Earlier Milwaukee protest / courtesy of Overpass Light Brigade
... And then another non-uniformed man who apparently worked at the station chimed in, telling the journalist:
"“We don’t mind making the news, again.”
That's according to Jabril Faraj, a freelance journalist who contributes to Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, an online site that earlier this year won a Milwaukee Press Club award for its reporting.
Milwaukee, like other US cities, has been in an uproar lately after a white officer (since fired) earlier this year pumped 14 bullets into Dontre Hamilton, killing the mentally disabled black men who was sleeping in a city park and previously cleared by two other officers. The district attorney said there was no evidence the officer in the shooting acted improperly, renewing street protests throughout the city. Among other assignments, Faraj has been covering those protests. In his own words:
It has been my goal to talk and listen to those who aren’t asked what they think and to cover events in this city that our traditional media simply is not covering. So, when I received a call from my father on Friday, December 26th, around 5:20 p.m. telling me that there had been marching protesters near 27th and Burleigh about an hour before — and that no media was present — I felt a responsibility to be there the next time. Unfortunately, that situation — something newsworthy occurring in the central city but not being covered — is all too familiar, here. The fact is that media serve to keep both protesters and police honest.
But not honest enough. The next day, Faraj had his own run-in with police.
He writes how, after the planned protest meeting didn't pan out, he was driving away after observing a heavy police presence in the neighborhood. When he noticed a couple of parked Milwaukee squad cars at the intersection, he abruptly stopped in traffic, rolled down his window, and asked the officers in their parked car why they were there. They promptly arrested him on charges of obstruction and blocking traffic. At the station house, Faraj mentally recorded the above quotes.
Read his entire tale at the above link. You might say Faraj was injudicious asking police questions while double-parked on a busy street. Reporters do ask cops questions all the time, of course, to which Milwaukee cops are notoriously dismissive, and sometimes not just in some casual, "Move on, nothing to see here" manner. Moreover, as Faraj notes in his account, the MPD apparently had already fingered him as a "domestic terrorist." Faraj [the boldfacing is my own]:
In the initial aftermath, I clearly recall being accused of “stalking police” — a charge which would be repeated multiple times — and was asked if I was trying to kill a police officer. I also heard an officer ask, “Is he one of the three we’re looking for,” to which another voice replied, “Yes.” Also, in the course of this interaction, an officer ... said, “We’re gonna fuck with you and your friends a bit.”
Beyond just being indicative of sour police-community relations in the city, the above passage arguably suggest the depths of militarism and suspicion to which the supposedly protect-and-serve police force has sunk into paramilitarism and authoritarianism. And perhaps even some unwarranted paranoia and fear. That and, in general, the "otherism" approach of too many police toward citizens who aren't white.
Read it and weep. And remember: You're lucky you didn't get shot.