Milwaukee police chief regrets racism allegations
— Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales apologized to Bucks guard Sterling Brown on Wednesday for a January arrest that started with a parking violation and escalated to include use of a stun gun, and said some officers had been disciplined.
Brown responded with a statement that described the incident as “an attempt at police intimidation” and said it “shouldn’t happen to anybody.”
Morales’ apology came as police released body-camera footage that showed how a simple interaction over an illegally parked car quickly escalated. City officials’ concern over the content of the video was apparent earlier this week when Mayor Tom Barrett said he found it concerning.
It began around 2 a.m. on Jan. 26 in a Walgreens parking lot. As Brown walks out of the store, an officer standing by Brown’s car asks him for his driver’s license. When Brown gets close to his car’s passenger door, the officer touches Brown and he tells the officer not to touch him.
“Back up! Back up!” the officer yells. “For what? I ain’t did nothing,” Brown responds. Brown eventually does show the officer his driver’s license.
The conversation between the officer and Brown is testy as they wait for additional squad cars to show up. Brown says he has no problem with the officer’s questions and the officer responds that he touched him “because you got up in my face.”
“I got up on your face? Really?” Brown responds in disbelief.
It all took a turn for the worse when Brown, surrounded by four officers by his car, is asked to take his hands out of his pockets. Almost immediately a scuffle ensues, with the officers swarming over Brown and one yelling “taser, taser, taser!”
Brown is heard groaning in pain on the ground, although he’s barely visible from the camera’s viewpoint. Brown ultimately was not charged with anything.
“The department conducted an investigation into the incident, which revealed members acted inappropriately and those members were recently disciplined,” Morales said at a brief news conference.
“I am sorry this incident escalated to this level,” he added.
He left without taking questions. He did not identify the officers or say how they were disciplined.
Brown, in his statement, said the experience “was wrong and shouldn’t happen to anybody.”
“What should have been a simple parking ticket turned into an attempt at police intimidation, followed by the unlawful use of physical force, including being handcuffed and tased, and then unlawfully booked,” he said.
“This experience with the Milwaukee Police Department has forced me to stand up and tell my story so that I can help prevent these injustices from happening in the future.”
The Milwaukee Bucks signed the 6-foot-6 guard from Southern Methodist University in Texas last summer in a deal with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Later in the video, after officers used the stun gun, Brown can be heard having a conversation with someone away from the view of the camera.
“They tased me for no reason,” an agitated Brown says.
“I asked you to step back and you didn’t do it,” the officer who had the initial interaction with Brown responds. Later, that same officer mocks Brown while talking to another officer about what happened, saying he thought Brown “was being an ass” and “trying to hide something.”
“And now he’s like, ‘I’m a Bucks player, blah, blah, blah. So what,” the officer says.
The video represents another setback for a department that for years has tried to rebuild its image and relationship with Milwaukee’s African-American residents after several high-profile cases of police misconduct.