Photo credit: Ethan Duran
Organizer Frank Nitty reads a story to children during a children's protest on Saturday, June 27, 2020.
Over the past couple of weeks, the protests across Milwaukee sparked by the George Floyd’s death have lost some momentum but remain visible and healthy. The message of the protest remains the same: that Black lives matter and police funds need to be reinvested into the community. Protests have stayed peaceful and the dedication of the organizers has not been extinguished. Over a dozen protests and related activities are happening this weekend, and activists are still making sure their voices are heard.
On Saturday, June 27, activists taking part in a children’s protest blocked the garage entrance after a chant in front of the Milwaukee Police Department District 1 building. Police responded with increased presence, though neither the police nor the protesters acted violently against each other. Frank Nitty, who helped organize the protest, deescalated the situation when he talked to a responding police sergeant that afternoon.
“I just wanted to give a chance for the kids to be heard,” said Honni Al-Juma, who also worked to put the rally together. “A lot of parents don’t want their children marching in the streets. They don’t want their children being endangered by anybody that might want to drive into the protest, so we wanted to give them an easy and safe alternative where they can still have their children’s voices be heard by the people we’re concerned about.”
People swapped children’s books, donated signs and food, and gave out snacks to children that attended the rally. A crowd of almost 100 people, young children and adults included, stood in front of the MPD headquarters and chanted “No justice, no peace.” On a bullhorn, Frank Nitty gave a speech to the children involved, explaining equity and equality with cookies as a metaphor. “It’s very emotional for me to see a group of young people, and of all ages, who actually appreciate the work everybody is doing,” said Nitty, who livestreamed the entire event.
Photo credit: Ethan Duran
Frank Nitty speaks to a crowd gathered for the children's protest on Saturday, June 27, 2020.
“We need the police to understand that the children are concerned about their future, they’re concerned about their parents,” said Al-Juma. “Police brutality is real, and Milwaukee gets away with it far too often.”
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Blocking the Garage
Occasionally police officers in unmarked cars rode in and out of the parking garage to the left of the administration building entrance, not acknowledging the nearby rally. One protester asked a passing officer if any communications people working for MPD would talk to the crowd. The officer replied that they didn’t have a lot of people working on the weekends. Deciding to up the ante, Al-Juma and other adult protesters blocked the garage entrance with their bodies, cones and yellow caution tape that was left on the property.
After 12 p.m., police sergeant trying to enter the garage blared his siren—which can be as loud as 120 decibels—at the group and tried to drive through. Making sure the children were at a safe distance, the adults used their bodies to block his vehicle and shouted at him when he stepped out of his cruiser. The sergeant, with a hand on his pepper spray, told people to get out of the street and to get back on the sidewalk. “You’re going to run over kids?” One protester called out in outrage.
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Photo credit: Ethan Duran
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Photo credit: Ethan Duran
Tensions rose higher when more police officers left the garage building and formed a line on N James Lovell St. in their regular uniforms. They were joined by officers on bicycles and later by more cruisers and a pair of police vans. The attitudes of both the protesters and the police ranged differently. Some cops were willing to talk with members of the crowd, while others refused to say anything. One woman took her baby to meet the officers up close, while other people in the crowd poured their grievances out at the police line from a distance.
Photo credit: Ethan Duran
“Y’all are protecting the cop that’s acting out of line. Who are you working for?” said Nitty through the bullhorn. He said that the police are protecting bad cops, but if they changed then the dialogue about police would change.
The sergeant talked with Nitty for a half an hour before agreeing to read a book to the children. After getting through a page of Dr. Seuss’s “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish,” the sergeant left sight of the rally. Nitty took the book and led the children to the front doors of the police administration building, reading to kids there.
Photo credit: Ethan Duran
“He was just talking about how the police are wrong for letting us protest,” said Nitty about his conversation with the sergeant. Nitty made a point that the protest was peaceful and that other officers were responding well to it. “Why do you feel like the one officer that goes against that? Because you can. I’m like, no one can shut you down, ‘cause you’re too powerful.”
Around 2 p.m., one police officer on a bicycle rode up to protesters’ cars parked on North James Lovell and West State streets and started writing tickets until he was chased off. Other officers put traffic cones in the way of the cars so they couldn’t leave through State Street.
Violence Prevention
Eventually, with the help of Reggie Moore, Director of the Office of Violence Prevention in the Milwaukee Health Department, protesters’ cars moved off the road without incident. Moore said that the cars were moved to let emergency vehicles through more easily. The police substituted the cars with their own barricades.
Without parked cars to protect them, the protesters eventually stepped back onto the sidewalk and began to disperse. Some of them remained in front of MPD headquarters with signs, while others went home or to the mural painting on N Holton St. and E Center St. The rally ended peacefully and without arrests.
“We’re trying to raise the gap and change the narrative,” Nitty said. “We’re trying to change the police, but apparently we can’t. That’s why we need to defund them, and this is a clear example of the police being out of control. At this point, we don’t need the police, we need something else.”
For more of our coverage of the protests occurring across Milwaukee, click here.
