Crowd at a Broadway District street festival in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Racial Diversity and Crime in Green Bay

Simon Krejsa

February 24, 2010

In May 2001, the multiculturalist fanatics and anti-White leftists who then edited the Green Bay Press-Gazette lauded a "State of the City" speech by then Mayor Paul Jadin, a racial liberal and Bushite Republican.

It was refreshing to hear a politician talk so directly about the impact of growing diversity in our community. ... Green Bay Mayor Paul Jadin, to his credit, basically told the bigots among us to shut up because they don't know what they are talking about. ... He put it a little more nicely than we would have, but he made the point nonetheless in his sixth State of the City speech Monday night. ... After noting that the city's crime rate was declining and its minority population was growing, he said: 'The bigots and racists in our community point to diversity and claim that Green Bay is at greater risk than ever; but the numbers suggest that as our minority population increases, our crime rate has actually dropped. In fact, when asked why they chose Green Bay rather than other communities in Wisconsin or the Midwest, most minority citizens will tell you that the safety of this community was their primary consideration and they certainly want to keep it that safe or improve on that safety." 

Jadin mentioned that ... the number of crimes has dropped nearly 30 percent since 1995. ... During that time, Green Bay's minority population has grown substantially. The 2000 U.S. Census showed that minorities now make up 14.1 percent of Green Bay's populaton of 102,313, compared to just 5.8 percent in 1990. ... We're glad Jadin laid it on the line Monday night. We've gotten the calls and letters — what are those people (emphasis in original) doing in our community? — and we're certain Jadin has, too. ... What those people are doing here are making a living, raising a family and enriching our community. Sure there are problems. Sure, some of them commit crimes. So do white residents, if you haven't noticed ... Green Bay is a better place to live and work today because of its mix of races and cultures. ("Minorities up, crime down," Green Bay Press-Gazette, 5-26-2001, p. A-7.)

Jadin and the former editors of the PG were not simply denying the ugly realities of Black and Hispanic violence and criminality. They were claiming, explicitly and not by implication, that crime was falling in Green Bay because of its growing minority population. Thus, even more amazingly, they were implying that Blacks and Hispanics on average are less violent and criminal than Whites when, nationally and proportionally, Blacks are roughly 10 times more violent than Whites and Hispanics roughly 3–4 times more violent. And to assert that crime was falling as a result of "diversity" is also to imply that there would be less crime in the future as Green Bay became increasingly non-White. If Jadin were right about crime and racial diversity, then Milwaukee, 40% Black and 20% "Hispanic," would be by far the safest city in Wisconsin.

Such contentions are remarkable even by left-liberal standards of mendacity and/or delusional ignorance, and from the lips of a Republican. But 1995 was the first year of Jadin's 8-year reign and, understandably, he wanted the public to believe that crime was declining under his watch and would continue to do so. So it's possible that the numbers he cited were false. And even if they were accurate, they were surely misleading. First, it's obvious that Jadin was referring to all crimes, violent and nonviolent, felonies and misdemeanors, malum in se and malum prohibita, not specifically to violent felonies. So even if the rate for all crimes was in fact 30% lower in 2000 than in 1995, it's possible that violent crime did not decrease significantly if at all.

Secondly, and far more importantly, apart from the accuracy or inaccuracy of Jadin's statistics, contrasting the crime rate of 2000 with that of 1995 is gravely misleading, and I suspect that the deception was intentional given the cleverness of the "boy mayor" in service of his racial liberalism and political self-interest. The transformative invasion of non-Whites did not begin in 1995. It began around 1990. According to the census and as cited by the editors of the Press-Gazette, the minority population grew from 5.8% in 1990, not 1995, to 14.1% in 2000. (The actual minority population by 2000 was surely higher than 14.1% and it included thousands of illegal aliens.) And it's likely that the influx of non-Whites, particularly "Hispanics," was greater between 1990 and 1995 than between 1995 and 2000. To quote from a study by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a libertarian-neoconservative think tank:

Over the past 15 years, the city of Green Bay has been transformed by immigration. From negligible proportions in 1980, the foreign-born and Hispanic populations of Green Bay grew steadily through through the 1990s, and had established a significant community presence by the 2000s. ... In 1980, both Hispanics and the foreign-born were a negligible proportion of the Green Bay population. Their percentages grew very modestly between 1980 and 1990, but thereafter began to increase significantly. There is a noticeable jump in both trends between 1990 and 2000, and continued strong growth (particularly in the Hispanic population...) through the mid-2000s...(David Dodenhoff, "WPRI Report, The Economic Impact of Immigration on Green Bay," March 23, 2008, wpri.org.)

