Gottinger writes: "In a four-month period in 2015, the MPD received eleven complaints of misconduct, averaging one every ten days. In all the documents reviewed, either an African-American or a biracial individual made the complaint against the MPD. MPD’s internal affairs dismissed 91% of the complaints leveled against the department. None of the complaints resulted in discipline for the officers involved."
Milwaukee police with riot shields move towards protesters following the police killing of Syville Smith. (photo: Joshua Lott/The New York Times)
17 August 16
nrest has rocked Milwaukee this week following the Milwaukee Police Department’s (MPD) killing of a 23-year-old African-American man, Sylville Smith. A number of businesses and cars were torched, officers have been injured, and an 18-year-old was shot in the Sherman Park neighborhood where Smith was killed on Saturday.
The mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, implemented a curfew and urged residents to stay in so that the city could begin to restore order. The governor of Wisconsin mobilized the National Guard to assist the police.
In the wake of these protests, Reader Supported News reviewed hundreds of pages of documents on citizen complaints against the MPD. The records, made available through a Freedom of Information Act, show a pattern of the MPD dismissing allegations of misconduct.
In a four-month period in 2015, the MPD received eleven complaints of misconduct, averaging one every ten days. In all the documents reviewed, either an African-American or a biracial individual made the complaint against the MPD.
MPD’s internal affairs dismissed 91% of the complaints leveled against the department. None of the complaints resulted in discipline for the officers involved.
While some of the cases seem to have been legitimately determined to be unfounded, with others it’s clear the complaint was dismissed simply because it was the complainant’s word versus the officer’s. In yet other cases, the MPD admits the action that resulted in the complaint did indeed occur, but determined the action was within its code of conduct.
In one particularly troubling example, seven Milwaukee police officers burst into the wrong house with their weapons drawn, including at least one assault weapon. The complaint alleges the officers pointed their weapons at children, threatened to shoot the family’s “Goddamn dog,” were rude and disrespectful, and failed to explain why they had entered the house. The woman who filed the complaint scolded the MPD for “scaring the hell out of my kids and mother.” She continued, “This is exactly why us citizens have a lack of respect and trust for the police.”
In this complaint, the MPD determined its actions were “appropriate,” as officers were attempting to respond to a subject with a gun situation. The incident led to no disciplinary action and no changes in policy.
In other instances African-Americans alleged that white MPD officers acted disrespectful, rude, or in a racist manner. In one complaint filed on December 5, 2014, a woman alleged that a white officer acted rudely and dismissively toward an African-American woman’s 73-year-old mother, who was “very shaken” following a car accident.
In another complaint an African-American woman stated a white MPD officer drove dangerously, cutting her car off while her two daughters were in the car.
In a separate complaint an African-American woman alleged a white officer was rude, racist, and even tried to prevent her from leaving a District 3 police station with a citizen complaint form.
In each complaint described here, the Milwaukee police implemented no discipline against the officers involved. Of the eleven complaints reviewed, the MPD determined only one was valid. In this instance, an officer failed to produce an accident report, and as a result, the officer was forced to review MPD polices. The officer received no disciplinary action.
The recent uprising in Milwaukee is the result of longstanding distrust of the MPD in the Sherman Park neighborhood.
In 2011, Derek Williams, a 22-year-old African-American, died while handcuffed in the back of a police car. He told officers he was unable to breath and begged for his life. An investigation into the incident cleared all officers of wrongdoing. Williams’s death resulted in protests and the eventual state law requiring a state agency to investigate police killings.
In 2014, a Milwaukee police officer shot and killed Dontre Hamilton, who had been sleeping in a park. Two officers checked on Hamilton in the park and determined he was not a problem, but Officer Christopher Manney confronted and shot him. An investigation found Manney had not used excessive force. However, he was fired for failing to follow department policy in the run-up to the incident.
Following Hamilton’s death, the MPD implemented new Crisis Intervention Training, began providing body cameras to officers, and asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to review the department. The DOJ review does not satisfy some critics of the MPD, because the DOJ’s recommendations will not be legally binding. Hamilton’s family continues to push for Christopher Manney to stand trial.
In 2007, MPD officers were accused of illegal strip and cavity searches of black men, but charges were not brought against the officers involved until 2012. In 2013, four officers were convicted.
The details of the complaints are gruesome. In one, a MPD officer held a gun to a man's head as others officers grabbed his arms and a third officer held him in a chokehold as he jammed a hand into his anus. In another complaint, a man said he bled from his rectum for several days after the MPD detained him.
It’s incidents like these that have prompted the NAACP and ACLU to call for reform of the MPD, including an independent, diverse civilian board to oversee investigations of police shootings.
In the response to the recent shooting of Sylville Smith, the MPD has yet to release the officer’s name, but he’s been widely identified on social media and by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as Dominique Heaggan.
Tom Barret has attempted to justify the shooting by saying Smith was carrying a gun, but Wisconsin is an open carry state.
The ACLU is asking for the body camera footage of the shooting to be released as soon as possible.
Paul Gottinger is a staff reporter at RSN whose work focuses on the Middle East and the arms industry. He can be reached on Twitter @paulgottinger or via email.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
