Violence erupts after officer-involved shooting

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A standoff between police and an angry crowd turned violent Saturday night in the hours after a Milwaukee police officer shot and killed an armed suspect during a foot chase on the city's north side.

After an hours-long confrontation with officers, police reported at 10:15 p.m. that a gas station at Sherman Blvd. and Burleigh St. was set on fire. Police said firefighters could not get close to the blaze because of gunshots.

Earlier in the evening, more than 100 people gathered near the scene at N. 44th St. and W. Auer Ave. and at times pushed against a line of 20 to 30 officers, some of whom were in riot gear.

At one point, the officers got in their cars to leave and some in the crowd started smashing the windows and side of a squad car. Another vehicle was set on fire. As officers returned to the scene, this time many more in riot gear, as many as seven could be heard about 8:45 to 9 p.m.

Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2016/08/13/report-1-dead-officer-involved-shooting/88689152/

---

[applegrove]

1. Vibes that no one else gets hurt on either side.

[rollin74]

2. live police scanner feed

http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/9840/web

[mike_c]

3. the best solution is one that we will likely never accept....

Other than special circumstances, e.g. SWAT, we need police reform that includes disarming them. Most will likely quit rather than give up their guns, giving us an opportunity to train a non-lethal replacement force. And if American society is reluctant to send unarmed officers to police an armed populace, then maybe we can begin a realistic discussion about disarming the society at large.

[Angel Martin]

7. maybe that sounds grand in some unachievable utopia

but what are the firefighters supposed to do when they are called to a fire and they are shot at and having things thrown at them ?

It's still going on at 1am eastern. they just said rocks being thrown at firefighters at 35th & Chambers. 1:05, more shots fired...

[FrodosPet]

41. They need to accept that as a risk of the job

If they are that scared, then maybe they should not take the job. Just like the police, they should make room for someone who accepts that risk.

[Akicita]

43. Damn right. Angry people have a right to throw rocks and shoot at firefighters and cops.

[Skittles]

11. did you miss the ARMED SUSPECT part?

you would have LEO unarmed in gun humping America?

[Adsos Letter]

52. This ^

[christx30]

18. They'd never do it.

They would continue to carry, no matter how the law is worded. After all, how would you stop them? Call the police? Complain to their captain? Do expect anyone in local law enforcement to back you in taking cops' guns away?
And do you actually expect police in somewhere like Detroit, Baltimore, or Chicago to ride without some kind of weapon on them?
And if you were to succeed in disarming the police, and decide you want to get more guns off the street, who is going to actually do it? The unarmed cops who are pissed you took away their weapons? There's going to be a lot of cops sitting in their cars. "Huh. Look at that. Someone's getting stabbed during a drug deal. Weird. Oh! What's a four letter word for portal?"

[Ace Rothstein]

39. Disarm the police in a country with 310 million guns.

Your proposal would lead to a massive increase in crime in this country. I've never even held a gun in my life but would probably look into a conceal carry permit in your scenario.

[Hoyt]

53. Nothing I'd rather see, but you gotta disarm these gunners first.

[Abouttime]

70. This is the ONLY solution

And we as a society will either get there or we will kill each other, I am an optimist and this is the only civilized way forward. Guns are the problem not the answer, imagine what we could all accomplish in a gun free world. I truly believe we will willingly give up our so called second amendment rights in favor of a safer and more caring society free of the tools of murder and destruction.

[Travis_0004]

4. What a bunch of idiots

Nobody knows any facts, but lets burn down our community, that will show them.

[ZombieHorde]

6. They know the police have been oppressing them for generations.

They know they live in a country that is racist and honors their oppressors.

They know peaceful protests aren't doing anything.

Now they know their oppressors are afraid of them.

[jonno99]

8. So - burn their own community down? Got it. nt

[ZombieHorde]

9. They didn't burn their community down.

Someone set a gas station and a Klan car on fire.

[TipTok]

24. You ever roll your eyes so hard that you do a flip?

[DawgHouse]

46. Ragnar!

[ZombieHorde]

48. All the time. lol nt

[romanic]

26. Do you live in this community?

[ZombieHorde]

49. No. I live in Montana. nt

[FrodosPet]

57. How are the crops this year?

[ZombieHorde]

60. I don't know. lol nt

[romanic]

68. Figures.

[ZombieHorde]

69. Oh? Why is that?

[Democat]

12. There is an election going on right now

They could channel their energy into the election and make sure that every Republican in Wisconsin loses their power.

Or they could throw a few fire bombs and their neighbors houses and businesses and then go back to the way it was before.