For the record, the transformation of Green Bay by race and immigration was already profound and irreversible by the early 1990s. Virtually overnight, the community was "enriched" and made a "better place to live and work" by an explosion of crime and violence and the emergence of a racially-driven and hydra-headed gang subculture that didn't exist before. The rampant criminality and violence of Hispanic, Black, and Hmong-Lao gangs was a serious problem well before 1995. Ironically, over two years before they praised the mayor for denouncing all the "bigots" and "racists" and "know-nothings" of Green Bay, the editors of the PG ran an "in-depth" cover story on the city's "gang culture" that vindicates the people they maligned. Though the author and/or his editors strain to exaggerate the involvement and culpability of Whites in gang violence, the article is detailed and honest enough about race to betray the lies in Jadin's speech and the paper's concurring editorial. The reporter, Andy Nelsen, writes:

In Green Bay, gangs exist from all major gang nations or groups. The four nations are connected to major U.S. cities and have national leaders, some of whom are in prison. ... Folk gangs, such as Gangster Disciples and Imperial Gangsters, are enemies of Latin Kings and Vice Lords, both of which are People Gangs. ... Folk and People have history in the Midwest and originated in Chicago. ... Crips and Bloods, generally considered West Coast gangs, have factions in Green Bay. Many of Green Bay's Asian gangs belong to these groups. Crips and Bloods are considered rival factions. 

Race plays a heavy factor in Green Bay gangs. ... Racial divisions are clear-cut. Asian gangs such as the Crazy Hmong Boys, Outlaw Bloods and Fox City Bloods are made up almost exclusively of Southeast Asians, usually Hmong, Laotian, or Vietnamese. ... These groups have heavy ties to Minneapolis, Eau Claire, and Wausau. ... Hispanic or Latino gangs such as Sureno 13 and Nortenos 14 have heavy ties to California and Mexico, as well as Milwaukee and Chicago. ... Racially-integrated gangs include the Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, Maniac Latin Disciples, and Latin Kings. (Andy Nelsen, "Culture, rituals very from group to group," Green Bay Press-Gazette, 3-7-1999, p. A-4)

In another story, Nelsen profiled a beefy tattooed punk named Jerry Aviles, "thought to be the grandfather of Green Bay gangs." Though only 13 when he left Chicago with his mother, "Aviles came to Green Bay as a Maniac Latin Disciple, a branch of the Folk Nation." The young mestizo was amazed by his new "home," a place still not "enriched" by hordes of people like himself: "I remember coming into town and waking up and asking where all the Grafitti was. It was like I was in another world." In some ways he was in "another world" — a city that was clean and safe and peaceful, a city that was still well over 90% White. "Aviles quickly established his own group — the M.C.s — and began leading the life he led in Chicago. That was 1992, the year Green Bay developed a gang problem — a problem that has continued to evolve" (emphasis added). In the end, this thug is depicted as somewhat of a hero for allegedly spurning the gang lifestyle and "going straight." (Andy Nelsen, "I'm just trying to be an average person," Green Bay Press-Gazette, 3-7-1999, p. A-4.)

So even if  there was less gang crime in 2000 than in 1995, the reason was obviously not an increase in the number of young Hispanic, Black, and Hmong-Lao males in their teens and twenties, but vigilant and aggressive policing — policing that is typically condemned as "racist" and discriminatory. In regard to crime and non-Whites, as we've just seen, the relevant comparison is not between 1995, Jadin's first year as mayor and five years into Green Bay's "diversity revolution," and 2000. The relevant comparison is between the city of the 1980s — constantly vilified and derided as "lily-White" and laughably provincial — and the city of 1995 and thereafter. Only 5-years after Jadin's speech, Andy Nelsen juxtaposed the crime rate of 2005 to that of 1989.

With a criminal caseload that tripled in 15 years, the Brown County District Attorney's office is feeling growing pains like never before. ... Prosecutors filed 684 felonies in the first six months of 2006 — 26 percent more cases than they filed during the same time in 2002...The increase in criminal cases has been building through the years. ... Brown County prosecutors filed 428 felonies and 939 misdemeanors in 1989. In 2005, 1,322 felonies and 2,661 misdemeanor cases were filed. That's a 209 percent increase in felonies and a 183 percent increase for less-serious misdemeanors. ... U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that Brown County's population climbed 23 percent in roughly that same time frame. ("Brown County's caseload strains resources," greenbaypressgazette.com, 8-7-2006.)

