Brady Street chaos includes large brawl, group climbing fire truck
By A.J. Bayatpour
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MILWAUKEE (WDJT) — Bar owners in one of this city’s most popular nightlife neighborhoods are calling for changes after a chaotic Saturday night. Videos circulating social media showed a group of young people mounting a fire truck while others used patio furniture as weapons in a brawl.
While Brady Street had an official Halloween celebration Saturday night, business owners said they suspected the outbursts of chaos had little to do with those festivities. Multiple bar owners, asking to be kept anonymous out of concerns over possible retaliation, said Monday conditions have worsened this year on Brady Street.
Those bar owners described previous instances of people bringing open alcohol containers into their businesses, refusing to make a purchase and then refusing to leave when asked to. However, they said Saturday night was more troubling than anything they’d seen.
Nick Hansen, who said he’s lived near Brady Street for the last three years, said previous issues led him to stay away Saturday.
“I steered clear of the neighborhood on the party night of Halloween because I didn’t want to be involved with that kind of extra energy that’s been happening on the late-night events around here,” Hansen said.
Hansen said he was still disturbed to see videos online of what happened Saturday night. Multiple videos showed about half a dozen young people climbing on top of a fire truck and dancing on it.
“It’s gross and disappointing,” Hansen said. “As a community member, I’m a teacher- just as a community, as people, I don’t understand why that’s happening, and it’s gross.”
Alderman Jonathan Brostoff held a regularly scheduled public safety meeting in the nearby Riverwest neighborhood Monday night. His district also includes Brady Street, and after the meeting, Brostoff said he was aware of the problems Saturday night.
“We need to work to make it better. We need everyone involved, all hands on deck,” Brostoff said.
When asked what that specifically meant, Brostoff said, “Everyone doing their part to make sure we have safer streets and that it’s getting taken care of.”
The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) did not respond to messages Monday asking whether officers made arrests Saturday night in connection to the disorder. Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski did not respond to a message seeking a statement about the videos showing partiers getting on top of a fire truck.
Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for Mayor Cavalier Johnson, said neither the police nor fire departments briefed the mayor’s office Monday about any issues on Brady Street over the weekend.
Bar owners who spoke to CBS 58 Monday said they supported seeing police patrols similar to what happens on Water Street.
Brostoff declined to say what specific changes might come to the area. He said those could include more patrols but added he wanted to see other solutions, too.
“We’re gonna have a larger debrief and see what options are on the table,” he said. “But it might be more than [additional patrols]. I think there are more preventative measures we need to look at.”
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