By now many people have heard that 74 people were arrested Friday night for an action calling for justice for Dontre Hamilton, killed by former Milwaukee Police Officer Christopher Manney. I was one of those arrested. I was lucky to be in the first group released after 17 hours in jail. Some of my comrades were not released for 28 hours. It was a beautiful and intergenerational group, with multiple couples and whole families inside. The jail support on the outside was incredible. I’m grateful for all of the solidarity that occurred.
There are a lot of conversations happening - about the usage of the freeway in protest, about organizing, etc. I am down to speak to all of those in one on one conversations for anyone who might be confused about the point of the action. But here, I want to talk about one aspect of our experience on Friday night that I think everybody who has not had negative interactions with the police, especially white people, need to hear.
Often when somebody is killed by a police officer or a victim of police brutality, there is a narrative that emerges of “Why would anybody not follow police officer orders?” and “That person wouldn’t have gotten hurt if they had just listened to the cop.” What people often don’t understand is that directions are frequently unclear, contradictory, and set up to make people disobey. On the ramp, officers told protesters to disperse. Many people didn’t want to get arrested, and complied. Started to walk away willfully. They were told which way to walk to avoid arrest. When they started to walk that way, cops pulled up and handcuffed them. They got arrested for doing exactly what they were told to do. We were trapped.
As I was getting arrested, I handed my bag to a friend who asked the police officer if she was also getting arrested. He told her no and told her where she needed to go to avoid arrest. Doing so then got her arrested. This happened with many protesters who were lied to and derailed by the police when trying to follow directions.
Luckily for us, the consequence of doing exactly what we were told to do by the police and having it still be wrong resulted in only arrest, although a few protesters were handled violently and thrown to the ground. But when you hear stories about people getting shot and killed by police officers for refusing to follow directions, please consider where that story is emerging from. Police can say they gave orders and they went ignored, causing them to feel threatened. But in reality, sometimes following police orders is not just confusing, but downright impossible. This was the case on Friday night.
Most of this work requires white america to reevaluate everything we have been taught about the role of and trust in the police. It is difficult to do this when we often do not experience or even witness the police state at work. Please, I am asking you to try and do this work anyway. Really listen to the stories you are hearing. It is critical work. Lives depend on it. Again, please feel free to talk to me with any questions.
In solidarity with the Hamilton Family, the families of all those brutalized and murdered, the 73 people who I got to know in jail, and the 150+ people on the outside who stayed and waited for our release, building community overnight in the cold to make sure everyone was taken care of. May the resistance never, ever let up.
Anonymous Milwaukee Protester (via psychodellomellojello)
