The concept focuses on repairing criminal harms by examining their impact on not only the offender but more importantly on the victim and the community, said Janine Geske, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice and distinguished professor of law at Marquette University Law School. Restorative justice holistically approaches crime, calling upon all involved parties to openly discuss their viewpoints through methods such as sharing circles and victim-offender conferencing. The concept addresses three main questions: Who has been harmed? What is the harm? How can the harm be fixed?

The idea behind restorative justice originates in deeply rooted tribal traditions, Geske said. At Native American tribal assemblies, community members held talking pieces such as feathers, rocks and sticks to indicate whose turn it was to speak. Similar practices were also found within New Zealand tribal communities and the Mennonite religious tradition.

Despite restorative justice’s longstanding practices, the United States didn’t embrace its methodology until recently whereas Canada, New Zealand and the European Union have extensive documentation of its practice, Geske said. The American restorative justice movement first appeared in the 1970s but has gained momentum in the last 10 to 15 years.

Under direction of Geske, Milwaukee has begun to implement restorative justice into its community. Marquette has collaborated with local and federal law enforcement, volunteers and community organizations to create the Safe Streets Initiative, a restorative justice program that targets drug and gang-violence in the roughest parts of Milwaukee.

Geske described the program as an opportunity for communities to hold offenders accountable for their actions and to sound a final call for change. It asks offenders to clean up their acts or face the consequences of law enforcement. Through community support and accountability, the SSI ultimately hopes offenders will realize their harmful actions have a viral effect on the individuals around them.

A drug dealer doesn’t see his impact on a drug-addicted mother whose child is taken away, or how gun shots in a neighborhood shake a community’s safety and security, Geske said. Law enforcers, offenders, victims and communities gain insight into their intertwined interactions through the open dialogue the SSI encourages.

Call-ins, the SSI’s central program component, encourage community leaders to convene with drug dealers and gang members in an effort to confront injury and work to heal the community. Community interventions often take the form of restorative justice circles, a mutual meeting of minds and opportunity for every participant to share his individual perspective without interruption.

Participants gather in a circle and discuss how harm shapes their community, Geske said. Similar to Native American traditions, a talking piece is passed around the room to indicate an individual’s time to verbalize his perspective.

Paulina de Haan, community coordinator for the SSI on Milwaukee’s near south side, said the circles and call-ins she organizes are definite deterrents for crime.

“Ninety-five percent of the crime that occurs only really occurs by 5 percent of the population,” de Haan said. “In the inner city, most people are just trying to make a living and be safe. The theory is that if we target the most violent, gang-affiliated, we can show offenders their actions are bad and have consequences.”

And restorative justice’s impact is evident. de Haan recalled a moving circle in which two former rival gang members joined. In the past they had directed hatred and gunfire at one another, but by the circle’s end they exchanged apologies and hugs. de Haan said she felt uneasy about the situation but trusted the circle’s process.

“Telling each other how much they hated each other and realizing there was no basis for it was incredible,” de Haan said.

Through circles, restorative justice ultimately helps heal communities, but one of its most powerful components brings victims and offenders together through one-on-one conferencing.

Oftentimes victims initiate contact with offenders in order to satisfy their curiosity, Geske said. In some cases the victim wants the offender to hear the harms he caused. In other instances victims want to know more about the crime or what the offender has done since it was committed. Ultimately, victim-offender conferences aim to provide closure and healing to the victim.

“If we paid more attention to supporting victims, we would have fewer offenders,” Geske said.

Will Butler, president of Marquette University Law School’s Restorative Justice Society, said that there would be fewer offenders if communities incorporated restorative justice measures into everyday society.

“It’s the difference between being in the emergency room with a heart attack versus preventing one by exercising and eating right,” Butler said.

Implementing restorative justice programs into school systems and neighborhood communities teaches individuals healthy techniques for tackling conflict, he said. Members of the legal community must also step forward to promote this approach to the legal system.

“What starts really small can become large,” Butler said. “The legal community needs to set a standard. It’s important that the legal community steps up and says there’s more to conflict than just crime.”

The law field’s slow implementation of more restorative justice measures comes from professionals fearing they won’t appear tough on crime if they embrace the concept, he said.

