Photo by Ethan Duran
After a week of ennui around the Wisconsin Center, a coalition of eight different progressive groups marched together for the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee on Friday, August 21. Before the march, the families of Dontre Hamilton, Alvin Cole, Joel Acevedo and Jonathon Tubby, all of them shot to death by police officers in Wisconsin, spoke in the center of Dontre Hamilton (Red Arrow) Park that evening.
The event was organized by the Coalition to March on the DNC, which was formed in partnership of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression. Other groups, like All of Us Or None’s Milwaukee Chapter and members from Bernie or Vest, some of whom had driven from across the country, joined in the march.
At 5 p.m., the families of Tubby and Acevedo spoke in front of news cameras. Tubby, a member of the Oneida nation, was shot and killed by a Green Bay police officer in 2018. Acevedo died after a fight with off-duty Milwaukee police officer Michael Mattioli at a party in April. B’Ivory LaMarr, an attorney representing Acevedo’s family, said, “This is not politics, this is about priorities. What’s been going on in the city of Milwaukee, the state of Wisconsin and across this country must come to a stop.”
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The families and their representatives were received warmly by the crowd in the middle of the park. However, the reception was different on the other side of the ice rink near East State Street. Around six counter protesters showed up with banners with Bible verses and anti-abortion statements printed on them. One counter protester with a bullhorn drowned out Tubby’s family as they spoke and made antagonistic and homophobic comments to the people in the park.
Photo by Ethan Duran
Arguing on the Streets
As the counter protesters gathered attention, they also drew in some disdainful protesters and bystanders to argue with them. One woman got into the face of a bearded counter protester and said, “You are a devil.” Several protesters from the Bernie or Vest camp tried to derail the counter protesters with their own bullhorns, and tensions rose as some vested protesters and counter protesters got in each other’s faces.
Conflict rose to a near-climax when the counter protesters retreated to their van and the Milwaukee Police Department arrived on bicycles and on horseback. This was also the time where other protesters trickled in from a previous march that afternoon, agitated by the police presence and the escaping counter protesters.
“F*ck all of y’all!” Cried one female protester as the squads of police bikes flew in. The police formed a line blocking off the sidewalk to State Streey and the intersection to Water Street, temporarily trapping a group of people on the street. Vaun Mayes, who participated in another march earlier, called people back from the police line. After pouring their grievances on the cops, the remaining protesters in the street walked around the line and returned to the park.
The situation defused on its own as protesters left the police line and the police in turn left. Without the interruption from counter protesters or police, speakers kept talking for another hour.
Lauryn Cross, a member of the Milwaukee Alliance, said that Milwaukee continues to be the worst place for Black people to live because of economic and judicial disparity. “This is all the result of operating in a system that wasn’t built for us, that won’t operate for us,” she said. “It’s time we asked for our fair share of what we need in our communities and what we need for justice. That is why we’re taking the issue of police crimes to the national stage.”
After hearing the rest of the families speak, the coalition formed an organized march that departed just before 7 p.m. They visited the Milwaukee Police Department District 1 building, the Wisconsin Center and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services field office.
Photo by Ethan Duran
There were several banners representing the different groups that marched together. The biggest belonged to the Coalition to March, a big black banner held by at least eight people that read, “We can’t breathe.” Many of the slogans chanted and written on signs were like the messages from the George Floyd protests in early June. Police presence from then on was limited to patrols behind the fence at the Wisconsin Center. Volunteers working for the Milwaukee Alliance blocked off and directed traffic away from the march.
The march ended with a final rally at Dontre Hamilton (Red Arrow) Park around 10 p.m. Later that night, former vice president Joe Biden would accept his presidential nomination from the Democratic Party in Delaware.
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