Belling Stirs The Race Pot
Mark Belling devoted nearly an hour of his Tuesday afternoon 1130 WISN-AM radio program to a stabbing incident in a Water St. tavern Saturday that he said had major racial implications for the street and the city.
Stirring the racial pot, as he has done before. His obsession with crimes committed by African-Americans at Mayfair Shopping Center comes to mind.
"You can't allow this [Water St.] to become 35th and North. You just can't," Belling proclaimed Tuesday afternoon.
35th St. and North Ave. is a major Milwaukee central city intersection: Belling described it as "Milwaukee's hell-hole."
In the stabbing incident, the alleged assailant and one of the victims whom I saw interviewed on television Monday night are African-American female college students.
The third woman, also a stabbing victim, is a college student: I am not sure of her race, but I believe all three of the women are African-American. If I am wrong about that, I stand corrected.
An hour with Belling on the issues of race, bar behavior and youth drinking is a special trip into pop sociology and down Memory Lane, that's for sure.
When the podcast of this show is up, I'll note it.
[Update: the podcasts are up, here, for just 24 hours, so if you want to hear them, do it now. You want the first two segments of hour one.]
Among his observations:
Taverns that allow hip-hop music are inviting trouble.
Young people are drinking more heavily and staying wired on the energy drink Red Bull.
Fake ID use is rampant.
Bouncers are sometimes unable or unwilling to challenge questionable ID's presented by black patrons for fear of being called racist.
Therefore, bouncers need to be really big and somewhat older, so they can exercise judgement.
If the tavern where the stabbing took place knowingly let the underage women in who were involved in the assault, the tavern should suffer the consequences.
There is an increasing number of African-Americans on Water St., and if people think his focus on their presence there is racist, well, he doesn't care because he's the only one willing to take the issue head-on.
People who live at 35th and North Ave. seem willing to tolerate violent behavior by "thugs", but it can't be tolerated in other areas of the city, especially on Water St., where there is millions in new condo and commercial investment.
What I'm trying to figure out is how Belling can play the race card regarding the assault.
Does any event involving African-Americans automatically become a racial matter?
After that segment, Belling talked about a lingering election battle in the Germantown-Menomonee Falls area. The candidate involved is white, but Belling did not identify him by race.
Why not?
2 comments:
There is no doubt that Belling runs a racist program, and that he clearly has the maturity of a two year old.
That kind of focus, not the crime itself, is bad for business along Water Street. Both Belling and Sykes pounded the alleged crime wave around Northridge which contributed to its demise. The management should sued these to guys into the stone age.
What a resource they are to the city of Milwaukee. More than anything, these clowns are bad for business.
I heard most of that segment as well. Certainly the bar is at fault if they are letting underage people in. I know that it is easy to get fake ids
I did not know that two of the girls involved were black as Belling just mentioned the race of the attacker.
I am guessing that those people he mentioned living at 35th and North are not going down to Water Street.
It would be interesting to know if the police get called more often to water street than other establishments.
Belling also said if blacks with fake ids were not admitted they would claim racism. I am sure some woud do that. It is certainly hard to prove some one is being racist.
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