A day of protest in Milwaukee over the deaths — and overall treatment — of African Americans by police had all the makings of success.
Led by community leaders but fed by people of all races, protesters coursed through the city demanding change. Some chanted; some cried; some held signs; some hugged. The hope was this would be a jumping off point, a step toward progress.
That doesn't mean it was supposed to be comfortable. Protests are meant to do just the opposite. They are meant as an outlet for people who have been ignored or kept silent, meant to capture attention, to have an impact. And in this case, to reveal long simmering, and too often not acknowledged, rage.
Unfortunately, they often come with violence, and the core message gets obscured. That's what happened here. People who don't think about consequences or messages or solutions took advantage of the situation. They looted and vandalized, going after mostly small businesses in their own community.
They hurt their own.
The protest was held in the name of George Floyd, a black man killed Monday by a white Minneapolis police officer in full view of three other officers and horrified bystanders. Some of those bystanders begged without success for Derek Chauvin to take his knee off Floyd's neck. Instead, Chauvin kept it there for more than eight minutes, as a handcuffed Floyd begged for his life, gasping “I can’t breathe” and even calling out to his mother.
The knee stayed in place — as did the officers keeping bystanders away — even as the 46-year-old man lost consciousness, and then for two more precious minutes. He died a short time later. Numerous videos showing multiple angles of the brutality raced onto screens around the world. The scenes are hard to watch; viewers see a life slowly begin to drain away. Another black man lost at the hands of someone wearing a badge.
Minneapolis erupted. Milwaukee, just 330 miles away, and with a history of ferocious poverty and segregation and racism, was sure to follow.
On Friday, organizers of the Milwaukee event told protesters to remain peaceful, and for the most part they did. Marchers briefly shut down Interstate 43 north of downtown and blocked a few streets as they made their way to the courthouse and to a police station.
Some met up with a group marching to protest the death of 25-year-old Joel Acevedo. He died April 25 following a fight in which off-duty Milwaukee police officer Michael Mattioli put him in a reverse choke hold. Mattioli has been charged with reckless homicide, but remains on paid suspension while the case is being investigated.
The idea was to bring people together. After looking at several dozen videos on Facebook Saturday morning, it wasn't hard to determine how things broke down.
- Organizers gathered people together.
- They gave instructions on how to do so in a constructive way.
- The march began.
- Others joined in and the crowd grew larger.
- Some in the crowd wanted to take the protest in a different direction.
- Things started to get heated, but for the most part the positives outweighed the negatives.
- The protest ended, leaders went home, and then those with a different agenda entered the fray.
- Stores were vandalized, and images of young people coming out of a Playmakers with shoes and jerseys race across social media.
- The cleanup, emotional and physical, begins.
- Protesters re-evaluated and said we all need to do better.
When the dust settled, 50 people were arrested, an officer was shot, and on Saturday Mayor Tom Barrett issued a 9 p.m. curfew.
More than a dozen stores were looted just four blocks away from my house on North 35th Street and West Capitol Drive. One video shows dozens of young people breaking out a glass door and people storming into Trend Benderz, stealing clothing, shoes and whatever else they could get their hands on. The owner says more than $700,000 of merchandise is gone. The woman filming could be heard laughing, even questioning if she should get out of her car and join in.
This went on all over the city. On Martin Luther King Drive, looters hit a Walgreens that is blocks away from a clinic serving a community with major health care needs. Some of the looters may have been from other neighborhoods; they could walk away and feel no pain. But I'm sure many of the people who robbed it had been in there before. My guess is some of their parents or grandparents depend on it.
The question is how do we respond to this?
We can focus on the looting and the violence. A curfew is a Band-Aid on an open wound. It may make sense today, but no one is suggesting it addresses the root causes of what’s going on in the city.
Or we can focus on the message of protesters, that change has to come. And we can hope that change will begin to address the frustration and rage running so deep it leads to this kind of senseless violence. Fed up with being ignored and invisible, with no vision of a future that's any better than the past, some of those looters chose the only path they know to get attention.
“There is no healing in this country until we begin to hold systems and leaders accountable,” said Sharlen Moore, executive director of Urban Underground, a group that teaches social justice to Milwaukee youth. “Our communities are not better. Our neighborhoods are not better. Our schools are not better. When young people look outside of Milwaukee and they see how other neighborhoods are thriving, it hurts.”
We are all sick and tired.
We need mentors for our young. With all the programs already available, and all the people donating their time, there is not close to enough guidance and support for the next generation.
We have to have a better relationship with law enforcement. It’s the worst it’s been in some time. Officers must somehow understand that the damage done by not calling out fellow officers and stopping abusive tactics ruins the good they do. The onus cannot only be on community members.
Lastly, we need to check ourselves. The bitter pill to swallow is knowing that a lot of young people committing those acts last night are our children, or our relatives’ children. We need to be better parents, better neighbors, better friends.
This is a national problem, but we have plenty to do just focusing on Milwaukee. If we don’t fix this, entire communities will go up in smoke.
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James Causey: Don't let looters obscure message of protests. Change has to come. - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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