Photo credit: Quinn Clark
Members of Alvin Cole's family and legal team spoke outside the Milwaukee County Safety Building on Wednesday afternoon after Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm announced there would be no criminal charges filed against Wauwatosa Police Officer Joseph Mensah.
After a night of protest, Wauwatosa woke up to broken shop windows and streets to clean. As soon as the municipal curfew was lifted, at 6 a.m. this morning, volunteers started cleaning up the town.
The protest was sparked after Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm chose not to charge Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah for the death of a Black teenager, Alvin Cole. In a letter, Chisholm concludes that officer Mensah’s “belief that deadly force was necessary” was “reasonable.”
As a result, anticipating intense backlash from the community, the City of Wauwatosa issued a 7 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew from Wednesday through Monday. In a statement, the Wauwatosa Police Department admits that the protest started off peacefully with at least 200 participants; but the confrontation escalated, leading to property damage, such as throwing rocks into storefronts. The police used tear gas on protesters and arrested at least one person.
State Rep. Robyn Vining and Milwaukee Supervisor Shawn Rolland have been leading the effort to clean up Wauwatosa Thursday morning.
“About 50 of 60 folks showed up with brooms, dustpans, bags, and of course masks to help the shops that sustained damage—it was mostly centered around the intersection of Swan and North Avenue,” Rolland explains. As a city supervisor, he adds that the Fire and Police Commission “hired an investigator to compile a report, which came back with the recommendation to fire officer Mensah. My hope is that the commission can come together as soon as possible to take action.” His message is that we need to act against police brutality and racism, but that taking out anger on third-party businesses is not productive. “Yes to justice, yes to peace,” he says.
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“Our community is hurting deeply right now,” Rep. Vining added in a statement. “We reject violence in all forms. We condemn destruction of human life and property. And we cling to one another with shared hope. Progress begins with the hard work of acknowledging each other’s pain, seeking to understand the history and the present, rejecting forces of division and drawing toward each other in commitment to a shared future.”