So even if crime was lower in 2000 than in 1995, as Jadin contended, the "positive trends" and "good news" he heralded were short-lived.

The orthodox liberals who now edit the Press-Gazette and did so in 2006 are not as odious as the diversity zealots and anti-White leftists who edited the paper and wrote the editorials during the Jadin years of 1995–2003, but they're still liberals. Two days after publishing Nelsen's article, they weighed in and imparted their wisdom. Entitled "Want crime rate cut? Time to speak up," the editorial is honest about the 209% increase in felonies from 1989 to 2005 — how could it not be given the facts in Nelsen's article? But it is fatuous and evasive about the causes and solutions:

There are two ways to look at the statistics showing a dramatic increase in the number of felony and misdemeanor cases in Brown County. One look: with more sophisticated methods, the police are doing an even better job of tracking down the offenders. ... Another look: the community has changed so much in a generation that crime  — especially drug-related — has become more prevalent. The numbers are staggering and depressing. ... No, the changes in our community over the past 20 years have not all been for the good. The illnesses that inflict other cities and counties have not spared us. ... Years ago, there was a growing problem with gangs in the Green Bay Area. But diligence by law enforcement agencies helped reduce the threat...("Want crime rate cut? Time to speak up," greenbaypressgazette.com, 8-9-2006.)

Yes, it's possible that there was just as much crime in the Green Bay of 1989, but "more sophisticated methods" of policing are now "tracking down" three times as many offenders! But they do suggest another possible explanation: They acknowledge that "the community has changed so much in a generation" and is now inflicted with gangs and other "illnesses" that plague "other cities and counties" — but people are supposed to believe that such trends have nothing to do with race and immigration or be silent if they know otherwise. Unsurprisingly, the editorial doesn't mention the invasion of perhaps as many as 15,000 mestizos and pure Amerindians, including thousands of illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America, some 4,000 Hmong, and thousands of Blacks from Milwaukee and Chicago and elsewhere.

Imagine how much more "staggering and depressing" the numbers would have been in 2005 if the gang problem hadn't been "reduced" by "diligent" law enforcement. Would felonies have rose by 300 or 400 percent? And this from Nelsen over two years later:

Violent crime in Brown County climbed 10 percent in 2007, driven by spikes in rape and aggravated assault. ... Green Bay, the state's third largest city, has the third highest violent crime rate in Wisconsin. ... Only Milwaukee and Racine had higher violent crime rates...Green Bay's violent crime rate is nearly triple that of Appleton's and 60% higher than the city of Madison. (Andy Nelsen, "Violent Crime up in Brown County, State Statistics Rank Green Bay Third," greenbaypressgazette.com, 11-29-2008) *

In 2009, however, there was "good news," however ephemeral and modest and dubious and misleading. In 2008, "Green Bay saw a 13 percent increase in forcible rapes and 17 percent increase in robberies, but a 30 percent drop in aggravated assaults." So, on the whole, the violent crime rate decreased. Predictably, Republican Mayor Jim Schmitt, who replaced Jadin in 2003 and was reelected in 2006, exploited this slight one-year drop in crime to hail his success as a crime fighter. "Mayor Jim Schmitt last week said violent crimes are down 3.6 percent and property crimes down 7.2 percent compared with last year. If this year's trend continues, the area will hit a nine-year low in violent crimes, Schmitt said." (Paul Srubas, "Criminologist says crime statistic data may have problems," greenbaypressgazette.com, 10-13-2009.) At least he didn't imply that the crime rate was declining and would continue to do so because of Green Bay's growing minority population.

Yes, "it's morning in Green Bay." But looking beyond 2008, Schmitt's Reaganite optimism and happy talk on crime and the future is risible and pathetic given the actualities of immigration and race, both nationally and in Green Bay: the massive Hispanic immigration, especially if 15 or 20 or 25 million illegal aliens are granted amnesty; the far greater fecundity of "Latinos" relative to Whites, whose birthrates are now below the replacement level and might conceivably fall to European levels, partly because of the effects of mass immigration and racial "diversity"; the significantly greater crime rates of Hispanics and the spectacularly higher crime rates of Blacks; the certainty that Mexicans and other Hispanics will not assimilate, whatever that now means precisely, and become no more violent and criminal than Whites; and the certainty that Blacks will always be far more violent and criminal than Whites.

