Gang-Related Gunfire At Southridge Mall

First, the facts in brief from WISN radio:

It's a story you heard first on News/Talk 1130 WISN...No one was seriously hurt during a gang-related fight at Southridge Mall Friday night. Police say two groups of youths confronted each other in the food court area. The scuffle spilled out into the parking lot. At least two gunshots was fired. A 14-year-old boy suffered a graze wound. Another teen was beaten. Several people were arrested. The shooter fled. Extra security is now in place at the mall.

Some Background: Southridge is one of the most popular malls in the Milwaukee. There used to be a similar mall named Northridge on the north side of town, but it closed about 3 years ago after shoppers stopped feeling safe going there. What's interesting is that the shoppers stopped going even though the local Mainstream Media did their best to impose a sort of "radio silence" on any of the problems there. But through word-of-mouth (this being in the pre-blog era) people learned what was going on there anyway, after a fashion. The self-imposed news vacuum actually made things much worse. Rumors and fact travelled arm-in-arm, and there was nobody around who was courageous enough to separate them. They thought if they didn't mention the problems, they would go away. And when the mall went away the problems did go away, but not in the way they intended.

Now the Milwaukee Mainstream Media (MMSM) are doing the same thing. Radio Silence. The only other report on this incident I could find was buried under Regional News Briefs on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's website. Don't they ever learn?

Funny thing is, I almost went to Southridge last night, but postponed my trip until today. Now, until this Radio Silence is broken, I think I'll just stay away. After all, I've learned to live without Northridge so I'm sure I can learn to live without Southridge too. And I'm sure the MMSM can learn to live without the Southridge ad revenue too, just like they did with Northridge.

Comments

[Dad29]

Channel 6 ran a story the night it happened--and has followed up, too.

[Tom McMahon]

Yes, they have done a good job on this story, as has WISN radio. But the newspaper has been dreadful.