“No one wants someone in office who isn’t tough on crime,” Butler said. “The problem is much more nuanced than what can be put on a voter ticker. “

The approach isn’t designed to take the place of our criminal justice system; it’s designed to repair harm instead of ignoring the fact that harm has been committed, he said. Not every case is right for restorative justice. Dangerous people should not be released from prisons.

In the end, restorative justice reconnects victims, offenders and the community.

Despite society’s technological playground of tweeting and blogging, we grow increasingly disconnected with the community around us. A merry-go-round of fast track communication claims to bring us together but often creates distance between us and our neighbors. We have Internet connectivity at our fingertips but often forget about the human web that pulls us together.

“The most powerful thing about not only circle but restorative justice is the idea of community,” Butler said. “Communities have a powerful way of influencing other people to act right. When you don’t have a community around you, you don’t realize the impact of your actions.”

de Haan said she sees the power of community in the district in which she works.

“We need more community in the inner city,” de Haan said. “It’s a transient community that moves around a lot. People are working hard to make ends meet, and circles help remind everyone we’re in on this together.”

In other words, healing comes full circle. Offenders realize the harm they cause to victims. Victims find closure and a sense of peace. The community grows closer and stronger to one another.

When I say the fantasy of safety, I don’t mean the safety we are provided by our parents, teachers, friends and services like the Milwaukee Police Department and DPS. I am talking about the need, drive and surreality of fear in our culture. Haven’t you ever gone to a movie in theaters or popped one into the DVD player just because you were in the mood to be scared? This is what I call the fantasy of safety.

Since I was a little kid, there has always been a part in me that loved to be scared. At the same time, I am easily petrified by everything (little secret fact about me). I am pretty sure I cried for a couple of hours at age eight when a dead Pocahontas scared the crap out of me at Six Flags Great America, but that isn’t what drives my love of being scared. When I was seven, I saw “Scream” for the first time (which is my favorite horror movie if you care to know). Ever since then, I have become a fanatic of horror films.

Trust me, it is not because of the phenomenal quality, the blood-soaked, D-list casts or even the intriguing plots. That’s all great, but I love horror films because I love the feeling of safety they give me. It comforts me to know that the people on the screen, including the butcher knife-wielding killer, are all fake. I have every right to be “pee-your-pants-scared,” but it is all because I can be. There is no one that will be creepishly stalking my every move, chasing me through a maze of trees, entering my dreams or even throwing a pickaxe into my car window. I am snuggled cozy in my bed, sometimes with my closest friends and family at my sides, but I am safe.

Safe. Four letters. I just talked about an ideal world defined by four letters. Have those four letters made me overly comfortable when I walk down dark streets alone at night? Have those four letters made my best friend carefree enough to crawl into bed at night dreaming of sugarplum fairies and sheep? Have those four letters put parents at ease as they send their children to summer camp every year or camp counselors excited enough to be alone in the woods? All of those situations in which “safe” has become a primary focus are pull outs from various horror films. Some psychologists believe that the horror genre has completely desensitized the American population. Maybe some people don’t know how right the psychologists really are.

I love horror movies — I’ll be the first to admit it. I will also be the first to admit that there are a lot of issues to which we have become desensitized. Each year there are school shootings, disappearing children, serial killers on the loose, car accidents and funerals. It sounds depressing, but have you ever stopped to think about it?

All I am saying is that we need to encourage one another to take life seriously. A little horror is always good fun: the blood-curdling screams, the big-breasted bimbo, the final showdown and the surprise sequels. Just remember, it may be a movie, but we live in reality. Sometimes reality sucks, but it is our job to do our part to make it better.

Always remember that four-letter word, because someday many of us will have kids, and as we turn off their bedroom lights at night they will peer out from beneath their covers and say, “Mommy, Daddy, does the boogeyman live under my bed?” You’ll turn around and lovingly say, “No, baby, you are safe.”

As you shut the door, the hallway light slowly creeping out with you, your child will drift off to sleep. They will dream of happy butterflies and smiley faces, footballs and baseball games. You open the door just a smidgen so it reveals your little baby boy or girl sweetly smiling to the ceiling. You shut the door and think to yourself, “They are safe.”

Drug dealer puts police on hold to conduct some business
CLEVELAND (AP) — Police in Cleveland say a man called 911 because he felt he was in danger — then asked the dispatcher to hold on while he made a drug deal. Police Lt. Thomas Stacho said Feb. 3 that Alejandro Melendez was arrested after the call and was charged with possessing cocaine.

