city that have REAL crime issues that deteriorate neglected neighborhoods."

Last Friday, an African-American community coalition began circulating signature petitions to get at least 10,000 signatures as an attempt to oust Chief Flynn in wake of the Derek Williams homicide while in police custody and other controversial incidents within the police department, which has led to some loss of credibility with the Black, Hispanic and now the UWM student body.

Since 2008, Chief Flynn has been involved in several scandals, including and extramarital affair with a married reporter and his department accused of allegedly changing certain crime statistics to report later that crime had dropped when in fact, it did not for certain crimes. Flynn attributed the crime statistic errors as human error.

From my Android phone on T-Mobile. The first nationwide 4G network.