One can only wonder what life would be like for Black Milwaukeeans had the 1981 police killing of Ernest Lacy generated the international fervor that the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month did.
Lacy was ‘executed’ in the exact same manner as Floyd, under similar circumstances.
As explained in last week’s column, both incidents sparked mass demonstrations, calls for justice and police reforms.
The Lacy and Floyd ‘lynchings’ eventually evolved into battles against American apartheid.
Both protests evolved into moral crusades.
But, that’s pretty much where the similarities end.
While government and civic leaders in Minneapolis immediately decried the murder of Floyd—with many calling for bold systemic changes to tear down the walls of apartheid—a contrary scenario was scripted in Milwaukee following the killing of Lacy.
Here, there were only muted questions about Lacy’s death by strangulation, and silence about the social conditions that bred racial unrest and made Milwaukee then, as it continues to be today, the most segregated city in the nation.
Then-Mayor Henry Maier tried initially to ‘disregard Lacy’s death,’ but after national media scrutiny, Maier followed his usual custom of blaming the victim.
And while Minneapolis Police Chief Peter Newsham wasted little time before firing the three officers involved in Floyd’s murder, Milwaukee’s then-controversial chief, Harold Breier, not only exonerated his officers, he praised them, noting how the ‘good people’ (his favorite divisive expression) supported ‘effective policing.’
The public response to the comments of the state’s top Black political leaders also signposted the contrasting cultural and political paradigms of the two neighboring states.
The late Vel Phillips, Wisconsin’s first statewide office holder as secretary of state was one of the speakers to address 10,000 Coalition for Justice for Ernie Lacy protesters after they assembled at McArthur Square following a two-mile march from the scene of his killing on 23rd and Wisconsin Avenue.
I can’t remember precisely what Phillips said, but I do recall writing in my notepad that she would not win re-election as a result of her ‘new’ identification as a Black activist.
I had the privilege of working on Vel’s campaign. On one occasion, the late James Baker and I prepared campaign brochures in which we intentionally made her photo image lighter than she actually was.
Our intent was to confuse Northern Wisconsin voters who would otherwise be hesitant to vote for a Black woman.
By denouncing police brutality, however, she left no doubt about who and what she was, both in terms of her hue, and her humanity.
And my prediction came true.
Phillips was defeated in her re-election bid after the majority of Whites voted against her.
I don’t expect a similar fate will follow Minnesota state Attorney General Keith Ellison’s reaction to the Floyd killing.
Ellison disregarded political protocol by speaking out against racism, but still enjoys the support of White voters.
When recently asked on national television if Black Minnesotans had reason to fear the police, he unabashedly responded ‘yes.’
He lamented a history of police misconduct and institutional racism in his native city.
The fact that Minneapolis, or Minnesota, is considered far more progressive than Milwaukee, and Wisconsin, speaks to the resulting public outcry and the diversity of protesters.
While the two states have similar-sized Black populations, I once wrote a column–after visiting my uncle there–in which I described the Twin Cities as having the ‘whitest Black’ people I ever encountered.
In truth, beyond the misleading progressive propaganda, Minneapolis, as Ellison explained, is only slightly better for African Americans than Milwaukee.
The Black unemployment rate there is twice that of Whites, and the gap between Black and White students achievement is abysmal, he said.
Homeownership is less than a third that of Whites, in part because of wage and wealth disparities.
But one defining statistic bears consideration: while Wisconsin has the highest Black incarceration rate in the country, Minnesota has among the lowest.
In many respects, the Twin Cities mirrors Wisconsin’s state capitol, Madison, where many–if not most of the demonstrators–were White Millennials, despite being a city with significant racial problems.
These Millennials obviously see race and racism through a different prism than their parents.
That paradigm wasn’t the case during the Lacy marches.
While there was a scattering of Whites, including members of a motorcycle gang who were frequently harassed by the cops, there were few so-called progressives among the Lacy demonstrators.
Interestingly, a diverse group of protesters recently marched from the Northside to the Southside following one demonstration to join Hispanic activists near the home of Joel Acevedo, a Hispanic murdered by an off duty Milwaukee police officer several weeks ago.
Another telling example of the new millennial culture was witnessed last week when I came across a rally on King Drive led by Alderwoman Milele Coggs.
She addressed an ethnically diverse group of hundreds of White and Black volunteers as they prepared to spend the afternoon cleaning up the neighborhood.
