Following a night of violence that left half a dozen businesses in flames, the Milwaukee police chief expressed surprise at the level of unrest that erupted after the fatal shooting of a black man by a black officer. “They can’t no longer depend on the police to be here to protect us like they say they’re going to do”.
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State governor Scott Walker has activated the National Guard. Smith ran from police during a traffic stop.
Remy Cross, a criminologist at Webster University in St. Louis, said the officer’s race probably does not matter to many people in the community.
At the same news conference, Mayor Tom Barrett said a still image pulled from the footage clearly showed a gun in Smith’s hand as he fled a traffic stop Saturday.
‘This entire community has sat back and witnessed how Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has become the worst place to live for African-Americans in the entire country, ‘ he said. 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.
On Saturday night, shots were fired, six companies were burned before quiet was restored in the region, which includes a reputation for poverty and crime and police cars damaged.
The destruction was taken a step further just before 1:00 a.m. Monday when a auto was set on fire near 45th and Hadley.
After peaceful vigils by small groups of demonstrators earlier, Milwaukee police said late on Sunday night they had rescued one shooting victim, who was taken to hospital.
Earlier on Sunday, police Chief Edward Flynn said the man whose death touched off Saturday night’s rioting was shot after he turned toward an officer with a gun in his hand.
Flynn said one 16-year-old female had been shot – possibly by a stray bullet – and suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Flynn added that the unnamed officer who fired on Smith was black.
Milwaukee’s mayor says a 10 p.m. curfew on teenagers will from now on be strictly enforced.
He said a silent video of the event seemed to reveal the officer acting within regulations. “I can’t look him in the eye no more”, Sherelle said of 23-year-old Sylville, according to WITI-TV. “Now this is a warning cry”. Where do we go as a community from here?’ The charges were dropped because the victim recanted the identification and failed to appear in court, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern told the newspaper Sunday.
Milwaukee has become the latest American city to be gripped by violence in response to police killings of black men in places such as Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 and Baltimore a year ago.
“We aren’t ignorant and dumb people”, one pastor told the crowd, repeating a feeling among numerous town’s African Americans they are systematically mistreated.
“During the foot pursuit, one officer shot one suspect, armed with a semiautomatic handgun” and the suspect then died at the scene, the Milwaukee Police Department said in a statement.
Asked about the violence, Neal said: “People stuck together and they are trying to stand up”, for their rights.
Smith’s death sparked explosive protests in northern Milwaukee, a town of 600,000 where roughly 40 percent of residents are black.
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Such inequality has afflicted many US cities as a result of the loss of manufacturing jobs over the past three decades, sometimes stoking unrest when police use deadly force.
