Mayor Cavalier Johnson was only the fourth elected mayor of Milwaukee in the past sixty-two years. Taking office, he announced violence reduction, economic development, and roadway safety as priorities but how does he plan to address on-going issues?
WTMJ’s Libby Collins spoke with Mayor Johnson not only about how he plans to lead the city to more prosperity, but his family’s holiday traditions and his affinity for the fictional character Batman on this week’s episode of WTMJ’s Conversations.
Listen in the player above.
A portion of the conversation was transcribed below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters, Inc.Â
LIBBY COLLINS: On Friday, December 9th, postal worker Aundre Cross was murdered in the City of Milwaukee. First of all, are there any leads on this? Do you know who did it, what was behind it? Do they have any suspects even in mind?
MAYOR CAVALIER JOHNSON: That’s another issue, again, that — it boils my blood that somebody who is a public servant who’s simply out there doing their job would be shot and killed this way. It just goes to the point that in not just this city, because it’s not just a Milwaukee thing; not just this state, because it’s not just a Wisconsin thing, but in this country, because it is an American thing that there is — there are too many guns. And not just, you know, too many guns, but too many guns in the hands of people who — and this is the key part — who should not have them in the first place. And it’s not this, you know, crazy, radical, political idea that people who would cause death, harm, or destruction should not have their hands on guns. Like, that’s not crazy. And if folks think it’s crazy, then call me crazy. Because I think that the vast majority of people in Milwaukee, the vast majority of people in Wisconsin, the vast majority of people in the United States would agree that people who are going to use guns for criminal activity and killing people should not easily have the access, but we just, unfortunately, are in a state in our society right now where we just have not acted upon that. And I wish that we would change the narrative, I wish that we would change the tune on that.
And as it relates to Mr. Cross, I know that a lot of people are mourning his death, I certainly am, too. Every indication that I got is that he was a standup gentleman who touched people in a positive way, a family man who loved his kids, loved his family. And now he’s not here because somebody decided to, you know, pull a trigger on a gun for whatever reason.
To answer the question about whether or not there are any leads, the police obviously continue to investigate this. The Postal Inspection Service, they’ve offered an award that I think will help us to bring someone to justice on this.
And I have been very consistent, very, very consistent since I’ve been in this office that when anybody causes death, harm, or destruction in Milwaukee that they should be held to account, bar none, period, including this person.
LIBBY COLLINS: Do the police believe this was a robbery, or was there some other reason this may have happened?
MAYOR CAVALIER JOHNSON: I don’t have further information on that presently.
LIBBY COLLINS: Were there other cases though over the last four months or so where other mailmen, mailwomen were being robbed while they were on their routes in Milwaukee?
MAYOR CAVALIER JOHNSON: Are there cases of that?
LIBBY COLLINS: Yeah.
MAYOR CAVALIER JOHNSON: I don’t have further information on that either. That’d be a question I think you’d have to dig in and ask the police department.
LIBBY COLLINS: But nothing that you know of personally?
MAYOR CAVALIER JOHNSON: Nothing that I know of personally, no.
LIBBY COLLINS: One other issue, and again, this just happened this week, it was a DPW driver on Highway 100 and a terrible accident occurred, what can you tell us about this? Was it a medical emergency this driver had? Do we know what caused that accident?
MAYOR CAVALIER JOHNSON: Well, I did go to the scene that day, and the image that I saw, that so many of your listeners I’m sure saw on the news, was carnage, vehicular carnage.
LIBBY COLLINS: It was terrible.
MAYOR CAVALIER JOHNSON: It was — it was terrible. I don’t know the details yet, it’s still, you know, relatively fresh, so there are investigations underway. The Wauwatosa Police Department is leading those investigations, so I don’t have any further details at this moment to share on that other than the fact that it was — you know, it was tragic and there was loss of life.
