Riots broke out Saturday night in the predominantly black north side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the worst city in the country for black people, after police fatally shot 23-year-old black man Sylville Smith.
Police claim they killed Smith because he pointed a stolen handgun at them as he was attempting to flee from a traffic stop. Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn claims that body camera footage confirms that the officer who killed Smith was acting within legal bounds, though he also said that there is no evidence that Smith discharged his weapon.
Mildred Haynes, Sylville Smith’s mother, told the Journal Sentinel that her son had a concealed-carry permit. Wisconsin is an open carry state that does not require a Concealed Weapons License to open carry.
Protests began just hours after Smith was killed, with a crowd of about 200 people in Milwaukee’s predominantly black north side. 20 to 30 officers, some suited in riot gear, lined up at N. 44th St. and W. Auer Ave., according to the Journal Sentinel.
The protest eventually escalated into a riot, with people setting fire to businesses, destroying police vehicles, firing gunshots into the air and throwing bricks at officers.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett urged citizens to go home in an early morning press conference. Importantly, he said “I don’t know… for a fact,” that Sylville Smith actually held the gun to the police officers, which supposedly prompted the fatal shooting.
#Milwaukee Mayor Barrett's Official Statement re: the latest police violence in Milwaukee: https://t.co/eu19GJm3S1
— deray (@deray) August 14, 2016
The Coalition for Justice, a police reform advocacy group created after the shooting of a mentally ill black man by a white police officer, organized a gathering at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday to “pray, clean and hit the streets.”
Milwaukee Alderman Khalif Rainey described the area of the riots as a “powder keg.”
“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. Now this is a warning cry. Where do we go from here? Where do we go as a community from here?
Do we continue – continue with the inequities, the injustice, the unemployment, the under-education, that creates these byproducts that we see this evening?
The black people of Milwaukee are tired. They’re tired of living under this oppression. This is their existence. This is their life. This is the life of their children.
Now what has happened tonight may have not been right; I’m not justifying that. But no one can deny the fact that there’s problems, racial problems, here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that have to be closely, not examined, but rectified. Rectify this immediately. Because if you don’t, this vision of downtown, all of that, you’re one day away. You’re one day away.”
Wisconsin is the worst state in the country for black Americans, and Milwaukee is the state’s worst city. It is the most segregated and polarized city in America, with some of the highest rates of unemployment, suspension, incarceration, income disparity and poverty for black people in the world. Milwaukee is notorious for its racist police force, which arrests, murders and jails black people at wildly disproportionate rates to white people.
Black men are 18% of Milwaukee's population, but 90% of those killed by #Milwaukee police. #MilwaukeeUprising https://t.co/do38mvzknm
— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) August 14, 2016
Though the Justice Department was supposed to initiate “collaborative reform” with the Milwaukee Police Department following the fatal shooting of a mentally ill black man by a white police officer, there is no evidence that anything has improved for the black population of the city.
Sheriff David Clarke can be credited with much of the lack of progress. Clarke is one of the most conservative sheriffs in the country, though he identifies as a Democrat in order to deny liberals the opportunity to run against him in elections. He denies that police brutality and racism exist, arguing that “modern liberalism” and “black-on-black crime” are the real problems. He told Fox News:
“There is no police brutality in America. We ended that back in the 60’s… There is no racism in the hearts of police officers.”
He is so extreme that he supports mass incarceration, one of the few things that both Democrats and Republicans can agree needs to end. At this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, Clarke dismissed the statistics on criminal justice in a discussion with anti-mass incarceration activists Pat Nolan and Ken Cuccinelli.
He is one of the biggest critics of Black Lives Matter, calling the group “black scum” who must be “eradicated from American society.”
Before long, Black Lies Matter will join forces with ISIS to being down our legal constituted republic. You heard it first here.
— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) October 28, 2015
He is a vocal Donald Trump supporter and spoke at the Republican National Convention last month, where he celebrated the acquittal of Brian Rice, one of the police officers responsible for the death of Freddie Gray.
Sheriff Clarke demanded that the Wisconsin National Guard be activated in response to the riots.
Governor Scott Walker, declaring a state of emergency, did just that today.
Many have noted that though the conditions for black people in Milwaukee are the worst in the country, the riots are nonetheless reflective of the nationwide sentiment that has arisen due to the racial disparities in the use of brutal force by police.
The identities of the officers involved in the shooting of Sylville Smith are not being revealed by the Milwaukee Police Department. Many, such as Vox’s German Lopez, have noted that it is highly unlikely and that “it would be a truly rare situation if the Milwaukee officer was convicted of a crime.”
Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King went to social media to comment on the Milwaukee riots:
“Riots are NEVER because of an incident. Black folk have NEVER rioted over one incident or one case of injustice. They happen AFTER an awful accumulation of incidents.
One incident may be the straw that broke the camel’s back, but don’t ignore the hundreds of pounds that were piled on there to begin with.
This is true for Milwaukee last night, Baltimore, Ferguson in 2014, Los Angeles, etc.
I hate riots, but I understand them. I hate the destruction they cause, but I see them as a symptom, as an effect, of a destructive, violent, and unjust country.
Riots are a reflection of the soul of this nation.
Of course they are ugly, but they are honest.”
King also quoted Martin Luther King: “A riot is the language of the unheard.”
