CRIME: Have We Gone Mad?

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Most anybody in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, can tell the story of how 10-year-old Monique Schweiger's childhood ended. The hard part is explaining why. It was just before 7 p.m. a month ago in the parking lot of Popeye's Famous Fried Chicken & Biscuits on the north side of town. That's where her mother Christine was ordered to her knees by two teenagers, 15 and 16 years old, who demanded her money. When Christine, an accountant and mother of three, said she didn't have any, the 16-year-old apparently took offense. As Monique watched, the youth allegedly let loose at point-blank range with a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun, blasting away most of Christine's head. Police say he later explained that "I'm the big man. I got the gun. Why does she have this attitude?"

Guns and attitudes; like so many American cities, Milwaukee is aching from the frequent and often fatal combination of the two. "It used to be your money or your life," says Sheriff Richard Artison. "Now they'll shoot you anyway." Since 1980 the city's homicide rate has doubled and now stands at more than 150 so far this year, spurred by a deadly convergence of gangs, drugs and ever more sophisticated weaponry. Countywide, juvenile arrests for homicides climbed from six in 1983 to 82 last year. Admissions at Children's Hospital for gunshot wounds rose from 50 in 1989 to 160 so far this year. At Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, 30% of spinal-cord injuries are caused by gunshots. Milwaukee (pop. 630,000) has responded like most cities: with more fear, bigger dead bolts and more angry debate about gun control and the breakdown of families. "We're a small enough town so that every death still really hurts," says Jeffrey Jentzen, the county medical examiner, who has watched the carnage rise over the years. Sometime in the late 1980s, about the time that crack hit town, Milwaukee joined the long list of U.S. cities where residents think twice before honking at strangers. "I don't give people the finger from my car, and I haven't for a while," confesses Mike Malmstadt, presiding judge of the county juvenile division.

The city has tried one security measure after another. A new $106 million, 1,200-prisoner-capacity county jail, opened late last year, is already overflowing. Metal detectors were installed in the sheriff's department in October, and the Milwaukee public-school system, with 100,000 students, started random weapons searches this fall at the middle and high schools. "I have in front of me a list of all my kids who have died between 12/92 and 12/ 93," says superintendent Howard Fuller. "On that list are 15 kids under the age of 17."

He recalls meeting with elementary school students to talk about education. "The very first question was about what to do when someone starts shooting! We spent the whole time talking about how to hit the floor and hide under a desk. Have we gone mad?" Teachers are also afraid: two weeks ago, at the suburban Wauwatosa West High School, a former student named Leonard McDowell, 21, allegedly shot associate principal Dale Breitlow, 46, three times in a second-floor hallway with a .44-cal. Taurus revolver, killing him.