When I worked at WTMJ Milwaukee in the 90’s I had the pleasure of associating with some very talented, dedicated individuals. One of them was Sean O’Flaherty who was honored by the station back in June.

Here’s just one of the many memories I have of this hard-working guy. O’Flaherty would come to the station mid-afternoon to help out at the assignment desk for the afternoon and evening newscasts. He’d continue to man the desk after 10:00 pm news and listen intently to the various scanners. If word came through about a fire or shooting he’d strap on a camera and dash out of the building into a new car to get video of the spot news. Sometime early the next morning he’d call it a day and finally head home. I’m told he slept with earphones connected to a scanner.

During those 90’s O’Flaherty kept a map of the city of Milwaukee on the wall at the assignment desk where he’d place a red tack at the street location of Milwaukee’s latest homicide. While there some markers on the near south side there was a sea of red on the north side of the inner city, bounded roughly juts north of downtown to north of North Avenue, and 6th street west to about 28th street.

The political editors of The Patriot Post published a piece on how we should concentrate our efforts on crime. Based on his experience, O’Flaherty may tend to agree. Here’s an excerpt from the Post:

An outsize share of lawbreaking occurs at certain places and times, perpetrated by a small group of people. Though academics, the media, and politicians can’t seem to agree on much when it comes to crime in the United States, three stubborn facts generally apply. First, crime is heavily concentrated by place.

You can read the entire piece here.

And here’s more from the Post:

Police advocates say the “Defund Police” movement is responsible for the nearly 30% increase in murders in 2020, the largest single-year jump since the FBI began recording crime statistics six decades ago.

The change in murder was widespread — a national phenomenon and not a regional one. Murder rose over 35% in cities with populations over 250,000 that reported full data.

It also rose over 40% in cities with 100,000 to 250,000 people, and around 25% in cities under 25,000.

Police advocates note that 372 police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2020 compared with 151 the previous year, a 146% increase.