Group went to Milwaukee to ‘support a revolution’
A Chicago-based communist revolutionary group blamed by Milwaukee’s police chief for stoking a second day of violence said that some of its members did go there to “support a revolution” but didn’t set out to cause trouble.
Police Chief Ed Flynn said members of a Chicago chapter of the Revolutionary Communist Party turned what had been a peaceful night into a tense one by leading marchers down several blocks around 11:30 p.m. TV footage showed a small group of protesters walking or running through the streets, sometimes toppling orange construction barriers.
“The (communist group) showed up, and actually they’re the ones who started to cause problems,” Flynn said at a news conference Monday.
The fatal police shooting of a 23-year-old black man, Sylville Smith, touched off a weekend of tense and at times violent protests that left at least six businesses burned and several officers injured by flying objects Saturday night. The demonstrations on Milwaukee’s north side resumed Sunday evening but were milder and less destructive. Fourteen people were arrested overnight, and three police officers and four sheriff’s deputies were injured.
‘RIGHTEOUS REBELLION’
That group released a statement Monday referring to the protests as a “righteous rebellion.”
Reached by phone, party co-founder Carl Dix said he wasn’t in Milwaukee but confirmed several party supporters from Chicago traveled the 90 miles north to protest against police, who he blamed for both Smith’s death and the subsequent violent protests.
“This system sees police wantonly murdering people as part of the normal order of things,” Dix said. But he added that people take issue with protests in response to those killings. His group advocates dismantling the police.
Police have said Smith was shot and killed after a traffic stop. After reviewing body camera footage of the incident, Flynn said Smith fled the officer, who was also black, then turned toward the officer and raised his arm as he held a gun. Footage of the shooting has not yet been released publicly.
Asked about the violent conduct of some protesters, Dix referred to Smith’s killing and other officer-involved deaths of black men in Milwaukee and elsewhere as the real problem.
“It’s happened with some regularity in Milwaukee, and the killer cops always get off. People are sick of that,” he said.