Black man dies after Milwaukee hotel guards pin him down, video shows - The Washington Post

Giles told Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ that Mitchell was "a loving son, brother, uncle, daddy." But she said Mitchell changed after losing his father in 2016. Nayisha Mitchell said her brother went into a depression after that and "was trying to also work on himself." 

She told WISN 12 News that the security team "should have been trained to deal with this type of situation. Mental illness is real."…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/07/09/dvontaye-mitchell-milwaukee-hyatt-guards/

PolitiFact | No, Milwaukee election official didn’t admit to delivering just enough ballots for a Biden win

No evidence of widespread fraud has been found -- there or anywhere else -- pertaining to the 2020 presidential election.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/aug/23/donald-trump/no-milwaukee-election-official-didnt-admit-deliver/

Black teen Eric Lucas speaks out after being spit on by white woman during Black Lives Matter protest in Shorewood, Wisc. - The Washington Post

A Milwaukee-area school district is calling on prosecutors to file hate crime charges after a white woman spat on a black teenager during a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration in Shorewood, Wis., during the weekend. The woman, 64-year-old probate lawyer Stephanie Rapkin, interrupted the protest on Saturday when she parked her car in the middle of the street, apparently to go to a store, blocking the marchers’ path, video shows.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/09/shorewood-protest-spitting-arrest/

Long before Sterling Brown’s arrest, Milwaukee struggled with a policing problem - The Washington Post: Perspective

What the NBA player's arrest reveals about the long history of racism in Milwaukee policing. ....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/06/03/long-before-sterling-browns-arrest-milwaukee-struggled-with-a-policing-problem/

Milwaukee proves that private school vouchers don’t make much of a difference: report - Salon.com

Maybe private schools aren’t the answer for everyone....

https://www.salon.com/2018/01/29/milwaukee-proves-that-private-school-vouchers-dont-make-much-of-a-difference-report/

Take It From Milwaukee: Beware of Sheriff David Clarke

When David A. Clarke Jr., the sheriff of Milwaukee County, announced last week that he’d been appointed to a senior position at the Homeland Security Department, Milwaukee residents like me felt two things: relief that we might finally rid ourselves of his disastrous leadership, and deep concern about what his reported new role will mean for the rest of the country....
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/opinion/take-it-from-milwaukee-beware-of-sheriff-david-clarke.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20170524&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=8&nlid=78638145&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0

Milwaukee Jail Death Shines Spotlight On Divisive Sheriff David Clarke

A lengthy inquest into the dehydration death of a Milwaukee inmate raised troubling questions about how Sheriff David Clarke manages the county jail, just as the White House is said to be considering the tough-talking lawman for a job....
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/milwaukee-kail-death-sheriff-david-clarke

Terrill Thomas death: Jurors recommend criminal charges

Jurors recommended criminal charges be filed against seven employees of the Milwaukee County Jail in the death of 38-year-old inmate Terrill Thomas.

"At the end of the day keeping somebody safe, not neglecting them and not ill-treating them, that's not a very high standard. It's really not,"Milwaukee County District Attorney John T. Chisholm said after the jury issued their verdict Monday, according to CNN affiliate WITI.....
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/01/us/wisconsin-inmate-death/

Lawsuit: Sheriff David Clarke’s jail forced a woman to give birth while in shackles

Clarke’s Milwaukee County Jail is notorious for abuse....
https://thinkprogress.org/lawsuit-sheriff-david-clarkes-jail-forced-a-woman-to-give-birth-while-in-shackles-fc62122ec9cd#.asjhplxra

Lawsuit Brings Fresh Scrutiny To Milwaukee's Troubles With Race And Policing

A Milwaukee police officer stands before the remains of a bar last summer, after police there faced off with protesters following the police shooting of a black man. For decades, interactions between police and people of color in the Midwestern city have been fraught, and those encounters are the subject of a new lawsuit brought by the ACLU....
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/28/516866210/a-new-lawsuit-brings-fresh-scrutiny-to-milwaukee-s-troubles-with-race-and-polici?ft=nprml&f=1001

'I'm alarmed': Congresswoman wants answers from Trump-backing Sheriff David Clarke on deaths at his jail (Business Insider)

As Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke's national profile has risen, a congresswoman has increasingly pressed him over the biggest controversy facing him: a string of deaths at the county jail his office is tasked with overseeing.

