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Calls for calm, curfew bring quieter night after Milwaukee riots

MILWAUKEE police chief Edward Flynn expressed bewilderment on Monday night that the fatal shooting of a black man by a police officer at the weekend had provoked two nights of violence.

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The clampdown follows two nights of violent unrest in protest following the fatal shooting of a black man by police on the city’s north side. The city of 600,000 people in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin has become the latest American city gripped by protests in response to police killings of black men.

An 18-year-old man was shot and wounded during Sunday night’s unrest, which was far less destructive than Saturday night’s confrontation but still left the city tense.

However, Mr Barrett singled out groups of young people on the streets of the Sherman Park neighbourhood who he said were intent on causing trouble.

At a news conference Monday, Mayor Tom Barrett said those outsiders are trying to damage a great neighborhood, where he lived for 11 years.

Mayor Tom Barrett says the city will more strictly enforce the ordinance at 10 p.m. He said the officer had told Smith to drop the gun and he did not do so.

Police violence against African-Americans has ignited sporadic, sometimes violent protests in the past two years. Demonstrations also unfolded after 32-year-old Philando Castile was shot and killed in suburban St. Paul, Minnesota, during a traffic stop by a Latino police officer. – Mayor Barrett on efforts by pastors, community ” That has had a powerful impact and I am specifically asking the pastors and the community groups to continue to be involved in this effort. Police said three people were arrested, and one officer was hurt by a brick thrown into a squad vehicle. An internal report charting data from 2005 to 2014 showed police responded to life-threatening situations within 8.4 minutes in District 2 on the predominantly white south side but took 15 minutes to respond in District 7 on the largely black north side.

Randolph McLaughlin, a Pace University law professor and a civil rights attorney, questioned how Milwaukee leaders could have expected the streets to stay quiet on Saturday night given the national debate about law enforcement and race.

Sylville K Smith was shot dead by police in Milwaukee.

Protesters earlier threw rocks and other objects at officers and police say shots were fired in a handful of locations.

Donald Trump supporter and Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke has built a national profile by openly declaring war on the Black Lives Matter movement, from the floor of the Republican National Convention to the pages of national media outlets, once even proclaiming on social media that racial justice protesters will “join forces” with ISIS. By state law, the Wisconsin Department of Justice will lead the investigation. Nearly 40 percent of black males in Milwaukee between ages 24 and 54 lack a job, a rate four to five times higher than for whites, said Marc Levine, founding director of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Center for Economic Development. It remains unknown whether the person who was shot was a protestor or a bystander.

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The MPD reports making at least three arrests. Officials have said Smith was armed with a gun as he fled a traffic stop. So when police shot dead an armed black man after stopping his vehicle for “suspicious activity”, tempers ran out of control and parts of the city burned. Five officers were slain by a sniper in Dallas last month as they guarded an otherwise peaceful protest against police killings.

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