Photo credit: Ethan Duran
An American flag covered in coffins is carried through the Marquette University campus.
Hundreds of protestors marched from the tip of Veteran’s Park to City Hall, the center of the Third Ward, the Milwaukee Municipal Court and Marquette University campus on Saturday, March 30. The march started at one 1 p.m. and ended at 4 p.m. after a few hundred people crossed the N. 27th St. bridge. The meeting was organized over Facebook by a group of young Milwaukeeans, who were mostly high school and college age.
The rally protested police brutality and demanded justice for George Floyd, a black man who was killed by four police officers in Minneapolis. Similar demonstrations have taken place in Madison and in the rest of the country.
The rally started at Veterans Park, where organizers stocked donated water and masks to hand out to marchers. While people gathered on the grass, there was a short open mic session with the organizers and speakers who volunteered. One leader stood on a milk crate and made the first speech before the march.
“This is the time for rebellion,” she said to the crowd. “Together we are stronger than anything we will ever encounter. We need this unity more than ever.”
The next to speak was Ricky Martin, who helped organize the rally through Facebook. “Many criticize that the man that we’re charging against has already been put behind bars, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that this happens over and over again. And we have to keep watching people die for no reason.
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“If you guys need anything at all, if the police start getting handsy or try to threaten you, let one of us know,” said Martin. “We’re here peacefully, we want to keep the peace, but situations happen. We don’t want to be the villains here. We’re not the villain here.”
“Nobody else was doing anything,” said Martin in an interview with the Shepherd Express. “We didn’t expect this many people to come.”
According to Lorena Cuellar, who collaborated the event with Martin, projected attendance jumped from just one thousand people to almost three thousand since 9 a.m. that morning. On the march’s Facebook page, eight-hundred and sixteen people checked “Going.”
Photo credit: Ethan Duran
Activists hold their signs up to the chain link fence over the Interstate 94 for traffic to see.
Another speaker who identified himself as Jacob Miller told the rally attendees about his experience getting arrested at the municipal courthouse and how he walked away when the police didn’t read him his rights. “We live in a despotic society,” Miller said.
“In the Declaration of Independence, it says when—not if, but when—America becomes despotic again, it is the duty of the people to rise up, abolish and reform the government,” he continued. “And make it for the people and by the people again.”
“I want everybody to know that somebody that looks like me is affected by this,” said another speaker, standing with his friend. “When the TV is turned off, I’m still dealing with this trauma, and she’s still dealing with this trauma.”
Before the march began, participants were encouraged to take from the stockpile of bottles of water and masks. After listening to a few more speakers, about four hundred to five hundred protesters with signs left the park and walked up Mason St., to Wisconsin Ave. and then to Water St. Along the way, they chanted “Who are we here for? Black lives!”
After circling around Kilbourn St. and Wells St., the crowd made its first stop in front of City Hall. One of the leaders announced that they would go to “where the money is,” – the Third Ward. They zigzagged back towards St. Paul Ave., their voices echoing under the Interstate 794. From the Third Ward, they took Clybourn Ave. to N. 6th St. and Wells St.
Around four hundred to five hundred people stayed with the crowd consistently, and the march stretched for almost three city blocks. Protesters would make sure to yield to cars sometimes, which honked and showed signs in support. Even some drivers behind the wheel of MCTS buses honked too. The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department kept freeway ramps blocked and directed protesters away from some streets.
On the way to the Milwaukee Municipal Court, Jen Goodare, a floral stylist, held up a sign that said, “Everyone knows about Milwaukee.”
“Milwaukee’s one of the most segregated cities,” Goodare said. “There’s a lot of issues that don’t get addressed and people have tried the peaceful way, and now we can’t do that anymore.”
Another protestor who didn’t want her name shared held up a sign that said, “An attack on one is an attack on us all.”
“We all are complicit if we don’t do anything,” she said. “White silence is violence.”
As the march reached the Municipal Court at 2 p.m., there was a heavier presence of law enforcement who stood in front of 525 N. 6th St. and the entrance of the court on W. State St. and N. James Lovell St. Some protestors held their hands in the air, chanting “hands up, don’t shoot,” as they walked past. A few officers were armed with tear gas launchers.
One woman poured her anguish out at the line of police officers and Ricky Martin stepped in to defuse the situation. “We just wanted to keep the protest peaceful,” he said afterward. “If the police wanted to get at us, we don’t want to give them that.” The march proceeded from the Municipal Court through the Marquette Campus, and then finally the North side of the 27th St. Bridge.
On the way to the bridge, Luis Arevalo held a torn sign with a rubber chicken dressed as a police officer on it. “They’re as reliable as a rubber chicken,” he said.
“I live in the south side. I grew up on the north side,” he said. “Family-wise, I’ve seen how a lot of people can be treated by the cops and general stories on TV. It’s good that it’s really coming to life. We’ve initiated this [protest] again, because they got to know. We had this four years ago, but people forgot about it like that.”
“I’m just glad that there are so many people that are coming together,” said Arevalo. “You see Asians, Hispanics, black people, white people coming together.”
Photo credit: Ethan Duran
Luis Arevalo holds up his sign of a rubber chicken dressed as a police officer.
Countless people took photos and filmed on their phones as the march trailed along N. 27th St. Some people left their residences and businesses to join the march. The crowd took up all four lanes of the bridge and stopped in the middle for a moment of silence and to put up a fist in unity. Locking arms with each other, the protesters marched south to N. 27th St. and National Ave. where the march came to its official end at 4 p.m.
Some participants went home, while others continued to walk towards Wauwatosa and eventually reached Mayor Tom Barrett’s house. During that night, Gov. Tony Evers authorized the Wisconsin National Guard to help the Milwaukee Police Department with “agitators,” and Mayor Barrett issued a 9 p.m. curfew. Even with the curfew, some protestors will continue to walk throughout the night.
For more of our coverage of the protests occurring across Milwaukee, click here.
