“We have to have calm”, Barrett said at the news conference. TV footage showed a small group of protesters running through the streets Sunday night, picking up orange construction barriers and hurling them out of the way.
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Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has issued a proclamation applying the city’s curfew for teenagers to 17-year-olds.
Milwaukee was beset by protests and calls for police reform after an officer shot and killed Dontre Hamilton, a mentally ill black man, in 2014. “African Americans are 16 percent of the population yet only received four percent of the loans”. The state is investigating.
Almost 40% of Milwaukee’s 600,000 residents are black, and they are heavily concentrated on the north side.
Officials also imposed a 10 p.m. curfew for teenagers to be off the streets.
Six businesses were burned Saturday night, the first and worst night of the unrest. An 18-year-old man was shot and wounded Sunday night. Police said Smith was fleeing from authorities with a stolen handgun and that bodycam footage showed he was holding the gun when he was shot. Louis sociology professor who studies police use of deadly force, said it would not necessarily have helped for police to release the officer’s race sooner. Police didn’t say who shot the man but that they were looking for suspects.
Flynn said that while police came under fire Sunday night, “none of our officers returned fire”.
The Milwaukee unrest has taken on a more explicitly racist cast than other riots after officer-involved shootings, in yet another new low for the anti-police movement that has roiled our cities in recent years.
Barrett also praised pastors and community group leaders who are engaged in trying to keep the peace, saying they are making the situation better. “He was raising up with it”, the chief said. Flynn said there were a total of 14 arrests overnight. Three people were murdered last weekend within blocks of where the officer shot Smith on Saturday afternoon, and five people were killed in total over a nine-hour period Friday night and Saturday morning. Barrett says he’s concerned about the economic damage being done to the Sherman Park neighborhood.
Flynn has said Smith ran from a vehicle after it was stopped for what authorities described as suspicious behavior. Police reported four officers were injured and police cars were damaged before calm was restored. Police tried to disperse the crowd and warned of arrests.
Asked about the violence, Neal said: “People stuck together and they are trying to stand up”, for their rights.
Authorities said Monday that the man was shot during a second night of unrest in the Sherman Park neighborhood on Milwaukee’s north side. There has been no update on his condition. Dix repeatedly said party members are seeking to “dismantle” police and other government systems. In the weekend clashes, cars and businesses were set on fire, and gunshots, rocks and bottles were aimed at police. He said he saw a still image that showed without question that Smith had a gun in his hand. One police officer fell to the ground after apparently being hit by one of the objects and was moved away by fellow officers.
The number of arrests was not immediately known.
Angry crowds rally late Sunday in Milwaukee to protest an officer-involved fatal shooting.
But there was no repeat of the widespread destruction of property.
“You’re the people that are called when something is happening that shouldn’t be happening, that someone needs to do something about.now”, said Chief Ed Flynn. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties.
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