On the last day of the Republican National Convention, a few hundred people rallied in downtown Milwaukee, speaking out against police violence. They called for justice for Samuel ‘Jah’ Sharpe Jr., who was shot and killed by police earlier this week, and D’Vontaye Mitchell, who was killed after being restrained by hotel security guards in June.
The event was organized by the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, MAARPR, and families of both victims, after Columbus, Ohio, police shot and killed Sharpe, 43, about a mile away from the RNC Tuesday. Milwaukee Police say Sharpe was armed with knives and refused officers’ commands to drop them. The Columbus police officers were in town to help with security for the RNC.
“We know that the officers that had killed Jah the other day were only here because of the RNC,” said Aurelia Ceja, co-chair for MAARPR. “We are hoping to unite a lot of these families together in this fight for transparency and justice in our city.”
Speakers from both families were visibly shaken while talking about the men they lost. Some of the messages included asking Milwaukee residents to support these marches in larger numbers, demands of accountability from local elected officials, and criticism that both stories have been one-sided so far.
Family for Sharpe said that the body camera video Columbus police released, in their opinion, didn’t show a man lunging at another person, but a man who didn’t have his balance. They say Sharpe suffered from multiple sclerosis, or MS, which is an autoimmune disease that affects your brain, spinal cord and often, your balance.
“He's real unsteady with his balance,” said Katrina Games, Sharpe’s aunt. “The guy that he was [going] after with the knives was actually taunting him because he knew that he couldn't catch him. So it was fun to him, but it wasn't funny to us.”
Games said that the other individual in the video had bullied and brutalized Sharpe, who was living at a tent encampment at King Park. Sharpe’s sister, Angelique Sharpe, said she talked with her brother the night before and encouraged him to move back home for his safety. They say that Sharpe was devout in his faith, always keeping his Bible by his side, and that he wanted to live in the tent encampment to take care of the other people that lived there.
They say the Samuel Sharpe they know is very different from the one that’s being portrayed in the media.
“Y'all not going to make him out to be a knife wielding criminal because that’s not who he was,” said Angelique Sharpe. “The streets know him, the police do not. Y’all don’t get to tell the story and tell the narrative, we’re gonna tell it. That narrative stops today! Sam was not that guy!”
Similarly, the family of D’Vontaye Mitchell, 43, spoke about how his story has been portrayed. Samantha Mitchell, cousin to D’Vontaye, said that the altercation June 30 started inside Milwaukee’s Hyatt Regency hotel when more security guards than shown in video footage attacked her cousin.
After a press conference and rally at Red Arrow Park, organizers, family of the victims and community supporters marched to the hotel where Mitchell was killed. More than one hundred police from Milwaukee and elsewhere were there waiting. The march stopped in front of the hotel for a few minutes while family members shared stories and chanted the names of the deceased. They then peacefully returned back to where the march started. The final call was a demand for transparency and accountability from local politicians and police.
“I want the chief [of police], the mayor, these alderpeople, I want them to think about when their kids grow up and they get into a situation. How would they want the police in that city to handle that situation?” asked Angelique Sharpe. “There's no way you're going to stand there and say what you said, [that] you thought that was justified, when it comes down to your own kids. You're not going to say that.”