Not just broke glass from looting, but garbage and debris littered the streets long before Floyd’s murder.
I talked with several who echoed the same refrain: ‘this is our community, we care, and we believe in diversity.’
The Floyd demonstrations, most agreed, served as a catalyst for expressions of unity as well as a demand for institutional change. But there were also expressions of rage, frustration and anger in the form thrown rocks at police cars, confrontations with police officers, and fires ignited in the streets or looted buildings.
The overwhelming majority of demonstrators (including those who participated in some the aforementioned activity) are members of a moral army, citizens frustrated with police brutality and institutional racism.
They are also expressing their frustration about the inability (or unwillingness) of those in charge to correct those societal evils.
Like it or not, that’s part of the civil disturbance template; that’s how they get your attention and temporarily stop the clock.
In truth, they are following in the footsteps of American revolutionaries, the founding fathers, the civil rights activists of the 18th, and 19th and 20th centuries. They utilize the same tactics used by White anti-war to stop the Vietnam War and the protesters who denounced the exploitation and white-collar crimes of Wall Street.
This is a new generation’s Boston Tea Party.
Why anyone should be surprised that frustrated people, angry citizens, intelligent hue-men beings would explode after being denied justice for centuries, is at best naive.
There was frustration 40 years ago over the apparent official stalling of an inquest following Lacy’s homicide, which led many frustrated citizens to respond with similar anti-social displays.
But not to the level we have witnessed following the Floyd killing, and undoubtedly not on an international level.
Lacy’s death came around the same time frame that a Milwaukee police officer admitted he helped cover up the murder of Daniel Bell by a racist Milwaukee ‘peace officer’ in 1958.
A much smaller Black community wasn’t able to make a dent in the walls of apartheid when Bell was murdered, but by the time of the killing of Donte Hamilton in 2014, they had become a significant force.
And the murder by a Black police officer of Seville Smith in 2017 resulted in a riot that shook the city.
Ironically, it was never my intention to return to Milwaukee following military service in Vietnam. But I was enticed by a relative in 1973 to participate in a series of demonstrations to protest the killing of a Black woman ‘accidentally killed’ by a Milwaukee cop who was searching for her boyfriend.
The ‘officer’ said he tripped up and around a flight of stairs, and his gun went off ‘accidentally’ killing Jackie Ford.
The response of individual police to all of those resulting demonstrations was similar to what is currently happening in the Floyd aftermath.
Surprisingly there have been a growing number of violent confrontations between police and protesters involving Black men in blue.
One of those instances happened in Atlanta last week when two Black officers were reprimanded for using unnecessary force on two innocent Black college students. Imagine how these college-educated youth will view police for the rest of their lives.
Not surprisingly, scenarios of protesters being harassed and brutalized by police have steadily increased as the demonstrations continued.
That was also true in 1981.
Someone once described Breier’s reaction to the Lacy marchers as tantamount to tactics taken from a neo-Nazi training manual.
During one march along Wisconsin Avenue, Breier led his riot-geared troops into the demonstrators in a blatant attempt to incite a confrontation, as witnesses watched in horror.
I can only assume spiritually guided restraint thwarted a violent melee that would have sparked a new riot 15 years after the civil disturbances of 1967.
Not by coincidence, the response from local politicians, including the mayor, to the Breier fiasco provided further proof of their complicity and total disregard for the constitutional provision of freedom of speech.
Or, some theorized, they feared Breier, who activated what was known as his ‘Red Squad,’ a tactical/intelligence unit similar to then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s infamous COINTEL program.
Breier’s surveillance included spying on both Black and White ‘agitators,’ including me.
The unit also carried out suspected sabotage and threats to civil rights groups.
During the Lacy saga, police were accused of terrorizing the Black community as they were ‘laying down ‘da law.’
Few of those incidents were reported outside the minority media, but it was a page in history that can’t be erased, ignored, or revised.
Today, local police are not only more civil, some suggest they showed too much restraint dealing with looters.
Questions have been raised, but not answered, about the Milwaukee Police Department’s ‘head in the sand’ response to looting, although many protesters have been arrested for various violations, including curfew violations—albeit on an inconsistent basis.
Yet, how do you explain police not responding with force to the arson fire at Walgreens on King Drive? Last time I looked, the Fifth District Police Station was across the street, and police were visible as the arsonists carried out their evil deeds.
