Is Police Reform Possible in Milwaukee?
Other U.S. cities offer models for positive change
GettyImages-1222383917
During the past year Milwaukee protesters have taken to the streets to demand greater community oversight of police. Some of their signs specifically ask for a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC). âPolice having their say and having full control over what they do is just not working at all,â says Omar Flores, co-founder of The Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR). âSo, I think itâs about time that we listen to the people. Weâve got to do something different.â
The Milwaukee Allianceâs calls for an elected CPAC that would have the power to âhire, fire and discipline Milwaukee police, create the MPD budget and conduct independent investigations into police crimes,â according to their Facebook page. They would like to eliminate the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, the present oversi
After the Derek Chauvin Verdict SHARE
Politico invited me to be part of a mini‐symposium about the jury’s verdict finding former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of all three counts (second‐degree unintentional murder, third‐degree murder and second‐degree manslaughter) in the death of George Floyd. Here’s what I wrote.
Police are not above the law. And yet it’s hard to get juries to convict an officer. Social respect for the job often sways the outcome toward acquittal where the facts are ambiguous. They weren’t ambiguous here, thanks to the video. “I feared for my safety” often works as a defense. Derek Chauvin couldn’t make use of it. Prosecutors and judges, no matter their integrity, thread a narrow path because they have to work with cops every day.
Email
Despite the fact that the department has had this information for 25 years, Rose was allowed to continue serving as an officer for another 21 years and allowed to rise through the ranks to become the head of the police union that represents the city’s 1,500 police officers. As union president, he led the charge against requiring officers to wear body cameras.
The department continued sending him out to respond to calls that involved interacting with children. In 2006, he was even called to testify as the arresting officer in a child sexual assault case.
Meanwhile, the department allowed Rose to continue unpunished for so long that the girl who came forward with the abuse allegations last summer is the daughter of the man he allegedly assaulted in the 1995 case.
When former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee on the neck of George Floyd as he lay handcuffed and dying face down in the street, it seemed an obviously excessive use of force.
Captured on video by a bystander, the searing image of Chauvin’s failure to get off Floyd for more than nine minutes led to widespread angry protests against police brutality and demands for reform in cities across the United States and the world.
Now, nearly a year later, as Chauvin goes on trial for murder and manslaughter, advocates say there have been some gains in improving police accountability since the Black Lives Matter movement, but larger, structural reforms have been elusive.