In the Wisconsin gubernatorial debate, Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett jousted over a Walker ad attacking Barrett over a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story that found the city’s police department under-reported its violent crime rates to FBI crime statistics, classifying some incidents as minor assaults.
Walker brought up the crime statistics story under questioning about the “John Doe” investigation of some Walker’s former aides. Barrett then fired back.
“He’s running a commercial right now that shows a dead baby. He shows a dead baby — this is Willie Horton stuff,” said Barrett. “That baby died. The person who killed that baby was arrested by the Milwaukee Police, was prosecuted by the Milwaukee district attorney. They did their job. But you know what they did wrong? After that baby died, they didn’t change the code. It was a bureaucratic mistake … I’ll tell you right now. I had nothing to do with that. Look at that commercial. You should be ashamed of that commercial, Scott Walker.”
Walker contended that the story was relevant, in light of Barrett having campaigned on a downturn in violent crime in Milwaukee — and is thus a matter of both Barrett’s qualifications, and his honesty.
Barrett retorted: “I have a police department that arrests felons. He has a practice of hiring them.”
