Discerning Whitewater

2024 is here. I am sure this will be a great year. Probably fairly uneventful. 

I was fairly quiet in the last part of 2023. I always have a ton of thoughts; mostly due to time constraints I have kept them to myself. 

Figured I would chime in here on this whole immigration thing…  I will start with the givens regarding immigration:

– Many immigrants that come here are wonderful people that are here for the same reasons as our great great grandparents. 

– Not a small number of immigrants are involved in human trafficking and drugs. We have seen this in Whitewater. 

– Nationally, immigration under Biden is completely broken. The executive branch appears to be driving whether immigration is manageable (as with under Trump) or unmanageable. 

– I believe the current immigration dysfunction is by design.

– I believe legal immigration is tragically broken. This is also by design. 

– Immigration here in Whitewater has had a dramatic impact on the schools and on our children.

In October, Whitewater Police Chief Dan Meyer presented “Demographic Change in the City of Whitewater”

Some of my takeaways from this:

– car accidents have almost doubled between 2020 (78) and 2022 (129)

– cost for interpreter has gone up almost 10x between 2020 and 2022

– Fox Meadows calls for service have gone up 5x between 2020 and 2022 (due to overoccupancy)

– the additional work by the WPD has resulted in significantly less “unobligated time”

– Unobligated time by police officers is necessary and an indicator of city health

– OWL citations (operating without license) went from 66 in 2020 to 201 in 2022

My assumption is that these numbers for 2023 are worse than 2022.

Whitewater Police Department has no data as to citizenship of people involved in incidents.  My opinion…  one cannot have an honest conversation without data.

It is very important to note that any honest conversation regarding immigration must acknowledge the appearance of an increase in incidents here in Whitewater as a direct result of the newcomers. 

So along comes Margorie Stoneman.

Supporting immigrants in Whitewater

This respect for newcomers to our community is why we were disturbed to hear a recent series of presentations by local law enforcement leaders and state politicians that suggest the rise in immigrants in our community is directly related to increases in crime. We are saddened and disappointed to learn that some of our trusted local law enforcement would engage in such misleading rhetoric against an already marginalized and vulnerable group of Whitewater community members. It is especially concerning to learn that some local leaders are perpetuating stereotypes by making public statements to the effect that immigrants are farm or factory workers by day and cocaine dealers by night.

My opinion …  I have had no direct interactions with Ms. Stoneman; but it does not take much discernment to understand that this is not leadership. Our police officers do not deserve these comments from Ms. Stoneman. Our leadership does not need this woman feeding on victimhood in order to potentially resolve her white guilt.  She clearly had the opportunity (and probably did see the presentation) and Ms. Stoneman chose to ignore facts. 

Ms. Stoneman is simply not credible in my opinion.  Ms. Stoneman is also on Whitewater’s Ethic’s committee. If I were a police officer, related to a police officer, or even just a common sense leader that truly wants solutions to immigration, I would be very wary of her bias against police officers. 

So recently we had the Breitbart article.  Pretty good article.

There is so much more to come here over the next few weeks; however for now I will address the uber-liberal Channel 3000 response. 

This was a very hastily and poorly written response to the attention in Whitewater.  A poor attempt at damage control.  Couple quotes from this one: 

Some who were concerned by the contents of the letter took to X and other online sites to express concerns about the influx of immigrants. Quickly, stock photos of people exiting buses, references to the Biden administration, and words like “dump” and “flood” were being used to characterize the situation.

I really do not believe influx is all that much better of a word than dump or flood.  10%+ added to a city’s population in basically a year, and 30% additional multi-language or spanish speaking students in our schools are facts…  call it whatever you want… 

Weidl, however, told News 3 Now that those accounts are false and not an accurate portrayal of what is actually going on in the city — or what they had to say to the Biden administration.

I believe it is important to note here that John Weidl is saying that this is false and not an accurate portrayal of what is actually going on in Whitewater?

Do you agree with Weidl?  That these numbers shared by the police department, and the numbers shared by the school district … are not accurate?

I certainly do not. 

“I liken it to the way migration has happened through any point in history,” he said. “Whether that’s Irish and Germans coming to New York or what we’re experiencing now. You tend to locate where friends and family are.”

I take serious issue with this quote from Weidl. This is an attempt to minimize the reality of the immigration situation in Whitewater, and it’s profound effect on our families, our taxes, and our schools and children.

My city taxes went up 42% over the last two years. I am sure covering these costs are a huge part of the tax increase. 

This is not sustainable.

I also believe Weidl showed his hand here when he downplayed the immigration issue.  I cannot help but ask if a leader that downplays the impacts discussed here (then goes home twenty miles away) is really motivated to resolve. We know Biden and Evers do not care about the impacts of immigrants on communities. 

Is Weidl following suit?  I hope he proves me wrong. 

“The central theme of the letter is that everybody in Whitewater deserves the basic services that the city provides to everyone, whether that be clean water, police and fire, parks and recreation, library books. Everyone deserves that,” Weidl said.

I do not even know how to unpack this progressive talking point. It is simply gibberish. 

Everyone deserves library books?  Everyone deserves park and recreation? 

Who is everyone?  Everyone in the world that shows up in Whitewater? 

Anyways….  so how am I going to deal with immigration in Whitewater?

– Pray. How do I share the love of Christ moving foward. Act on it.

– Do not listen to the progressive knuckleheads that continue to verbally attack the police

– I am not going to add to the chaos.

– I will continue to get my hands dirty. Volunteer. Be the light. 

So …  subscribe to Discerning Whitewater here… 

And peace to you,

-mike