MILWAUKEE (AP) - Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday that he plans to provide additional law enforcement intelligence and staffing to a Jewish community center in suburban Milwaukee that has been threatened three times in the past six weeks.
The Republican governor called the recent threats at Jewish centers across the country “a form of domestic terrorism” and said he agrees with the 100 U.S. senators who urged the Trump administration in a letter to do more to address the issue.
“I think we need to be as aggressive as possible as a nation,” Walker said after touring the Jewish Community Center in Whitefish Bay.
Walker said he would release more specifics about his plans for help later Wednesday or in the coming days. He indicated that it would include financial support.
Federal officials have been investigating more than 120 threats against Jewish organizations in three dozen states since Jan. 9 and a rash of vandalism at Jewish cemeteries. A Missouri resident was arrested on a cyberstalking charge and accused of making at least eight of the threats nationwide.
The latest threat at the Whitefish Bay center came Tuesday, prompting its closure for almost two hours in the morning because of an email mentioning a bomb.
On Wednesday morning during Walker’s tour, people ran on treadmills at the center’s gym, elderly women participated in a group exercise class, and children played extending their arms while pretending to be airplanes.
The center’s CEO, Mark Shapiro, said the threats were a “national epidemic of disruption” and urged unity.
“For any differences that we might have in our communities, the values that connect all of us are so much greater than the small moments that people seek to try and use to divide us,” he said.
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