In a scene reminiscent of both Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., rioting erupted in Milwaukee’s north side following the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith, causing the city’s mayor to impose a 10pm curfew Monday night, while police donned riot gear and the Wisconsin National Guard remains on standby.
While the riots were superficially sparked by yet another killing of a black man by police officers, they highlight another deep-seated issue facing Wisconsin’s largest city – a consistent and long-standing sense of disenfranchisement felt by Milwaukee’s inner city black population. Yet there is a major difference between the killing of Sylville Smith and the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., or the death of Eric Garner in Brooklyn that same year, in that Smith was killed by a black police officer with a similar upbringing as himself. Smith’s sister stated in an interview that the two men went to high school together.
Motivated by more than simply a distrust of or hatred for police officers, the recent riots have exposed the fuse to Milwaukee’s racial powder keg....
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2016/0817/Why-the-latest-police-shooting-cut-so-deep-in-Milwaukee-s-black-community
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