The immigration in Whitewater has me thinking about how justice, love, and mercy interact.
A comment I have made in the past in Christian circles is that, “sometimes the answer is simply that we live in a broken world…”. The first time I say that, I always get the puppy dog, side head turn.
I do not believe mankind will ever solve refugees, wars, poverty, greed, hate, and so on and so on… thus, sometimes the answer is simply that we live in a broken world.
So what do we do about such a conclusion?
Yesterday, during the Meyer/Weidl discussion several comments were noted. Meyer said that 90% of the police work is with ~5% of Whitewater’s population. This comment is driving my blog post.
Can we execute justice as a community (with the spike in crime) while putting forth love on the immigrants from Central America?
First off, I think the Whitewater Police Department is doing just that (within the scope of their responsibilities and then some).
John and Dan both acknowledged during the interview, unwaveringly, that the spike in crime comes from the immigrants.
Many progressives, such as Whitewater Unites Lives Chair, Margorie Stoneman and UWW math teacher Michael Friedson, really struggle to lay this spike on crime on the 5% comprised of immigrants.
Do you have evidence that the increase in auto accidents, from 2020 to 2022, is due partly or mainly to the increase in the immigrant population? Sometimes two trends happen at the same time but are not related. The Washington Post just published a study showing that US auto accidents involving pedestrians have increased greatly. Due to the easing of the pandemic, there were many more cars on the road and miles driven in 2022 than 2020. Plus lots more distracted driving due to smart phones.
Friedon denying reality
Whether these folks are verbally attacking police officers, or rationalizing the data… they are perverting justice.
My hypothesis is that, much like a devouring mother that refuses to punish their spoiled child, progressives not only pervert justice… they pervert love.
For a Christian, justice is (imho) one of the tougher portions of faith.
We are told to be prophetic (speak the word of God) against the injustices of the world. Elijah comes to mind here.
We are told in Romans 13 to be subject to governing authorities.
13 Every [a]person is to be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except [b]from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore [c]whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause of fear for [d]good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is a servant of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. 5 Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; [e]respect to whom [f]respect; honor to whom honor.
This can sure get complicated.
We are told in Isaiah 1:17:
17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
I think and pray about our community. At the community level… for Police Chief Meyer, it certainly is not political (as he stated yesterday); however one cannot deny that at the national level, this is about politics and power.
I think we are obligated to have mercy and love for newcomers. I actually believe we come pretty close to doing this almost wholly.
I think we are also obligated to pursue justice and safety in our community. Respectfully, this is an opportunity for improvement from organizations such as the League of Women Voters and Whitewater Unites Lives.
These orgs are not leaders in our community. They seem to be hyper-political organizations. This is unfortunate.
We have real challenges. Our budgets for the city and schools are stretched thinner than they would already be.
Throwing out there …
Act Justly.
Love Mercy.
And Walk Humbly with Yahweh. (Micah 6:8)
Take a group of people …. One person, ten people, a hundred people… a thousand people. Jordan Peterson says that the square root of the total is the number of people truly getting the work done.
I estimate that Whitewater Unified School District has 30k people. Square root of that is 173 people.
173 people, outside of their jobs, volunteer their time to make Whitewater a better place. Coaching. Volunteering. Not going home and watching Yellowstone. Loving on kids and refugees. And these are awesome people. I could go on and on and on how these people have made a difference.
And sorry…. paid, government jobs do not count towards doing extra. That is, quite honestly… in many cases (but not always), it is a huge part of the problem.
I see this 173 from both sides of the aisle. And respectfully, 173 seems accurate at any given time.
The very first thing we need to do, as a community, is get that number of people getting their hands dirty to quadruple (and then some).
So I am getting all of this attention with the two posts, I thought I would add these additional thoughts.
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Peace out,
-mike
Matthew 5
3 “[b]Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the [c]gentle, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Discerning Whitewater 
Four factual corrections to this post.
1. I am a professor of sociology and criminology, not a math professor. Most of us in criminology are well-versed in statistics, but we are not professors in the field of mathematics.
2. The quote of mine you provided was asking for evidence (i.e., facts to back up your claims), not denying reality. Asking for facts, and not believing blindly, is the opposite of denying reality.
