The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission’s monthslong 3-3 tie between two candidates to be the city’s next police chief will extend well into March, Chairman Nelson Soler announced Thursday.
Despite now having a seventh member on hand to provide a tie-breaker, Soler said he is withholding another vote on the police chief selection until as early as mid-March while the city navigates legal entanglements with ousted Chief Alfonso Morales.
He also said he wanted a vote to come after an upcoming report is made available from the city’s inspector general examining the decision-making behind the commission’s legally flawed move to demote Morales from chief to captain last summer.
Freeimages.com/Jeramey Jannene
MILWAUKEE Milwaukee Common Council members are blasting ousted Police Chief Alfonso Morales’ attorney for making what they consider racist remarks on a radio show.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports Franklyn Gimbel told WTMJ-AM on Monday that former Milwaukee Police Chief Harold Brier was “an old-fashioned law and order guy if ever there was one.”
He also said the city’s police commission is faltering because commissioners are appointed according to zip codes instead of their intelligence.
Brier was criticized in 1984 for making racist remarks. The council said Gimbel was Brier supporter and his zip codes comment implies commissioners are appointed according to race.
Several members of the Milwaukee Common Council ripped attorney Franklyn Gimbel on Wednesday for comments he made to WTMJ radio earlier this week. In a statement, the members accused Gimbel of being racist.
Gimbel, who is representing former Chief Alfonso Morales, called the Fire & Police Commission “outrageously dysfunctional” during a conversation Monday with WTMJ’s Gene Mueller. Gimbel also suggested the city refrain from “using Zip Codes rather than IQ’s to appoint people to the (FPC).”
In a statement, signed by twelve council members, the aldermen criticized the attorney’s remarks.
“If Mr. Gimbel thought he was concealing his meaning behind clever language, he did a poor job of it,” the council members said. “Nonetheless, let us spell it out: none of the six members of Milwaukee’s Board of Fire and Police Commissioners are white. If Mr. Gimbel meant something else when he divided people by “Zip Code” other than their race, we encourage him to share
Milwaukee Common Council members criticize Gimbel’s ‘racist remarks’ on radio show
Eleven members of the Milwaukee Common Council are criticizing the attorney Franklyn Gimbel’s comments about the history of policing in the city, calling his remarks racist, inaccurate and “profoundly disturbing.”
During the five-minute radio interview, Gimbel said he served on the Fire and Police Commission from 1977-82 while Harold Breier was chief of police.
“He was an old-fashioned law-and-order guy if ever there was one,” Gimbel said.
The Milwaukee aldermen and alderwomen Ashanti Hamilton, Cavalier Johnson, Nik Kovac, Nikiya Dodd, Milele A. Coggs, Khalif J. Rainey, JoCasta Zamarripa, Chantia Lewis, Mark A. Borkowski, Jóse G. Pérez and Russell W. Stamper II released a joint statement late on Wednesday afternoon that said Gimbel’s remarks were racist, inaccurate and outrageous.
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