老澳门开奖结果

Racial profiling in Milwaukee is as common to Black men as manhood itself.

I鈥檓 a lifelong Milwaukeean and a Black man. Born at the old Mount Sinai, raised in the Rufus King and Sherman Park neighborhoods, I鈥檓 a unicorn 鈥� a Black man between 14 and 40 years old who does not have a felony, misdemeanor, or record of any kind. I鈥檓 the exception to a rule that should have long ceased to exist.

Since 2012, over half of Milwaukee鈥檚 Black men in their 30s are, or have been, locked up. I won鈥檛 go into the horrible details of socioeconomic and political disenfranchisement, but let鈥檚 just say we started from the bottom, and, for a lot of people, we鈥檙e still there.

Being Black in Milwaukee means having the constant specter of police haunting your life.

One night I was carrying takeout pizza to my mom鈥檚 house. They came at me, guns drawn. Mistaken identity they said. Another time I was standing at a bus stop in a white neighborhood on my way to work. There were two white people, also waiting for the bus. The police chose to stop me.

After that, I felt violated and angry. I filed complaints with the mayor, an alderman, and a U.S. senator. Eventually an internal affairs officer called me to follow up. After a brief conversation, she simply asked, 鈥淲ell, wouldn't YOU stop a Black man standing at a bus stop at 6 a.m.?鈥�

If it isn鈥檛 obvious, my answer was 鈥淣o!鈥�

Black and Latino people are magnets for police harassment in this city. Police abuse of people of color here isn鈥檛 imagination. It鈥檚 reality. This has been true for a long time. From 1967 to 2017, not much has changed.

It wasn鈥檛 until I began working for the 老澳门开奖结果, talking to Black and Latino residents about Milwaukee police, that I realized there were thousands of stories like mine 鈥� stories from the mundane to the maddening to the horrible.

What follows is just a very small portion of what I鈥檝e heard:

A teenager walking home from playing basketball:

鈥淚 saw the cops following in an unmarked (the 鈥榡ump out boys鈥�). They stopped in front of my house and both of them got out of the car. The driver had his hand on his gun but he didn鈥檛 take it out. The cop asked, 鈥楬ow old are you?鈥� I said, 鈥�15.鈥� 鈥榊ou look suspicious. What鈥檚 in the bag?鈥欌��

A young man leaving work:

鈥淭hey stopped me saying 鈥榶ou fit the description of a robbery鈥�. They frisked me (without asking), put me in a squad, ran my name, and let me go.鈥�

A 20-year-old walking home from the park:

鈥淲e were walking to a friend鈥檚 house. The cops drove up and stopped. A bike cop came at us yelling, 鈥楲ay on the ground before I shoot you! 鈥�If it鈥檚 more than two of you, we have the right to stop you.鈥� They took out all of my stuff and asked me for ID afterwards. I just finished playing ball, so I didn鈥檛 have it on me. After an hour they uncuffed me, let me out of the squad, gave me a $200-plus ticket for not having ID, then they let me go.鈥�

Over the last two years, I鈥檝e personally interviewed hundreds of people about their interactions with police. Overwhelmingly they tell me the same story of police harassment and intimidation. The evidence I鈥檝e gathered is the basis of the lawsuit the 老澳门开奖结果 recently filed against the Milwaukee police for its racially biased stop-and-frisk program

What stands out when talking to people is how many Black and Latino folks aren鈥檛 just having one or two stops every few years, as I've had. Some are getting profiled and detained almost weekly. Imagine being stopped multiple times a week by police for no good reason and how it would affect your life and how you go about the world. You鈥檇 begin to feel that some suspect your very existence.

These feelings don鈥檛 disappear because a police spokesperson comes forward and says racial profiling doesn鈥檛 exist in Milwaukee. Black and Latino People here see that statement for what it is.

A lie.

Whatever the Milwaukee Police call it, they鈥檙e engaging in a prejudicial, targeted, and invasive stop-and-frisk policy, focused on Black and Latino communities. These hundreds of thousands of incidents aren鈥檛 just an inconvenience. They have created life-long trauma, job loss, destruction of dignity, and sometimes incite the destruction of life itself. If you doubt that, Google Officers Vagnini, Manney, and Heaggan-Brown.

Milwaukee, it seems, has d茅j脿 vu from another era. Does the Constitution apply to Black and Latino people? Yes it does, and we鈥檙e going to make sure this city finds that out in court.

We either respect everyone鈥檚 rights and humanity, with equity under the law, or allow our city to remain a low-level apartheid state, with the inevitable consequences and upheaval to follow.