3. The quote you provided of mine is about auto accidents, not crime as you claimed. The reality is that the roads were empty in 2020, due to the pandemic. And accidents increased everywhere in 2022, when traffic returned to the roads. They increased where there were lots of immigrants and where there were no immigrants. Much more traffic means more accidents.
4. The # of accidents in Whitewater during 2022 was lower than in the years prior to the pandemic and the influx of immigrants. There were 265 accidents in 2014 and 199 in 2022, according to Whitewater police data. The pandemic caused a temporary dip in accidents. The recent newcomers to Whitewater were not here in 2014 to cause accidents.
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Thanks for your comments. As I am sure you are aware, tangential to the auto accidents are driving without a license, quantities which have soared. There was also a data-driven presentation put out by Police Chief Dan Meyer. It’s all quite overwhelming. One can be empathetic and still want to prosecute offenders. One can also be loving to the immigrants and also be angry with the government pandering with hard earned tax money.
Respectfully, your bias has blinded you.
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Hello, Michael Smith. Thank you for your response. Note that I did not say that driving without a license has not increased. (Indeed, I would think it has increased in Whitewater.) I also did not express an opinion about whether offenders should be prosecuted. I simply said that the greater number of accidents in Whitewater during 2022, versus 2020, is unlikely to be caused by the increase in the number of immigrants. Let’s focus on that one claim I did make. I am not going to defend claims I did not make in the first place and might not support at all.
At the first link below, you will see a graph of car accidents per year in the U.S. as a whole, based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a federal agency. You will note that there were 1.51 million fewer car accidents in the US during 2020 than in 2019, a decline of ~22.3%. The number of accidents then rebounded in the following two years, but it remained lower than prior to the pandemic.
The number of accidents in Whitewater followed this national trend. There was a big decline in 2020, because there was little traffic owing to the pandemic. Then, when people returned to the roads in 2022, the number of accidents increased. Whitewater had 219 accidents in 2018 and 200 in 2019, but then only 112 accidents in the lockdown year of 2020. In 2022, there were again nearly 200 accidents.
The national trend in the number of car accidents has nothing to do with an influx of immigrants to Whitewater, or anything else specific to Whitewater. Whitewater is too small to substantially affect national trends. It has everything to do with the pandemic and the reduced density of traffic when people were not going to work, school, stores, or social events.
I am additionally linking (below) what I believe is the report you referenced by Chief Dan Meyer. It shows a greater number of car accidents in Whitewater during 2022 than in 2020 (p. 3). This is consistent with the national trend. It also says that a challenge facing the Whitewater PD is “increased crashes/violations with unlicensed drivers” (p. 2). This does not mean the same thing as saying that immigrants have caused the overall number of accidents to surge in Whitewater. Indeed, according to the annual reports of Chief Meyer’s own department (linked below), Whitewater now has many fewer accidents than in the mid-2010s. Between 2013 and 2016, Whitewater averaged 271 accidents per year, while there were fewer than 200 per year in 2022 and 2023. The annual # of accidents in Whitewater is down ~28% now versus in this mid-2010s period.
I am willing to discuss this further, if you wish. But let’s stick to facts and logic. Let’s avoid putting ideological labels on one another (e.g., “progressive”) that may or may not apply. Let’s also avoid assuming that the facts we provide are nothing more than a reflection of biases resulting from our ideologies. I am eager to countenance facts and arguments that are not consistent with what you or anyone else perceives to be my ideology.
https://www.consumershield.com/articles/car-accidents-per-year
https://mccmeetingspublic.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/whitewatwi-meet-97d455c2641e4868bcb6a4550c610f19/ITEM-Attachment-001-9c783ad5d5784ebca9c09505b5983658.pdf
https://www.whitewater-wi.gov/Archive.aspx?AMID=39
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My opinion, respectfully, is that the traffic accident data (whether you are correct or not), is one very small piece of the puzzle…. it’s just a talking point that is barely relevant. Where I see bias (reality) is the in the lack of acknowledging the more important significant data. Send me an email and we can have coffee.
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Hello, Michael. That sounds good. I agree with you that there is much more to this issue, obviously, than car accident #s.
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