Police said Melendez called 911 late Jan. 31 and reported that two men with guns were watching him.

Police records show he hung up, so the dispatcher called back.

Melendez answered and asked the dispatcher to hold on, but the dispatcher could still hear what was being said.

A voice can be heard on the recording of the call saying: “What you need? A 10-pack? You need a 10-pack? All right.” Police say “10-pack” is slang for a bundle of heroin.

The dispatcher called police, who found Melendez at the location he gave, had the dispatcher call his cell phone again, and said they found cocaine in his trousers.

——

The Sleeping Bag Bandit
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities said a man wearing a sleeping bag as a cape and carrying a screwdriver as a weapon tried to rob someone in the parking lot of a Gainesville business. Police said a 46-year-old man approached the intended victim early morning on Feb. 1 and asked for money.

When the man refused, police said the man threw off the cape and pulled the screwdriver from his waistband. The other man quickly ran into a store and called 911.

The suspect was arrested a few blocks away and charged with attempted armed robbery. He was being held on $20,000 bail.

——

An early-morning drive
MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, Wash. (AP) — Police knew something wasn’t quite right after they spotted a man driving a piece of construction lift equipment down a street at 3 a.m. on Jan. 28. The man, who apparently had been drinking, was in the lift bucket of the Genie Boom with an unopened six-pack of beer and a bag of beef jerky when police pulled the vehicle over. He was clocked at 2 mph.

At first the 29-year-old man told police he was just going to the store. But when they asked him why he was in the bucket on the lift, he said he was delivering the $20,000 piece of construction equipment on a dare from a stranger he met on Craigslist, according to a police report.

The Everett Herald reported the lift apparently had been taken from a construction site.

The man was jailed for investigation of theft.

——

A new look for court
CHICAGO (STNG) — Decked out in a purple suit coat and purple shoes, David B. Johnson appeared before a judge in the Markham courthouse in January on his 13th charge of driving on a suspended license.

At that Jan. 23 hearing, Judge Christopher Donnelly sentenced Johnson to 10 days in jail beginning Feb. 6. The judge also sternly warned him not to drive his car before then.

Johnson donned his purple fedora and full-length fur coat and walked out of the courthouse to his purple 1988 Cadillac. The dashboard of the immaculate four-door sedan had a placard that said “PIMP PLAZA” and the rear spare-tire cover was stenciled “Mister Oldskool.”
Johnson pulled out a feather duster — purple, of course — and cleaned off his car for about five minutes.

Then he drove away — with a bevy of female onlookers hooting and hollering to him, said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. When Johnson pulled onto a street outside the Markham courthouse, Cook County Sheriff’s Deputies stopped Johnson’s car and arrested him.

At approximately 11 p.m. on the Sunday before classes resumed for the 2006-’07 school year, Volk and a friend embarked on what was supposed to be a relaxing walk through the neighborhood. While traveling north on 19th Street, Volk said neither of them thought anything about the young man walking toward them — until he drew his gun.

According to Volk, the man grabbed both her friend’s and her wrists and pulled them out of sight of Wisconsin Avenue traffic to stairs leading to a parking lot behind Mashuda.

“He was only 16 years old and 10 million times more scared than we were,” Volk said. After stealing both students’ cell phones and her friend’s wallet, Volk said the man took off running down 19th Street.

Volk and her friend ran as well — straight to the Mashuda lobby.

“We were crying and screaming, and the (desk receptionist) at Mashuda actually couldn’t get through to 911,” Volk said.
The desk receptionist finally called the Department of Public Safety, and Volk remembers officers responding within approximately two minutes and detaining the suspect about one minute after that.

“I am like the hugest advocate of Public Safety,” Volk said. “It was just an unbelievable response.”

When Volk called her family to inform them of the robbery, Volk said her mother referred to the incident as “a blessing in disguise.” While initially upset by that reaction, Volk has come to understand how the crime continues to positively impact her actions more than two years later.

“I’m not scared, just more aware,” Volk said. “It’s unbelievable, because when that kid was walking toward me it didn’t even register, but now I’m aware of exactly who surrounds me.”

Even with reported campus crime during the 2008 fall semester down 27 percent from the fall semester of 2007, Associate Director of DPS Capt. Russ Shaw said maintaining a sense of awareness is just as important as ever.

