Between June 17, 2020 and August 16, 2020, there were at least 136 reports of shots fired in the City of Kenosha. That averages out to more than two per day. Homicides are up in 2021. This year to date, there are more than double the amount over the last 12 years. This could increase as there are still 77 days in this year. In Kenosha, the buck stops with Mayor John Antaramian (D). We emailed him to see if he had a plan to combat the large jump in homicides and shootings. His executive assistant confirmed he received the email but didn’t want to comment. Antaramian has been in bad health lately. He suffered a heart attack in 2019, and before that found himself losing consciousness at his desk in his city hall office, waking up confused, per our sources. During the riots of 2020, Antaramian was noticeably missing from the public. He didn’t declare a curfew lawfully, which resulted in the hard work of the police being erased because the tickets issued for curfew were dismissed. Antaramian, a democrat, refused to ask for help from the Federal Government because he was too proud. He reportedly spent most of his time in Lake Geneva for the violence and arsons that destroyed much of uptown and downtown. The fact that Antaramian doesn’t have a plan to combat this violence should be concerning.
We also emailed each and every Alderman. All 17 of them. Not one of them wished to share a plan. We assume that neither the mayor, nor the council have a plan. Low-income housing seems to be a priority. Spending $8M on a parking garage and $400M on “downtown revitalization” is more important than many hundreds of daily shootings and a record number of homicides. The City this year tore down part of Fire Station #4. This building was just built in the last few years. Only the government would tear down a brand new building.
Previous police Chiefs have been saying for at least two decades that the expanding City is in dire need of more officers. Still this doesn’t seem to be a priority.
We spoke with the Kenosha Police’s Public Information Officer, Lt. Joe Nosalik. We asked him about the large number of shootings and he shared a message of optimism.
“Kenosha’s homicide rate for 2021 is concerning; given our numbers from previous years,” said Nosalik. “One murder is too many. (We) strive to implement past practice that proved to work well. We are also thinking outside the box to develop new strategy that mitigate the potential for homicide and crime overall.” Nosalik then gave us a little more context on the murders for this year. “To date, 50% of our murders have been directly related to domestic violence.” How can Kenosha residents help with the spike? Nosalik says that “(KPD) is dependent on our community to provide information to solve crime. Of equal importance is our community providing information that can prevent crime.” For those in the community that are afraid to give information to police regarding serious crimes, they can always call crime-stoppers and remain anonymous 262-656-7333. It is promising that Kenosha Police Administration is taking action to engage the community and work with us to tackle this issue.
As for the Mayor, most of us are happy that he will not be seeking another term. While we had our homes, businesses and property burned, he hid like a coward and didn’t come through when we needed him the most. He knows he would never be re-elected.
11 Responses
Is anyone surprised? Our mayor has been so out of the loop it’s embarrassing. And we Ya obvious he’s a democrat, how else would the murder rate and irresponsible spending be justified. What is his salary? Curious on what my taxes go to for him to do nothing
It would be interesting to find out how much the city spends on defending itself in litigation. The city is constantly being taken to court. It is more than just the trend of people filing more lawsuits. The city invites it by the reckless and unethical way its leaders and employees perform their work. This has been how it has been for decades. It is part of the city’s ingrained toxic incestuous culture of corruption. I am surprised that so many Kenosha citizens put up with it. Do they understand that they are the ones who pay for it?
Look at the city and county government they are both controlled by Democrats (socalist),
Tax and spend it’s the name of their game
None of this is surprising and the fact that our streets have been in shambles for the 17 years that I’ve lived here isn’t either. Such waste and bad decisions. Concrete roads where we have freezing, salt and over plowing when there is only 1/2” of snow lead to these problems. Then when they do start a project it never seems to get finished or is done so poorly because it wasn’t done correctly. The crime is directly related to democratic poor decisions.
It’s no wonder that Antaramian won’t show his gnarly face in public after letting our fine city burn down.
All to protect the criminal Jacob Blake.
He’s an embarrassment, like Tony Evers.
Sounds like he should have stepped down for health reasons years ago…..WTF is he doing?
So another murder isn’t related to the mayor stepping up? It’s a domestic issue so who cares? That makes no sense. 5 people were shot, regardless of domestic or not Quit trying to justify a murder because it’s “just domestic “
And another murder happened last night. Do we honestly even have a mayor or any city leadership?
It was a domestic incident. Really isn’t related at all to this.
I can’t help but comment again. So they post a story about murders/homicides are up 200% and you state 5 shot and 2 dead isn’t relatable? What a clown
The name John Antaramian will forever be known as the mayor that caused irreparable damage, permanently destroying Kenosha.