Five Protest Marches Planned Wednesday

Urban Milwaukee has been informed of fifth march at 3:30 p.m. starting from Gordon Park in Riverwest led by Khalil Coleman and Frank Nitty.

At least four protest marches are planned in Milwaukee Wednesday to demand justice in the death of George Floyd and others at the hands of police.

For the second day in a row, a group plans to start at Humboldt Park in Bay View and march north towards Downtown. A gathering begins at 2 p.m. with a march planned for 3 p.m. According to a route map posted by organizer Tommy Franecki the group will follow a different route than Tuesday, opting to take S. Howell Ave. north instead of S. Kinnickinnic Ave. A number of businesses along the south-side main street handed out water and food yesterday.

At 2 p.m., the Islamic Society of Milwaukee will also host a march. Starting from the center at 4708 S. 13th St., the march will go east on W. Layton Ave. towards S. Howell Ave. and the airport before returning to the center. Face masks are mandatory.

A third march is planned to begin at N. 22nd St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. at 6:30 p.m. near the Marquette University campus. It will go to N. 14th St.

Another group, led by Troy Allen, is scheduled to meet at Humboldt Park at 7 p.m. “Our plan is to deliver water, first aide [sic], gas remedy, etc to the peaceful protesters in Milwaukee,” wrote Allen in a Facebook post.

He identifies the group as “boojahideen”, a slang reference to warriors believing in boogaloo, an armed revolution to overthrow the government. “Boojahideen is a LIBERTARIAN movement; pro liberty, pro 2A and pro individual rights,” wrote Allen. For more on the movement, see a November 2019 explainer from the Anti-Defamation League.

“We will be rolling in some heavy gear, you may see things you normally are afraid of or do not understand but I ask that you are not, I ask that you talk to us, take pictures with us, greet and hug us,” he wrote. It is unclear what march Allen’s group will be moving to support and how many people will attend.

As has happened over the past five days, some marches have started and continued past their planned endpoint and others have started with no end announced. A march lasted for 10 hours on Monday night.

Frank Nitty, who has become the de facto leader of the Milwaukee protest movement, was arrested by the Milwaukee County Sheriff on Tuesday after a march went onto Interstate 794. Nitty was not charged, and released Wednesday morning.

The remaining group was tear gassed and shot at with rubber bullets near N. 6th St. and W. McKinley Ave. almost two hours later. The Milwaukee Police Department said a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the officers, but according to videos and a timeline from the police, the tear gas was shot at protesters first.