[ZombieHorde]

15. Those aren't mutually exclusive activities. nt

[Democat]

27. I agree with you on this point

[7962]

17. Yes, protest the shooting of an ARMED MAN by police. Brilliant.

You present a gun to a cop, you're likely to get shot.

[ZombieHorde]

50. I think this is bigger than one incident.

They're forced to pay for white supremacy and their own oppression. They've been targeted by police their whole lives, and so have their loved ones. Most conservatives and white liberals like it. "Blue lives matter" means fuck black people.

[7962]

58. And the cop in this shooting is also black.

Again, if the guy is armed, its an insult to people like Randall Scott & Eric Garner to protest his shooting. Just like using Mike Brown and all the false stories associated with HIS shooting. Which were debunked by the Holder Justice Dept, which I would be pretty sure is not racist.
Protest the crimes that deserve to be protested. Too many are just looking for a fight regardless of the truth.

[Sand Rat Expat]

64. There's another issue here, too.

Too many are defining justice as "the verdict I want." People make up their minds .2 seconds after hearing about the incident, then go on to completely disregard any and all data that don't support their conclusion.

[7962]

67. happens here ALL the time nt

[Sand Rat Expat]

71. Yep, I know. I've seen it plenty of times. NT

[Sand Rat Expat]

63. "Blue lives matter" does not at all mean "fuck black people."

It's possible to care about and be concerned for the safety of cops and people of color. Most people have the ability to focus their concern on more than one thing.

Secondly, some of the things I've seen said about cops on DU are disgusting, to be blunt. I've seen the kind of broad-brush, generalizing statements that, if directed at another group, would be swiftly (and rightfully) condemned by most of the community here.

But apparently it's okay to make hateful and prejudicial statements, as long as they're directed at certain demographics. Hate is hate and prejudice is prejudice, and they're never okay no matter who they're directed toward.

[ZombieHorde]

66. All over the country, black people report harassment from police.

All over the country.

BLM started largely, but certainly not entirely, due to their treatment from law enforcement. The blue lives are oppressing the black lives, and when we appropriate BLM to champion their oppressors, we're making a mockery of their oppression.

[Travis_0004]

32. And I'm sure we are going to here them complain about a lack of jobs

Well, now there are few less, and I would imagine burning down businesses, doesn't exactly inspire new business owners to invest money there.

[TipTok]

34. I'm sure that O'Reilly auto parts and the beauty shop...

... Were oppressors of the worst kind.



What's the message you are going for here? Let us do what we want or well burn our own place down?

Bunch of geniuses there I see...

[ZombieHorde]

51. Who, in your mind, burned down the store? nt

[jtuck004]

21. You mean the white folks that enslaved black people, or the white folk that keep racism alive?

""White people still ask me why Mookie threw the can through the window," Lee said in an interview. "Twenty years later, they're still asking me that."

"No black person ever, in 20 years, no person of color has ever asked me why.""

[ZombieHorde]

5. The police created this situation with their oppressive behavior

over the course of many generations. The oppressed outnumber the oppressors, but the oppressors are well funded, and have the support of conservatives and racist liberals.

[Democat]

13. Did America deserve 9/11 too?

Your logic is exactly what the police use when they murder gang members.

"When the gas station was set ablaze, there were three people in the building and all got out safely, he said."

These people may have legitimate grievances, but burning down your neighbor's businesses with people inside and shooting at ambulances is not a legitimate way to show your anger. It's not going to help their cause either.

[ZombieHorde]

14. Nobody deserves anything.

How many people set the gas station on fire? How many shot at the ambulance? One? Fifty? I didn't notice a number of suspects in the article.

[TipTok]

25. Why does it matter how many?

Violent idiots are violent idiots and will take chance when it presents itself...

[Euphoria]

29. Question: do your "violent idiots" include

Any members of a police force?

[TipTok]

33. In the history of policing?

... Or in this case?

You should be specific.

[ZombieHorde]

54. All the protestors are being maligned for the act. nt

[Akicita]

44. Too many.

[Else You Are Mad]

10. I can understand the outrage...

That this community has towards the police. That said, no one should attack innocent people and destroy their property. Those involved in the arson and those shooting at the emergency responders need to be arrested. That is not acceptable.I hope everyone is safe on both sides.

[jtuck004]

22. " That said, no one should attack innocent people and destroy their property" < The police have

been doing this to the black community for over 200 years.

When will it be stopping?

