The George Floyds of Wisconsin
11 Black men, one Latino male killed by police in last decade in state. When will it end?
A woman holds a sign honoring George Floyd. Photo by Maddy Day.
The shooting of Jacob Blake seven times in the back yesterday by Kenosha police was horrifying and nauseating to watch.
But it’s by no means an isolated case in our state. We’ve had our own George Floyds right here in Wisconsin.
Just in the last decade, we’ve had 11 Black men and one Latino male who were victims of police shootings:
The police killing of Tony Bean in Milwaukee on August 15, 2010.
The police killing of James Perry in Milwaukee on Sept. 13, 2010.
The police killing of Derek Williams in Milwaukee on July 6, 2011.
The police killing of Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee on April 30, 2014.
The police killing of Tony Robinson in Madison on March 6, 2015.
The police killing of Jay Anderson, Jr., in Wauwatosa on June 23, 2016.
The police killing of Sylville Smith in Milwaukee on August 13, 2016.
The police killing of Adam Trammell in Milwaukee on May 25, 2017.
The police killing of Terry Williams in Milwaukee on June 11, 2017.
The police killing of Ty’Rese West in Mt. Pleasant on June 14, 2019.
The police killing of Alvin Cole in Wauwatosa on Feb. 2, 2020.
The police killing of Joel Acevedo in Milwaukee on April 19, 2020.
This is the very definition of systemic racism in policing,
And the shooting of Jacob Blake brings into sharp relief yet again the totally out of whack use of lethal force as a first resort by so many police officers.,
Representative LaTonya Johnson and former Representative Chris Taylor introduced legislation three years ago and again in the last session, which Gov. Tony Evers endorsed, to address this situation. Their bill would have required better training of officers and would have mandated that if force must be used, it should be “the least amount necessary.”
What we saw with the Kenosha police was anything but that.
Good people all across Wisconsin, and all across this country, are asking themselves, “When will this end?”
It needs to end now!
Matt Rothschild is the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
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Compared to how man white men??
Thomas S, that was also my first thought? How many white men have been killed by police officers in that same time period? My 2nd thought is that Joel Acevedo’s name does not belong on this list. Why do they keep referring to his death as a police killing? Joel died at the hands of a drunken man who happened to be an off duty police officer, but who was acting as a private citizen. If an off duty officer is involved in a DUI accident and someone is killed, would that be classified as a police killing?