On Monday night, the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression held a picket protest at the Milwaukee Police Association.
The demonstration comes as a response to the union filing a temporary injunction to a new standard operating procedure passed by the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission last week.
Under the new policy, MPD will release police video footage within 15 days of deaths by police and other critical incidents. Families of victims will be able to view video footage within 48 hours.
In a statement from the president of the MPA, Andrew Wagner called the new procedure "reckless." He also claimed that the Fire and Police Commission has not considered the irreparable harm that will come to a police officer in the absence of a fair and unpressured investigation.
Alan Chavoya of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression disagrees.
"They were given countless opportunities by the chair, Edward Fallone, and by the executive director Leon Titan, and by the other Commissioners of the FPC to offer their arguments. They just chose not to, or at least the arguments they gave the FPC saw that they were not strong enough arguments. They weren't sound, and it didn't convince the FPC to either scratch their policy and adopt, you know, MPD's. It just showed them that the MPA doesn't have a strong enough argument to delay this process or a strong enough argument to say we cannot show the footage publicly in 15 days," says Chavoya.
Chavoya continued by pointing out that Milwaukee Police Chief, Jeffrey Norman has agreed to accept the new procedure. Chavoya says the current process of deliberation internally has no transparency and Milwaukee needs to know why.
Despite the opposition from the MPA, Chavoya says he doesn’t see the new procedure coming to a halt.
Chavoya says, "I see this going full steam ahead. It's stated clearly as to what the FPC can and can't do. They can create standard operating procedures for the police chief and the Fire Chief to follow, which Chief Jeffrey Norman countless times reiterated he will adopt and accept whatever. So if the FPC passes it ... we have the chief saying that he will act."
Chavoya highlighted that families and activist groups in Milwaukee made a compelling case to the Fire and Police Commission and it should be respected.
He says the procedure is something that the people of Milwaukee want.
Support for the Eric Von Broadcast Fellowship is provided, in part, by Chris Abele.