[Else You Are Mad]

28. That statement included the police. nt

[jtuck004]

30. No one cares whether anyone "understands" their outrage. Others do not have to live

their life, so such opinions are relatively worthless. The only thing that matters is stopping the violence the society visits on people who are not part of the white majority, and making amends. I doubt the country has the moral backbone to do that.

The people are shooting back in self-defense. Like any occupied territory.

This country decided a long time ago that other lives were worth more than black ones. That has led to a whole series of incorrect presumptions about what we should value, and we raise our children the same way. I have watched that since 1970, and only the methods have changed.

That makes us weak, and I doubt rather seriously the country survives because of it. A bunch of futile and meaningless gestures by a duplicitous authority, whether police or the community, aren't going to mean a thing.

But we shall see.

[nitpicker]

16. Link to BBC

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37075729

[Quantess]

19. Trashing their own neighborhood. Really smart.

Any "message" sent to the world will be short lived, while the community remains in rubble for a really long time since there will be a lack of interest in business investments at that location.

[romanic]

23. What always gets me

is that people here have this logic that "well the police oppress them and their voices need to be heard" or something like that in regards to riots in mostly/all black areas.

The reality is this, most of the people here with that kind of logic don't really have to live in areas where these people are rioting or do business. They can afford to have this Machiavellian line of thinking from the safety of their homes away from the hood.

[romanic]

20. Were rioting over armed suspects now?

Jeebus Christ. -_-

[HereSince1628]

31. The proximate cause was a police shooting of a man fleeing a car

We are told he had in his possession a gun. WI is an open carry state so just being armed shouldn't be enough to get a person shot. We are told by authorities that the man was told to halt and drop the gun, and that he failed to comply.

Of course, in the current climate, we can't be sure if police will tell the truth or just circle their wagons.

We are told that the officer who shot the man was wearing a body camera, and it was turned on. The camera has reportedly been turned over to the WI State Police, so investigators will better know what happened. The public may see the video, with the probability being highest if the video corroborates their reports.

But what created the current climate, which arguably represents some the underlying causes?

Last week a handful of news sources reported results of national surveys that name Wisconsin, and Milwaukee in particular as the worst place in the United States to live if you are black. There are many socio-economic stressers involved and mentioned in those reports. And historically the crisis that represents for Milwaukee blacks has gone ignored... after all it is WI, and we are the home of Happy Days, and that WI show, Right? Life here is quaint, not problematic.

Wisconsin has one of the highest incarceration rates for black men in the nation. The elevated risks of black men being shot in WI has been reported as high as 30 times that of non-hispanic whites. That would be 3 times the usual elevated risk for blackmen across the US

And police misconduct that really critically matters to black lives happens here and usually goes ignored...

It went unnoticed to most of the US that in the week or two before the recent BLM protests about police shooting in MN and NO that a black man was shot in his car here in WI. His crime was he had fallen asleep in the car in the parking area of a public park. The community here protested, but no one really seemed to notice. Police got off

You may remember the shooting of Dontre Hamilton by Milwaukee police. Hamilton was an unarmed mentally ill black man whose offense was sleeping in downtown park and spoiling the view of a person in Starbucks across the street from the park. The first police on the scene dismissed Hamilton as a problem. A second call from the Starbucks location resulted in a second police response, and the rousting of Hamilton that somehow escalated to a level where police 'felt endangered' and so shot and killed him. Police got off.

And you may remember the death of an unarmed black Milwaukee man in custody...who suffocated to death from an asthma attack, which was complicated by a sickle-cell crisis due to low blood oxygen from the asthma attack. Video from the police cruisers camera showed him telling police he was in distress and 'couldn't breath'. His alarm went ignored by the officers in the car, because the police, like most police, don't believe that people who can talk are having respiratory trouble. Police got off.

Regarding the rioting that took place last night. Some of it may have been targeted to problem businesses in the neighborhood.

The gas station that burned to the ground last night may have been the one where the owner shot at black teens last month. I'm not too clear on the address of that shooting, but that shooting was mentioned by aldermen during press conferences that were attempting to quiet last night's unrest.

[Lulu KC]

38. Thank you for clarifying

I appreciate learning about this and calling commenters to not assume the headlines tell the whole story.

[dragonlady]

42. The gas station you mention in the last paragraph is the same one n/t

[Akicita]

45. We can't be sure the police are telling the truth so let's riot, shoot at ambulances, burn

businesses, target white people for beatings, etc.

Something tells me you are not telling the whole story about the guy who was shot for sleeping in his car in a public park. Usually not a capital offence, even for a black person.

Why did the gas station owner shoot at the teens? Were they trying to rob him?