Were the police on their lunch breaks, or were they under orders not to engage with a plan to apprehend the perpetrators later?
I can only assume the latter is true, and the chief has ordered his troops not to provoke incidents that could lead to another melee or even death.
At a press conference last week, Chief Alfonzo Morales said he would not discuss police strategy, but that his officers would be more aggressive in the future.
We’ll see because I don’t’ think these demonstrations will end any time soon.
Which does not bode well for the status quo, as many have seen a change in Morales’ demeanor over the last week.
His disposition seems to have hardened as he witnesses a shift in public attitudes about the police; three of whom he believes were targeted by gunmen in the last two weeks.
A significant difference in the Lacy and Floyd death response is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unlike the situation in 1981, nearly a third of the city’s adults today are out of work because of the pandemic and are readily available to participate in various demonstrators…and mischief.
That includes more than half of Milwaukee’s Black men, 47% of whom were unemployed before the pandemic.
With free time and opportunity, they can express their frustrations not just over Floyd’s murder, but also their socio-economic conditions.
If there is one positive indicator growing out of the Floyd international demonstrations, it’s that the ‘Just-Us’ army is growing, and there will be as much salt on the plate as pepper.
That’s a comforting thought in an odd sense, for it means the fools and haters will have to think twice before shooting, taking into consideration their children and relatives will be in the line of fire.
Overall, the result of the marching, protesting, and demonstrating is could be nothing changes, or very little.
And in that regard, I agree with Dr. Howard Fuller, the leader of the Justice for Lacy Coalition, who told me recently we’ve traveled this road before, with little reward.
Marching and praying, but still being preyed upon.
Hopefully, that will not be the case.
While there was minimal justice for Lacy, one defining change was the passage of legislation by then-State Senator Gary George that ended lifetime tenure for the Milwaukee chief.
Before Lacy, nothing happened to White officers who randomly brutalized Black citizens, occasionally killing some as much to exert their power of control as to show their absolute authority over the plantation.
In fact, while Smith’s murder resulted in a violent explosion, and the officer-involved was convicted of his killing, the political response was to throw a few dollars at several organizations and to create task forces whose recommendations were not taken seriously.
The social conditions that bred the so-called riot in 2017 remained firmly entrenched.
True enough, there has been some progress in recent years with the election of scores of African Americans to significant political positions.
Milwaukee, like Minneapolis, still faces almost insurmountable Black poverty; educational apartheid continues to undermine opportunities, and one-third of all Black men are under criminal justice supervision.
When Lacy was alive, he could put his check in a local Black bank, receive healthcare at a Black-owned hospital, and buy his groceries and car from Black enterprises.
Had Floyd visited Milwaukee before his execution, he could not avail himself of any of those services, and if he wanted to go to a roller rink, movie, or four-star restaurant, he would have to go to the suburbs.
A final similarity comes with a disingenuous and ironic prediction that should alarm all of us.
And what happens if the killers of Floyd are exonerated? If history is the best judge, that’s a genuine possibility.
Some folks in Minneapolis note the recent hiring of a nationally renowned defense attorney for the Floyd murderer, whose retainer was reportedly paid for by special interests.
If they are successful in their defense, all bets are off. The chickens, as Malcolm X once declared, will come home to roost.
History tells me governors will send a few dollars to local governments and poverty pimps. There will be (more) new studies and task forces, as well as efforts made to bring about police structural reforms, but not root-out entrenched attitudes.
We’ll probably see more insulting press conference like the one Monday led by White Democrats wearing Kente cloth scarfs. That insulting image obscured the reason for the press conference, which was to reveal a new police accountability proposal.
The bill will probably pass the House, but not the Republican controlled senate. But at least, the images of politicians in African clad politicians will make them to appear sympathetic to our cause and empathetic to our plight.
Which means—like my grandparents had with my parents, and me to my children, and them to theirs—there will be a continuation of a “rite of passage” ritual known as ‘The Talk!.”
That conversation addresses the template for Black survival in a racially polarized society, and how to react if confronted by police officers who have sworn to protect and serve— apparently everyone but us.
They will be told to work harder, jump higher, sing louder just to be heard, and be constantly aware of the racial roadblocks they will confront solely because of their ‘Hue-manity.’
I’ll also tell them that had the parents of the marchers involved in the Floyd crusade for justice shown the same interest in Lacy’s killing four decades ago, we would be an entire generation closer to the American dream denied to people of color.
Hotep.
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