Milwaukee police Chief Ed Flynn on Monday lauded faith and community leaders for curbing violence Sunday night during unrest after the police shooting of a black man on Saturday.
“I saw in many instances people preaching on street corners, counseling small groups of individuals. A number of individuals spoke at the vigil, which easily could have been an excuse to incite, but rather there were consistent calls for calm, discussion and peaceful change,” Flynn said.
Flynn confirmed, however, a significant level of violence toward police. In addition to the well-documented rock-throwing by Sunday night’s mob, officers have also been met with gunfire since a police-involved shooting sparked outrage.
“It certainly appears there are people who are willing to shoot at (police) without concern of whether they injure or kill them,” Flynn said. “… We do have people who are recklessly firing firearms generally, and clearly some of them are firing at police.”
The result has been slower and more cautious crowd control efforts.
“We recognize in so doing we make ourselves targets,” Flynn said. “In some ways, we become the focal point. But better us the focal point than innocent community members or stores being set on fire. So, we accept the risk that engaging makes us the target.”
Flynn cast blame on some Chicago-based activists representing the Revolutionary Communist Party, who apparently organized young people to take to the streets and march on the then-barricaded District 7 police station, which received a number of threats.
“The (group) showed up, and actually they’re the ones who started to cause problems leading into evening by marching and trying to take over Sherman and Burleigh,” Flynn said. “That was about 11:30 at night. We made it to 11:30 in the evening, and we had these characters show up …”
In addressing the police shooting of Sylville Smith, Flynn said Smith, 23, was shot about 20 seconds after a traffic stop for a “suspicious vehicle.” Flynn announced that an autopsy report confirmed the police’s preliminary information that indicated Smith was shot in the chest and arm, refuting rumors that he could have been shot in the back.
The palpable anger seen in North Side Milwaukee crowds, Flynn said, isn’t rooted in the facts of Smith’s death.
“Regardless of the factors of this situation, clearly there was an undertone of tension that erupted in violence, whether the shooting turned out to be completely justified or whether it wasn’t,” he said.
An 18-year-old man was shot and wounded during Sunday night’s unrest.
Mayor Tom Barrett singled out groups of young people on the streets of the Sherman Park neighborhood who he said were intent on causing trouble.
“Those individuals, in my mind, are deliberately trying to damage a great neighborhood in a great city,” Barrett said at a news conference Monday.
Barrett warned parents and guardians that police will be strictly enforcing the city’s 10 p.m. curfew for teenagers.
“This is not the place where you go to gawk, this is not the place where you go to take pictures,” he said. “This is not the place where you go to drive your car around.”
The problems began Saturday afternoon after a black police officer shot and killed a black man after a traffic stop. Police say Smith was fleeing and had a stolen handgun when he was shot; they say bodycam footage clearly shows him holding the weapon.
Gov. Scott Walker on Sunday put the National Guard on standby, but so far no Guard members have been deployed.
Fourteen people were arrested. Three police officers and four sheriff’s deputies were hurt.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating Smith’s death, as required by state law for police-involved shootings. Barrett said he hoped the officer’s body camera video could be released soon.
The 18-year-old Milwaukee man who was shot and wounded in Sunday night’s violence was retrieved by a police armored vehicle and taken to a hospital. Flynn said the man “doesn’t seem to be in medical danger.” Police didn’t say who shot the man but that they were looking for suspects.
Flynn said that while police came under fire Sunday night, “none of our officers returned fire.”
Police cited Smith’s “lengthy criminal record” as they identified him. Online court records showed a range of offenses that were mostly misdemeanors. In a more serious case, Smith was accused in a shooting last year and charged with recklessly endangering safety, a felony.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Smith was subsequently accused of pressuring the victim to recant statements that identified him as the gunman and was charged with trying to intimidate a witness. The charges were dropped because the victim recanted the identification and failed to appear in court, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Lovern told the newspaper Sunday.
Speaking at a Sunday night vigil, Smith’s sister, Kimberley Neal, told The Associated Press that the family wants prosecutors to charge the officer who shot him.
The anger at Milwaukee police is not new and comes as tension between black communities and law enforcement has ramped up across the nation, resulting in protests and the recent ambush killings of eight officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Dallas.
Nearly 40 percent of Milwaukee’s 600,000 residents are black, and they are heavily concentrated on the north side.
Milwaukee was beset by protests and calls for police reform after an officer shot and killed Dontre Hamilton, a mentally ill black man, in 2014.
In December, the U.S. Justice Department announced it would work with Milwaukee police on changes.
Critics said the police department should have been subjected to a full Justice Department investigation like the one done in Ferguson, Missouri, after the killing of black 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014 touched off violence there.
Associated Press and Chicago Tribune’s Tony Briscoe contributed.