"I'm alarmed," Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin told Business Insider in a recent phone interview. "Particularly when I continue to hear from staffers from President-elect Trump that they're still looking for a place to put Sheriff Clarke [in the administration] in an area of security. And this is very, very concerning."...
http://www.businessinsider.com/gwen-moore-david-clarke-milwaukee-jail-deaths-2017-1

The Black Man Whose Killing Sparked Milwaukee Riots Had Bipolar Disorder

Sylville Smith, the 23-year-old black man whose shooting by police sparked riots in Milwaukee earlier this month, suffered from bipolar disorder and attention deficit disorder, according to his mother, Mildred Haynes. Smith had chosen not to take medication, Haynes told me, because he thought that admitting to mental illness would impede his ability to get a concealed-carry license. "He didn't want to be disabled because he wanted a gun," she told me. Her son had been shot twice in the past, and robbed four times, Haynes said. He wanted the weapon to protect himself.

Wisconsin is a concealed-carry state. Applicants who have been committed for treatment for mental illness or drug dependency are barred from receiving a permit, but people are not required to undergo a mental health evaluation when they apply. Haynes earlier told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that her son had, in fact, obtained a permit. Police officials have said the gun in Smith's possession at the time of his death was stolen from a home in a nearby town....
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/milwaukee-police-shooting-victim-sylville-smith-bipolar

These Stats Show Why Milwaukee Was Primed to Explode

Milwaukee's mayor imposed a 10 p.m. curfew on Monday and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker activated the National Guard in response to weekend rioting sparked by Saturday's fatal police shooting of an armed black man, 23-year-old Sylville Smith. The unrest, in which protesters torched multiple businesses and police cars and at least one person was shot, was the second wave of major protests since December 2014, when a county prosecutor declined to file charges against police in the fatal shooting of another black man, Dontre Hamilton. But while anger over such police shootings may have set off the mayhem, decades of unemployment, segregated housing, substandard schools, and racist policing set the stage for Milwaukee to blow. Indeed, the city has earned itself a reputation as the worst place to be black in America. Here's why:...
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/milwaukee-riots-poverty-education-statistics

Why the latest police shooting cut so deep in Milwaukee’s black community

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

Milwaukee Police Are Withholding Information About Their Officer's Recent Deadly Shooting

Milwaukee authorities are refusing to release police body camera footage showing the cop killing of Sylville Smith, a 23-year-old black man, yet law enforcement officials are making public claims to the media about what the video contains. As a result, police are maintaining near total control over the narrative about their own officer’s deadly shooting of a man who is not alive to defend himself. 

Smith was shot and killed by a Milwaukee police officer following a traffic stop on Saturday afternoon. The deadly shooting touched off angry protests and rebellion over the weekend, in a city plagued by racial segregation and inequality. Amid the protests, Milwaukee police quickly hit the media circuit to publicize their own spin, claiming that Smith threatened officers with a gun....
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/milwaukee-police-are-controlling-narrative-about-their-own-officers-deadly-shooting

Victim To Take Police Chiefs, City Of Milwaukee To Court For Ignoring Predatory Cop’s Crimes

When Iema Lemons called 911 about a disturbance at her house, the last thing she expected was that she’d be cornered in her bathroom, strangled, and raped by a police officer. But that’s what happened in 2010, when former Milwaukee officer Ladmarald Cates arrived at her house. He waited until his partner was out of sight before trapping and assaulting Lemons. Then he arrested her on a bogus charge.

Lemons immediately alerted the police about what happened to her, leading to an internal investigation that ended with Cates’ termination. During that time, Lemons discovered the officer had a record of sexual misconduct and violent behavior, yet the police failed to discipline him for years. On Tuesday, five years after her assault and three years after Cates was convicted for it, a federal judge ruled that Lemons can take the city of Milwaukee and its chiefs of police to court for years of negligence....
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/07/15/3798693/rape-culture-in-milwaukee-police-department/