Guest Column from State Rep. Shelia Stubbs: Stop the Violence
“The recent tragic death of Sade Robinson, who was murdered in Milwaukee earlier this April, has caught the attention of not only our state, but our country. I stand with her mother, Ms. Sheena Scarbrough, her father, Mr. Carlos Robinson, and the rest of her family and loved ones in demanding justice and closure for her case. As a mother, I cannot imagine the depth of pain her mother and family are experiencing every day. I keep Sade’s family and community in my heart and in my prayers as they continually seek justice for her case and as I continually seek justice for all missing and murdered African American women and girls through the legislative process and pursue closure for all missing persons cases.
The people of Wisconsin must see this horrific tragedy as what it is: a wake-up call. The past few years have become increasingly more somber with the development of each new missing persons or homicide case in our state, many of which have been so high-profile that they have drawn the attention of national media outlets such as CBS, ABC, CNN, NBC, and Nancy Grace. The case of Sade Robinson is devastating to me not only as a compassionate person, but as a legislator who sees that we simply aren’t doing enough as a state to prevent these acts of violence against members of our communities.
One person murdered or missing is one person too many: something must change about the way we approach missing persons cases in our state. Furthermore, it is past time that we step up and better protect Black women and girls in Wisconsin, who are disproportionately vulnerable to violence in Wisconsin.
In 2020, we led the country as the state with the highest homicide rate for Black women and girls, at a rate of 20.2/100,000. In 2020 across our nation, five Black women were murdered every single day and 90,333 African American women and girls were reported missing. Recent data even suggests the Midwest is the most dangerous region for Black individuals, especially women and girls.
In fact, Wisconsin is the only state in the U.S. to show trends of life expectancy between Black and white women widening. The preexisting systemic barriers coupled with the pandemic exacerbating health disparities is certainly contributing to the disproportionate impact on Black communities in Wisconsin. The staggering numbers showing Wisconsin’s racial disparities in addition to the constant dread-filled anticipation of future victims in marginalized communities surely warrant urgent action on behalf of Wisconsin’s leaders and elected officials.
On October 31, 2023, I introduced Assembly Bill 615 — creating a task force on missing and murdered African American women and girls out of a need to address the profound racial disparities in homicide victimization. The task force proposed by my bill would allow for legislators, law enforcement, experts in gender violence, survivors, and others to work together to analyze and address our state’s intersectional gender and racial violence. Despite unanimously passing committee in both houses and passing the Assembly floor, this legislation has still not made it to the Senate floor. Even though Assembly Bill 615 did not make it to the Governor’s desk this session, the urgent demand for this work to begin remains. The call for action to protect Black women and girls in our state and my legislation in particular have caught the attention of national media such as The Guardian, U.S. News and World Report, and Tavis Smiley, as well as numerous local and statewide outlets. I am grateful to media for their vigilance in following this legislation — they play a critical role in educating the community on this issue and its prevalence in our state.
In speaking to law enforcement, it has become clear to me that we are facing an urgent resource issue. Every second counts when trying to locate a missing person, and smaller jurisdictions across our state lack the funding and personnel to pursue missing persons cases as expediently and thoroughly as possible, especially when they must simultaneously address other public safety concerns in their communities. This resource discrepancy often leads to victims’ families and communities having to take on massive additional burdens in their time of worry and grief. It breaks my heart to watch Sade Robinson’s family, friends, and other loved ones and community members have to comb through parks and beaches in Milwaukee in the search for missing parts of her body. The extra weight of having to take matters into one’s own hands is one too frequently experienced by victim families in Wisconsin, especially victim families of color.
It is abundantly clear that we need to address holes in our current systems for reporting and recovering missing people in Wisconsin. To truly keep the people of our state safe, we must be committed to expanding resources, improving reporting processes, and acknowledging and addressing systemic disparities.
I will continue to be a voice for the missing and murdered people and the victim families of our state, especially those who are at a disproportionate risk of violence. We must declare that enough is enough and not stand idle waiting for the next Wisconsin victim to hit national headlines. We must become proactive in our approach to addressing the crisis of missing and murdered African American women and girls and our general missing persons crisis to build a Wisconsin that is truly safe and just for all.”
