Police and Hmong Americans Collaborate for Safer Community

After the fatal shooting of 1-year-old Bill Thao in 2014, the Milwaukee Police Department’s District 4 and members of the Hmong community decided to collaborate together to start a task force in the hopes of having a safer community.

The MPD Hmong Advisory Task Force had its first dialogue about crime and safety Saturday afternoon on April 9. The dialogue was held inside a lecture hall in the Milwaukee Police and Fire Academy on Teutonia Avenue.

Sgt. Mark Kapusta, of District 4, is one of the six co-chairs in the task force.  At the latest meeting of the task force, he provided resources for the attendees by going over the crime maps of district 4.

“When we’re are not there, you are our eyes and ears,” said Sgt. Kapusta to the audience. “And we need your help, and we need you to communicate; we need to know what’s going on.”

The maps reported the violent and property crimes from last year and from this year as of April 9.  Those maps were nearly unrecognizable as the majority of the maps were filled with highlighted areas indicating crimes had taken place. A few of those highlighted areas were red, which Sgt. Kapusta called “hot spots.” Those areas are the ones to watch closely because serious crimes are occurring there.

Guest speakers included Chai Moua from the Wisconsin Hmong Family Strengthening Helpline, Amy Weed from Department of Neighborhood Services and Milwaukee District Attorney Dox Odom. A group of young people known as the Young Leaders Anti-Violence Project (YLAP) presented their wish list on a neon green poster board to express the positive change they want to see in the community.  At the top of their wish list was for people to understand other cultures with an open mind.  They also included validation for other people’s needs, more consideration for one’s own actions and consequences as well as seeing police officers as allies, not enemies.

Before the dialogue started, the attendees enjoyed desserts and food at the back of the room on a table. After waiting for everyone to finish their food, Dr. Chia Vang briefly revisited the history of how the task force came about.

She told the audience that May Yer Thao from the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce was the person who first met two Community Liason Officers, Carrie Resnick and Tracey Geniesse and together they thought they should continue to meet. Thao is the director of the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce, an organization that provides resources such as financial assistance and business or marketing planning for Hmong entrepreneurs.

Dr. Vang is a UWM professor, who teaches in the History Department. She is one of the six co-chairs of the task force. She is also an author, and the director of the Hmong Diaspora Studies at the university. She received her Bachelor degree at Gustavus Adolphus College, her Masters at Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and then her PHD at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Vang joined the task force to encourage young people to have a voice and be more involved in the community, so they can learn how to make the community safer. Joining the task force was her way of working with the community even though she does not live in District 4 or in Milwaukee; she doesn’t think it is a criteria to be a Milwaukee resident to join. Anybody can be involved.

“When people see things that are happening that they care about, I think people should do something about it,” Dr. Vang said.

After the dialogue, Officer Resnick and Geniesse led a group tour of the facility.

Within the group tour is a student from UWM.  His name is Yia Vang, who studies criminal justice at the university. His concern about crime in his neighborhood and the need for safety and protection for his neighbors led him to join the task force and to encourage people to be part of the change.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to get involved in a task force,”  said Vang.  “You don’t have to wait until something bad happens to you or to someone you know to get involved in a task force.”

Prior to his education at UWM, Vang served in the army in Afghanistan. He owns an auto repair shop, Protech Automotive, on Burleigh.

Dr. Chia Vang hopes that the task force will bring awareness to the Hmong community since Hmong people live in the city, and therefore they are a part of the city too. The dialogue was the task force’s first community meeting, and to get the word out they attended one of the most well-known Hmong festivals called the Milwaukee Hmong New Year months before it was even close to April. They handed out fliers at the festival in December 2015 to let everybody know about the community meeting.

“We’re interested in being part of the solution,” said Dr. Vang. “We’re interesting in helping to building a safer community and that when there are important things happening in the community that we should be invited to be at the table too.”