On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Business Journal held a “Downtown Milwaukee Renaissance” luncheon at the Pfister Hotel. It was the kind of event where a bunch of people who have more money than you—Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Michael Fascitelli and Johnson Controls CEO Alex Molinaroli among them—furiously stroke themselves about all the development happening in Milwaukee these days, and about how all that development will eventually leave them with even more money than you. Oh, and something about moving Milwaukee forward or whatever. Also Millennials.

Anyway, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was also in attendance on Tuesday, and he used the opportunity to fire some shots at conservative talk radio hosts who live to loathe Milwaukee. According to a Business Journal self-recap, Barrett confessed that he hasn’t listened to local talk radio since 2009, and that he chooses to ignore those who “love to hate the city.” Then he said this:

“I don’t have time to bleed—as Jesse Ventura had to say,” Barrett said, quoting the actor and former Minnesota governor’s line from the 1987 movie Predator. “I’m going to keep focusing on the good things and moving this city forward.”

Okay, so, um, we know what Barrett was driving at with the Predator quote. He doesn’t have time to deal with anti-Milwaukee trolls who constantly portray the city as a dystopian Thunderdome of lawlessness and murder. (Or, you know, a sweltering jungle where an ornery alien hunts humans for sport.) Buuuuut, the city has been kind of a shit-hole in 2015. Milwaukee has had 110—110!—homicides so far this year, after “only” 86 in all of 2014. Remember that August 31 New York Times article about Milwaukee’s soaring murder numbers? Those numbers are already out of date. So yeah, it’s awesome to have a mayor that sticks up for his city and all, but maaaaybe it’s not the best time for him to be making an “I don’t have time to bleed” crack at an upscale business luncheon.

Shit, if we were sympathetic to those anti-Milwaukee talk radio hosts (which, believe us, we’re not), we could have gone with a headline that read “Mayor Barrett doesn’t have time to bleed, but other Milwaukeeans do.” At least we can all agree that Ventura’s other big Predator line, the one about being a “goddamned sexual Tyrannosaurus,” went unquoted.

About The Author

Avatar photo
Co-Founder and Editor

Matt Wild weighs between 140 and 145 pounds. He lives on Milwaukee's east side.