Milwaukee is in turmoil, following the deadly shooting of an armed black man with a long criminal record who fled a police traffic stop with a gun in his hand. The officer who shot him was also black.
At least one person was wounded after shots were fired and protesters threw objects at police in Milwaukee late Sunday night, a day after violence erupted overnight in the wake of the fatal shooting of a man by police, authorities said.
Police said they were deploying armored vehicles to protect officers and to rescue a shooting victim, who was rushed to a hospital. At midnight Monday, police declared the protest an unlawful assembly and announced that they would begin making arrests.
The National Guard was activated Sunday, but Mayor Tom Barrett said they wouldn’t be deployed unless police deemed that they were needed. “I’m hopeful that that will not be necessary,” Barrett said. “But if it is necessary, we will do so.”
Six businesses were burned down in Sunday’s protest. Four officers were hurt from “flying concrete and glass.” Almost 20 people have been arrested. One person has been shot.
These aren’t peaceful demonstrators, these are thugs exploiting a family’s personal tragedy as an excuse to pillage and intimidate a community. If protesters really want to demonstrate that “black lives matter,” they should not be violently destroying black neighborhoods.
