COLUMNA de AZTLAN

LA VOZ DE AZTLAN
Los Angeles, Alta California
June 23, 2008

Huge police response averts "food riot" in Milwaukee

Personnel at the county run Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center
in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin were shocked this morning when
over 2,500 hungry Americans started lining up in front of their building
for food vouchers. The public assistance center had made a media
announcement that they would be taking names for food vouchers
for people with flood damage to their homes. Word spread rapidly
among the city's homeless and destitute population that the center
would be giving out "free food vouchers" when in reality the event
was set up only to allow flood victims to apply for disaster Foodshare
Benefits.

The people in the line, which began forming at 5 am, started becoming
unruly when they learned that the vouchers were only for victims of
the disaster. The huge crowd eventually began to block traffic in the
street and a number of people rushed the door. Some people became
caught in the crush and the door was taken off its hinges.

Administrators at the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center started
panicking and called for police assistance. Dozens of Milwaukee Police
and County Sheriff's squads cars responded to the building at
about 7 a.m. and restored order. The response of a large number of
policemen may have averted the first, of many expected, "food riots"
in the USA.

Milwaukee police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz says it's not clear
why so many people showed up to the office but Milwaukee Common
Council President Willie Hines, Jr. said the food crisis in Milwaukee is
worse than many have realized. "We expect long lines for free food in
Third World countries," Hines said. "We don't expect a line of 2,500
people waiting for food vouchers at the Marcia P. Coggs Center."