According to the WPRI report, "If recent demographic trends continue, Hispanics will grow from 10.7 percent of the Green Bay population in 2006, to at least 17 percent in 2017, to nearly 30 percent in 2032. This last figure would put Green Bay's Hispanic population on par with that of contemporary Arizona, which shares a border with Mexico" (emphasis added). So, officially, there are now over 10,000 Hispanics in Green Bay, though the actual number for Green Bay and all of Brown Country is surely closer to 15,000. And in less that 10 years, according to WPRI projections, there will be almost 20,000. And by 1932 almost 30,000. And the actual numbers will probably be higher. Then envisage the numbers for 2040 and 2050 and beyond.

Just as ominously, thousands of Blacks will continue to move to Green Bay from Milwaukee, Chicago and elsewhere. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Blacks in Green Bay in 2007 was 2,481, up from 1,407 in 2000 despite a decline in total population.  Also, it's important to emphasize that Blacks come and go frequently and that much if not most Black crime is committed not by official residents of Green Bay but by visitors and transients from Milwaukee and Chicago and elsewhere. In 20–30 years, Blacks may well comprise anywhere from 10–20% of Green Bay's population.

So in less than half a century, a Green Bay that was once a "Whitopia" with no gangs and few violent crimes, one of the safest and nicest places to live in America and the entire world, however dull and provincial and "White bread" to leftists and liberals and big-city snobs and "sophisticates," will have been turned into a non-White majority dystopia, irremediably transformed by a "people of color" Diaspora from Milwaukee, Chicago, Los Angeles, Texas, Mexico, and the mountains and forests of Laos and Cambodia. Even without further migration, the Hmong-Lao population will rise markedly due to high birthrates. And the overall population of Green Bay may continue to fall during this period given the exodus of Whites.

Now if the number of felonies more than tripled from 1989 to 2005 because of the "enriching" influence of some 20–25 thousand non-Whites, then imagine the crime when Green Bay has 40,000 and then 50,000 non-Whites. Imagine the poverty, decay, squalor, disorder, gang wars, race hatred (largely of Whites by Blacks and Hispanics), and violence when Green Bay is ultimately a "minority-majority" city by 2032 or shortly thereafter.

But to Conan O'Brien and his comedy writers, the Green Bay of 2009 is still the city it was in the 1940s and 50s. No doubt he and his ilk envision the city as "lily-White" in 2017 and even 2032:

Conan O'Brien's humor, at Green Bay's expense, has earned him an invitation to visit the city. At his own expense, of course. ... O'Brien ... joked about the city's diversity and eating habits during his monologue Tuesday night. ..."Earlier today, President Obama spoke at a town hall meeting in Green Bay, Wisconsin," O'Brien said. "Half of the Wisconsin crowd had never seen an African-American and the other half had never seen a skinny person. ... Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt said O'Brien's gaffe wasn't appreciated but it gave the city a chance to be proactive in promoting its image. ... "I know he's trying to be funny, but really, in his heart he needs to know what a great community this is," Schmitt said. ... Paul Jadin, president of the Greater Green Bay Chamber of Commerce, said O'Brien needs to add a few pounds himself. ... But Jadin said the reference to the area's Black population is a "challenge to do a better job improving our image."

This is what Schmitt means by being "proactive in promoting its image" and what Jadin means by doing a "better job improving our image": VDARE.com's Brenda Walker notes that "the diversity go-gooders of Green Bay, Wisconsin have decided that the community is too white and something must be done."

A group of Green Bay community leaders says the city lacks diversity, and they're on a mission to change that. A new committee's goal is to create more culture in Green Bay.* According to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asians make up 20 percent of Green Bay's population. This new group, the Diversity Committee, wants to increase that number and is determined to make it happen.  

Walker points out the absurdity of "the curious belief that America has no culture, and we must import it from elsewhere." She means White America.

Yes, Green Bay needs to be further "enriched" by the culture of the Hmong, a virtual stone-age people from Southeast Asia, the culture of the Southside of Chicago and the Northwest Side of Milwaukee," and the culture of Mexico and the barrios of Los Angeles, Chicago and Milwaukee. 

Simon Krejsa (email him) is a free-lance writer living in Wisconsin.