[HereSince1628]

55. I'd say that's entirely your interpretation, my read on that is it qualifies as a strawman

It's pretty clear that this is really more about a triggering event that released emotions related to pent up frustrations, and a sense that lawful approach to myriad problems faced by Milwaukee's black community aren't working.

My personal feeling, about this, and I have thought a lot about this because I actually sleep about a mile and one-half from where last nights violence happened, is that this rioting is the social equivalent of the pychological phenomenon of self-harm.

There's no way to identify and lash out at what is an amorphous constellation of social players and circumstances that perpetuate, and deepen, discrimination and misery for Milwaukee's black population. In that state, lashing out at features of their own neighborhoods is one of the few doable anger releasing reactionas, and so it is done. IMO it's done as a displacement behavior because proper targets can't be identified or reached.

One could argue whether or not there is ever a proper target for civil violence. Certainly the memes of the day are about lawful behavior and the notion that civil violence is never legitimate. But, putting the high ideals of establishment supporting memes aside, I think history and human nature suggest expressions of social violence actually are the way things often get attention.

Attention is surely needed. The larger community of Milwaukee, it's suburbs, and Wisconsin in general, has done a pretty good job of ignoring what BLM is trying to communicate is an increasingly a desperate frustrating struggle to survive and experience fair social relationships within the framework of community structure and function.

Wisconsin didn't get rated as the Worst State and Milwaukee didn't get rated as the Worst major city for blacks to to live in without things being bent far outside of reasonable expectations.

There shouldn't be civil violence, but then Black people should be treated like their lives matter.

[Judi Lynn]

61. Your information and intelligence are deeply helpful on this thread. Thanl you. n/t

[riversedge]

35. Milwaukee officials call for calm after unrest over shooting

Milwaukee officials call for calm after unrest over shooting

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/police-milwaukee-officer-fatally-shoots-man-who-had-gun/2016/08/13/74f6fe8c-61ba-11e6-84c1-6d27287896b5_story.html

A car burns as more than 100 people gather in a neighborhood where police fatally shot a man on Saturday. (Calvin Mattheis/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP)



By Gretchen Ehlke?|?AP August 14 at 3:41 AM

MILWAUKEE — Simmering anger over the fatal shooting of a man by police erupted in violence on Milwaukee’s north side, with protesters skirmishing with officers over several hours and setting fire to at least four businesses in an outburst the mayor says was fed by social media.

The uprising that broke out Saturday evening didn’t subside until after midnight, after Mayor Tom Barrett and other city leaders appeared at a news conference to plead for calm. Police said three people were arrested, and one officer was hurt by a brick thrown into a squad car.

The triggering event came Saturday afternoon, when a man fleeing police after a traffic stop was shot and killed. Police said the man was armed, but it wasn’t clear whether he was pointing the gun or aiming it at officers. Barrett said the man was hit twice, in the chest and arm. Neither his race nor the officer’s was immediately released, nor were they identified.

The shooting was being investigated by the state. The officer was wearing a body camera, Barrett said.

The mayor said the uprising was driven by social media messages instructing people to congregate in the area................................

[Akicita]

47. I wonder who was behind the social media instructions for people to congregate in the area?

[CRF450]

37. Mob mentality

Bunch of kids who just want to raise hell and take opportunity to steal and loot in the chaos.

[angrychair]

40. "He was armed"

Then why isn't every white man that is armed killed?

"He was armed"

"Reaching for his waistband"

"Felt in danger"

"Reached for my weapon"

People have heard these bullshit comments so often it's hard to believe and to often nothing in video or eye witness accounts backs that up.

A 12 year old child, young Mr. Rice, was dead 4 seconds after police arrived.

I watched 6-9 cops gun down a little old homeless women who appeared confused and detached, because she had a common steak knife.

A cop killed a innocent man sitting in his car who was following all commands and following the rules.

i watched a video of a white guy being arrested beat the shit out of two cops and neither drew their weapon. He even followed them outside the fast food place and kept attacking them.

I will reserve judgment on who was doing what but given the history and circumstances, it's hard to believe the cops were innocent in all this.

[pansypoo53219]

56. 2007 hit this area hard. i saw so many brooded homes on the block i grew up on in 2010. and still

not ok as i drive thru near areas. fucking reagenuts.

[Rex]

59. Such adult conversations over civil unrest. nt

nt

[Judi Lynn]

62. Isn't it, though? Troll-heavy. n/t

[Sand Rat Expat]

65. You know...

You might consider the possibility that others are expressing disagreement with your position in legitimate discussion, as opposed to trolling. Sometimes people are going to hold different viewpoints to yours. This does not make them trolls.