“Unfortunately, it’s human nature that people always become more complacent,” Shaw said. “Especially (students) from a big city who are used to the noise and used to the fact that they know there is crime in a big city.”

Kim Sheffield, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said she thinks her experience living in the city limits of Chicago has a significant impact on how she approaches safety while at Marquette.

“It would be safe to say that the Marquette campus is much more secure and benign in comparison to my immediate neighborhood in Chicago’s Logan Square,” Sheffield said. “I’ve found the homeless to be far more aggressive in my area, and their constant presence and persistence seems to keep me fairly alert and cautious.”

Since Sheffield views the Marquette campus as relatively safe compared to her home neighborhood, she said safety concerns often take a backseat. Sheffield said she never takes LIMO vans, which provide free student transportation within DPS patrol boundaries.

“If I can walk to my destination in less time that it would take to call, wait, cram into a van, lap campus four times narrowly missing the destination each time, then for sheer reasons of efficiency, I walk,” she said.

Unlike Sheffield, other students come to Marquette with no experience living in a city environment.

Ryan Glazier, a freshman in the College of Business Administration, said coming to Milwaukee from his hometown of Lemont, Ill., a wealthy, unincorporated suburb of Chicago, was a significant change.

Lemont’s “pretty much the epitome of small-town America,” Glazier said. “Our version of crime comes down to kids in a truck playing mailbox baseball.”

Glazier said he was shocked to hear about certain criminal activity on campus, pointing specifically to the Sept. 21 incident in which a 19-year-old man not affiliated with Marquette pulled a gun on four Marquette students in front of Murphy’s Irish Pub, 1615 W. Wells St.
“In all my years in Lemont I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone being killed, shot, stabbed, anything crazy like that,” Glazier said. Even so, Glazier said he’s confident in his ability to handle himself if confronted and has never felt truly unsafe walking around campus.

According to Megan Stroshine, assistant professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences, attitudes such as Sheffield’s and Glazier’s are common.

“Young adults tend to feel quite invincible,” Stroshine said in an e-mail. “They are the least likely to fear crime, although we know from official statistics that they are the most likely to fall victim to crime. There is a real disjuncture between their perceived and actual risk of crime.”

Stroshine also noted that an individual’s upbringing plays a significant role in his or her awareness level. Sheffield, whose Chicago home has a security system, locked gate and buzzer system, said she thinks she is more cognizant of her surroundings than someone like Glazier who grew up in a suburban environment.

“I realize I may be an easy target for an attacker, as I’m all of about five feet tall,” Sheffield said. “But if you’re like me … you’re probably more likely to be locking your doors and be particularly aware of unsavory characters while walking at night. It’s just what you’re used to, frankly.”

But students from small communities aren’t the only ones who have to adjust to the idea of urban living.

Mike Simo, the deputy chief of police in the field operations unit for Addison, Ill., said he originally had concerns sending his daughter Becky, now a senior in the College of Communication, to Marquette. According to Simo, Addison is a town of approximately 36,000 people that has an “active” police department but only sees about one or two violent crimes, such as armed robberies or murders, each year.

“So compared to Milwaukee, not very much at all,” Simo said. “And I had heard some stories about the neighborhoods surrounding campus (in the past) that they were pretty rough.”

But when Simo visited Marquette for himself, he said it didn’t seem to be that way. As a parent and a deputy chief of police, Simo said he continues to have a positive perception of DPS and its services.

“Naturally, everyone’s concerned, especially when you send your daughter to college in a big city,” said Simo, who has another daughter at Loyola University Chicago. “But as a parent, I’m confident in (DPS’s) ability.”

Shaw said DPS is always looking to improve its services, pointing to the recent success of the LIMO Express shuttles, which run in two continuous loops — one on Wells Street and Wisconsin Avenue, and another on Wisconsin and Kilbourn Avenues. According to Shaw, overall LIMO and LIMO Express ridership increased by 25,000 individual rides from 2007-’08.

“Those numbers certainly tell us that people are trying to remain vigilant,” he said.

Shaw said DPS takes an educational approach and focuses on teaching students smart habits early, using tactics such as offering free self-defense classes and going door-to-door in the residence halls. It’s the transition from the residence halls to apartment living, however, that is often a concern for DPS, Shaw said.

“In the residence halls, there’s such a trust factor that students won’t do things like lock their doors,” Shaw said. “They had this community environment, and they sometimes bring that with them when they move. We really have to keep pounding into the upperclassmen that when you move off campus, the security issue is heightened.”

Security issues have been pounded into students such as Carrie Massura, who lives in a house on 24th Street and Kilbourn Avenue, just outside the public safety patrol boundaries. Although Massura’s neighborhood is comprised mostly of families with children, Massura she said she is always aware of the fact that there aren’t many students walking to and from the area.

“In the dorms, more of the safety stuff was taken care of for us,” said Massura, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. “I do feel more responsible (for my safety) now because I don’t have as many people looking out for me as closely anymore.”

Massura said she relies on the LIMOs, which stop within one block of her residence, for a safe way to come home from campus.

But in some situations and locations, LIMO service is not an option. College of Engineering sophomore Al George, College of Education freshman Justine Cabaj and College of Nursing freshman Christine Mattappillil took a trip off-campus that left them with no options for typical DPS safety services at a time when they needed them most.

The three students said they were coming back from Fox Bay Cinema Grill, a movie theater with full menu located at 334 E. Silver Spring Drive, on Nov. 22 when a re-routed bus changed their original travel plans. As the students were making the two-block trip to a new bus stop, their movie excursion turned frightening.

“These two guys came up with two guns and they said, ‘Stop where you are. Give us all your money,’ ” Mattappillil said. “They had the gun to Al’s back … it was so scary.”

The men asked for George’s wallet and Cabaj’s purse, and Mattappillil said she threw her spare change at them so they wouldn’t attempt to steal her other belongings. Although the men only received approximately $6 in cash and made a $5 charge on George’s debit card, the students said their loss of a sense of security was far more significant.

“I’m just overwhelmingly pissed off,” George said. “There’s just nothing you can do.”

Mattappillil said they didn’t feel as though they were in a bad neighborhood, and their close proximity to the traffic- and pedestrian-heavy Brady Street gave them an extra sense of comfort.

“You just wouldn’t have expected it,” Mattappillil said. “And there were three of us, and you know they always say to walk in groups.”

Both Mattappillil and Cabaj also noted that because they had a male friend walking with them, they felt more secure being out late at night.

“But I can’t stop a bullet,” George said. “A gun trumps over everything you’ve got.”

Traveling in groups is often touted as practical safety advice, but Shaw said he thinks students fall into a false sense of security while walking with others.

“If the bad guys (are) taking a risk to begin with, their thought can be, ‘Why not rob multiple people at one time?’ ” Shaw said. “They have no fear of your numbers, especially if a weapon is involved.”

According to Shaw, the best way for students to avoid becoming victims off-campus is to plan everything “to a ‘T.’ ”

“In many cases when students run into trouble off-campus it’s because they are lost, which is about the worst case scenario,” Shaw said.
While everyone’s personal experience with crime is different, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said the overall growth or demise of any neighborhood’s crime depends on the area’s perception of safety.

“Crime does not flourish in a place where people feel connected to each other,” Flynn said during the Jan. 21 “On the Issues with Mike Gousha,” a Law School discussion and lecture series.

At “On the Issues” Flynn said city homicides were down 33 percent in 2008 from the yearly averages of the past 20 years. But according to Flynn, simply enforcing crime-reducing measures is not enough.

“We are painfully aware of the fact that every number is a person,” Flynn said. “People take their cues about their safety not from the data we publicize, but (from) their personal experience with urban life.”
Like DPS, Flynn said MPD tries to focus on preventing crime from happening in the first place.

“Our primary metric is not how fast we get to (the crime scene),” Flynn said. “It’s how well we prevent incidents from happening in the future.”
While the sizes and scopes of DPS’s and MPD’s services vary, risk management expert W. Scott Lewis said the best law enforcement agencies work under the mindsets of education and prevention.

Lewis, a partner at the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management, said although focusing on safety at the university level is crucial, personal safety awareness learned at college will continue to impact students’ lives after graduation.

“Being smart and using common sense will always be a transferable skill,” Lewis said. “Law enforcement tries to keep bad people off the streets, but ultimately, everyone’s personal safety is their own responsibility.”

While DPS and MPD take strides to ensure public safety, security certainly remains a personal concern — especially among college students, an age group likely to be victimized by a variety of crimes. Even as campus and city crime numbers continue to move in the right direction, personal awareness should remain a priority. Countless cases show: you never think it will happen to you.